General Program & Policy Design

This World Bank report argues that the lack of market contestability in the MENA region makes it hard for new firms to start up and expand—so employment cannot grow fast enough to keep up with the growth of the working-age population. In addition, the report underlines the limited market dynamism and stunted job creation that continues to depress MENA's private sector. Finally, the report highlights the importance of understanding the policies and regulations hindering market contestability.

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 report provides an understanding of Sudan's country context and the specific challenges affecting youth employment. The study also identifies key opportunities and solutions to increase youth employment and assesses how the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE), launched in 2019 by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, can play a role in supporting them.

This guidance supports colleagues and partner organisations to develop and manage partnerships with young people in ways that align with the principles and steps within ‘Building Better Partnerships’, recognising that meaningful partnerships with youth-led organisations and groups may require different considerations and ways of working for our work together to flourish.

This paper presents evidence on how social protection and especially non-contributory cash transfers impact on individuals and households in low- and middle-income countries. The paper provides guidance on what policies, programming and interventions have been considered effective for Sida’s objective of creating better living conditions for people living in poverty and oppression.

This technical note provides support for applying a human rights-based approach (HRBA). The note begins with a short introduction to the HRBA and Sida’s PLANET tool. It then explains how human rights norms and standards underpin the thematic area. The note demonstrates how PLANET can guide staff in planning, assessing and monitoring a contribution through a series of guiding questions and examples. Finally, it provides a simple empowerment and capacity development analysis model and a list of additional resources to explore.

This study provides an overview of impact investment and skills creation in innovation, covering the main features of impact investment, the historical development of the phenomenon, and how it can be linked to the skills creation process. The study examines the emergence of impact investing and explains its principles and defining features.

This technical brief shares lessons learnt and practical examples from Ecuador, Rwanda, Vietnam and Zambia on how to scale up innovations in education for implementation in different contexts and then sustain the shifts in practice, policy, and each setting structures.

This Knowledge Brief shares lessons on how the World Bank’s Promoting Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Social Protection and Employment Programs project team in Haiti worked to enhance the identification of persons with disabilities and provide them with skills for service sector jobs. The Brief highlights the importance of focusing on demand-driven skills, working with mainstream training providers, and proactive outreach to employers.