2021
OECD

Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are major breakthrough technologies that are transforming the economy and society. The OECD’s Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Skills (AIFS) project is developing a programme to assess the capabilities of AI and robotics, and their impact on education and work. This volume reports on the first step of the project: identifying which capabilities to assess and which tests to use in the assessment. It builds on an online expert workshop that explored this question from the perspectives of both psychology and computer science. The volume consists of expert contributions that review skills taxonomies and tests in different domains of psychology, and efforts in computer science to assess AI and robotics.

Global
Report
2021
Inter-American Development Bank

This document presents the Retirement Savings Laboratorys (Laboratory) main findings, lessons, and challenges from several pilot interventions aimed at promoting voluntary pension savings among independent and low-income workers in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

Latin America and Caribbean
Knowledge Brief
2021
S4YE

This Knowledge Brief highlights examples of music enterprises in Africa and the types of opportunities they offer for youth in the broad music ecosystem.  The Brief also suggests some strategies for translating music into economic and social benefits: 1) Access to finance to support music enterprises, 2) Targeted music-friendly policies, 3) Support for networks and enabling infrastructure, 4) Enhanced participation of women and artists from marginalized communities, and 5) Human capital development through skills, training, and innovation.

Africa
Knowledge Brief
2021
ILO

This ILO report seeks to enhance our understanding of how digital labour platforms are transforming the world of work, and the implications of that transformation for employers and workers. 

Global
Report
2021
IFC

This paper focuses on key sectors across 21 emerging markets that can be prioritized in post-COVID green recovery efforts. These sectors are grouped around greening existing and future energy infrastructure, building climate-smart cities, and helping speed the transition of key industries to green production practices. Concerted actions by public and private players across these areas can deliver economic recovery in the short and medium term and can deliver long-term sustainable and low-carbon growth.

Global
Report
2021
World Bank

A rapidly urbanizing world presents enormous economic opportunities for the poor and vulnerable but also significant barriers to economic inclusion. This report provides an overview of the urban context and challenges, describes a framework for fostering urban economic inclusion, and examines the current landscape of economic inclusion programs, starting with the policy impetus driving their emergence.

Global
Report
2021
European Commission

The work of Europe's creative industry professionals is not only relevant from an economic perspective. It is also important for the promotion of Europe’s diverse cultural identity and European values including equality, democracy and sustainable development. The creative industries and culture also have the power to facilitate transformations of institutions, communities and cities. This sectoral watch describes the industrial context of the sector, technological trends, venture capital investments and startup creation, the supply and demand of related skills and a future outlook with challenges and opportunities.

Europe and Central Asia
Knowledge Brief
2021
Master Card Foundation

The Young Africa Connects is a Facebook Live series supported by the Master Card Foundation. It aims to inspire, engage, and uplift young people while amplifying the incredible work being done across the continent.

The latest episode of the series discusses issues related to youth resilience in Africa. During the episode three, young African entrepreneurs discuss their journey, sharing their challenges and how they overcame adversity to embrace or create opportunity. These are powerful lessons in resilience and their stories, provide inspiration to other young people.

 

Africa
Multimedia
2021
All4YOUth

These guidelines provide information, guidance and tips on organizing and managing virtual internships. They focus on those aspects of an internship that are particularly important for internships conducted entirely virtually, and these where all activities and interactions are performed remotely.

Global
2021
IFC

This report explores the latest AI applications and trends in emerging markets and includes several examples of how AI is expanding opportunities and contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Global
Report
2021
UNESCO

This publication, Backstage: Managing Creativity and the Arts in SouthEast Asia, draws on the findings of UNESCO’s recent study of the creative sector in the nine countries of the South-East Asian region (Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam), which involved a quantitative survey, in-depth interviews and policy analysis. The publication showcases the policy environments in which the creative sector is operating, points out the similarities and differences across the countries of the region, and concretely identifies areas in which exchanges (sharing and learning from each other) and further development can be engineered to unleash the full potential of the sector.

East Asia and Pacific
Report
2021
IFC

The report offers initial findings and recommendations to development organizations, policymakers, and other private and public stakeholders seeking to address barriers to employment and to promote opportunities for refugee women in the digital workforce in Jordan and Lebanon.

Middle East and North Africa
Report
2021
IDB

This study assesses the present state of the audiovisual sector in Latin America and the Caribbean in the context of increased demand resulting from the growth of streaming and national industries in the region. The document includes an assessment of audiovisual milestones while centering on current public policy debates and 21st-Century skills. After interviewing and conversing with nearly 100 emerging creators, producers, entertainment executives, government officials, and film association professionals, the research provides an overview of the main challenges and opportunities faced throughout the continent. The research includes a survey of 417 producers aimed at understanding the need for below-the-line (technical) skills in LAC.

Latin America and Caribbean
Report
2021
WorldFish

This strategic brief shows aquatic food systems have the potential to provide livelihood opportunities for youth but challenges remain for them to join the sector. Multisector initiatives to improve access to training and finance as well as promote digital innovation can improve the participation of youth in fisheries, aquaculture and associated value chains. 

Global
Knowledge Brief
2021
Buildher

Buildher aims to equip women in Kenya with accredited construction skills, which are expected to allow beneficiaries to have greater financial independence and prosperity, to change male attitudes and to promote gender equality within the construction industry.

Africa
Report
2021
ETF

This study explores how the centres of vocational excellence (CoVEs) implement their autonomous role in public-private partnerships (PPPs), and the specific features and benefits of CoVEs’ collaborations in PPPs for vocational education and skills development. Drawing on selected case studies in six ETF partner countries (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey) and two EU Member States (Finland and the Netherlands), the study provides insights into CoVE developmental processes and practices in PPPs and shows emerging trends that can inform vocational education policy development more widely.

East Asia and Pacific
Report
2021
World Bank Group

Through their contribution to urban regeneration and sustainable urban development, cultural and creative industries make cities more attractive places for people to live in and for economic activity to develop. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had a deep impact on the cultural sector, yet it has also revealed the power of cultural and creative industries as a resource for city recovery and resilience. ‘Cities, Culture, and Creativity’ (CCC) provides guiding principles and a CCC Framework, developed by UNESCO and the World Bank, to support cities in unlocking the power of cultural and creative industries for sustainable urban development, city competitiveness, and social inclusion. Drawing from global studies and the experiences of nine diverse cities from across the world, the CCC Framework offers concrete guidance for the range of actors  to harness culture and creativity with a view to boosting their local creative economies and building resilient, inclusive, and dynamic cities.

Global
Report
2021
ILO

Workers in the cultural and creative sector (CCS) are involved in a wide range of jobs and activities including advertising, gaming, newspapers and magazines, motion picture production, sound recording and music production, as well as live performance and radio/TV broadcasting. In 2015, UNESCO estimated that the cultural and creative sector worldwide generated US$2,250 billion in revenues. According to 2019 ILO estimates, there were nearly 180 million people employed in the arts, recreation and entertainment, representing 5.4 per cent share of global employment. Among these, over 28 million were young people.

Global
Knowledge Brief
2021
OECD

This report explores how a well-being approach can help build back better and identifies common well-being priorities for recovery. The proposed solutions include the need to: increase job and financial security of households, particularly of those most affected by the crisis; promote equality of opportunity and mitigate the scarring effects of the crisis on the most vulnerable individuals and workers, with a focus on youth, women and the low-skilled; lift the burden of poor physical and mental health; take decisive action on climate change and environmental degradation, and reinforce trust in others and public institutions as the basis for greater social cohesion in the future.

Global
Report
2021
G20

Before the pandemic, the creative economy was growing rapidly and generating new jobs in every region of the world, predicted to account up to 10 per cent of global GDP by 2030. The crisis has brought this exceptional growth to a standstill, exposing the fragility of a sector dominated by micro-businesses, informal work practices and few tangible assets. Lockdowns have also highlighted the importance of cultural and creative activity in maintaining individual well-being and community resilience. Our contention is not that the creative economy needs public subsidies to resume its previous growth. It does however require governments and multilateral organisations to recognise and address constraints and regulatory structures that have failed to keep pace with the rapid evolution of the sector. Another priority is to rebalance the glaring asymmetry between the growing power of transnational digital platforms and those who have created much of the content on which their prosperity rests.

Global
Report