This study looks at markets across four key areas to provide a dual perspective from both youth and employers regarding sectoral opportunities and challenges, qualifying the skills gap, bridging the gap, and the impact of COVID-19 on the labor market.

This Guide aims to address the knowledge gap and strengthen young people’s knowledge and skills on climate change and how to engage in climate policy processes. It provides targeted content and activities that help learners turn their knowledge and skills into action for climate empowerment. The tools aim to support young people in accessing climate decision-making spaces and groups and to think critically about their own country’s mitigation and adaptation priorities through a rights-based lens.

This report focuses on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and presents findings drawn from the narratives of over 150 young female STEM professionals in seven countries. The report showcases how confidence in their own abilities helps women deal with setbacks. At the same time, the report highlights the critical role that support from parents, mentors, and partners play in women’s success in STEM. Finally, the report concludes that even where training and hiring environments support women in STEM careers, discrimination in day-to-day delivery remains a challenge.

This report aims to guide stakeholders with tools and information to support the integration of meaningful youth engagement into youth employment programming and strategies. The paper outlines what meaningful youth engagement is, why meaningful youth engagement is important, and how it could be embedded across various stages of the program life cycle, as well as within a funder’s strategy and culture. The presented roadmap’s recommendations are both immediately actionable and aspirational.

This publication emphasizes the importance of youth involvement in transitioning to a circular economy. The document identifies ways young people can get involved, such as working for companies that encourage circularity, joining sustainability-focused youth groups, and advocating for change.

This Note builds on research covering the three countries with the highest concentration of Syrian refugees displaced since 2011: Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. It is intended to inform policymakers and practitioners on the barriers that Syrian refugees, especially women, face in securing work to earn a livelihood. This Note highlights initiatives designed to address those barriers, but does not enumerate all of them. While not specifically addressing internally-displaced persons (IDPs) within Syria, this Note could serve as a blueprint for examining and addressing many of the same barriers women face in Syria.

This case study provides evidence from Kenya to show that online freelancing has become an interesting sector, both in terms of its growth trajectory, and in terms of worker upward mobility in the global knowledge economy. As life everywhere moves further into the digital realm, and global internet connectivity between Africa and the rest of the world grows, more and more young Africans who stream onto the labour market may find work in the world of global online freelancing.

As of 2020, the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS) makes use of algorithmic profiling of job seekers to increase the efficiency of its counseling process and the effectiveness of active labor market programs. In this paper, an in-depth analysis of relevant technical documentation and policy documents investigates crucial conceptual, technical, and social implications of the system. 

The report explores how entrepreneurship support organizations (ESOs) and other stakeholders can help youth move (refugees and other migrants and displaced youth) fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams and ambitions —creating decent work, driving inclusive economic growth, strengthening communities, and transforming prospects and livelihoods.

This document from the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform outlines a system for categorizing activities that contribute to a circular economy. The aim is to provide a foundation for efforts like defining the impacts of circular models or measuring risk reduction. The system focuses on two main areas: extending product lifespans through reuse, repair, refurbishment, etc., and optimizing product use through leasing and sharing models.

This Circular Economy Action Plan provides a future-oriented agenda for achieving a cleaner and more competitive Europe in co-creation with economic actors, consumers, citizens and civil society organisations. It aims at accelerating the transformational change required by the European Green Deal, while building on circular economy actions implemented since 2015.

This brief aims for a better understanding of the intersection between climate resilience and youth employment and where it may be stronger geographically, which is necessary to generate better policy and adaptation options for the future of agriculture and young people.

The COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the importance of the media and culture sector in uplifting people during difficult times. As hundreds of millions of people were confined to their homes during the pandemic, many turned to music, films, television and other art forms for entertainment, education and cultural enrichment, leading to a surge in streaming and online services. Yet, at the same time, it was extremely difficult to continue cultural production, from live performance to recorded media, under lockdown and confinement measures, with the sector hit hard by unemployment and closed productions. 

The cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are one of the fastest growing sectors globally. Many local governments across the world have also recognised how the CCIs can directly and indirectly contribute to place-based revitalisation efforts, helping to regenerate declining and depressed urban infrastructure, working with – rather than against – the grain of existing local heritage. However, the role of the CCIs and heritage in creating dynamic places, driving local economic development and innovation, and improving social cohesion remains under appreciated in many Latin American cities to-date. Based on a set of in-depth international case studies, expert interviews, and a broad literature review of empirical evidence from projects around the word, this Handbook analyses what makes for success in CCI-led urban revitalisation. It details how CCI-led revitalisation projects can address specific socio-economic needs related to declining historic city centre areas and analyses how projects have achieved their success (as well as outlining what continuing challenges they face). The Handbook distils the lessons from this extensive body of practice and policy development, to provide guiding principles and advice for policymakers interested in how to integrate cultural and creative development within wider urban sustainability efforts.

This report outlines trends in the world trade of creative goods and, for the first time, services by country for the period 2005 to 2014, and provides an outlook on the global creative economy for the period 2002 to 2015.

Through this guide, UNESCO provides practical guidance to policymakers as they fight for the inclusion of the cultural and creative industries in social and economic recovery plans. In order to comply with health and safety measures, and to adapt to new business models, both financial and technical support has been and will continue to be necessary. However, it is important to recognize the support mobilized thus far has been multifaceted. This guide is an attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of the range of emergency measures adopted by States in support of cultural workers, institutions and industries and a tool for strengthening the resilience of the sector. 

Cultural and creative sectors are important in their own right in terms of their economic footprint and employment. They also spur innovation across the economy, as well as contribute to numerous other channels for positive social impact (well-being and health, education, inclusion, urban regeneration, etc.). They are among the hardest hit by the pandemic, with large cities often containing the greatest share of jobs at risk. The dynamics vary across sub-sectors, with venue-based activities and the related supply chains most affected. Policies to support firms and workers during the pandemic can be ill-adapted to the non-traditional business models and forms of employment in the sector. In addition to short-term support for artists and firms, which comes from both the public and private sector, policies can also leverage the economic and social impacts of culture in their broader recovery packages and efforts to transform local economies. Culture shock: COVID-19 and the cultural and creative sectors

This report reviews the literature, identifies project examples, and derives lessons for the design and implementation of demand-driven training (DDT) and results-based financing (RBF). A summary of the existing literature on international experiences with DDT and RBF, including good practices, is presented here. This review aims to identify the most effective ways to deliver these programs and provide general lessons on their design and implementation.

This manual has been created as a reference for digital entrepreneurs to demonstrate the impact of digital platforms and tools in alleviating the societal challenges resulting from COVID. 

This brief examines strategies the World Bank’s ‘Digital Jobs in Nigeria’ pilot project team adopted to help vulnerable youth in conflict-affected areas to leverage employment opportunities in the digital economy. The pilot provides training for unemployed and under-employed youth in Kaduna State to pursue digital jobs, including online freelancing and digital entrepreneurship. The brief specifically highlights the team’s responses to several challenges, including: managing security threats; navigating limited ICT infrastructure; building a local tech ecosystem; adapting to restrictive socio-cultural norms, and integrating local knowledge.