General Program & Policy Design

This research examines a specific aspect of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program, which is the provision of career and technical education (CTE) opportunities for program participants. The report relies on administrative data collected from all programs pertaining to their operations in 2017 and 2018, as well as interviews with select program staff in 2019. In this report, the authors highlight promising practices in CTE provision found in the literature.

Mobile phone network coverage has increased worldwide over the past two decades. In advanced and emerging economies alike, young people are much more digitally connected than older generations. Digital technologies offer an opportunity to communicate with youth and collect data at a low-cost. Using digital methods like SMS has become more relevant to obtain timely data and information, especially with the current COVID-19 crisis.

This note highlights how the Mexico Youth Labor Market Inclusion (MYLMI) project used four strategies to incorporate youth voice in the design of their program. The project focuses on generating evidence on interventions that promote the labor inclusion of low-income youth into formal quality jobs in strategic productive sectors. The project is being implemented by the World Bank and the Government of Mexico in the state of San Luis Potosi.

This brief discusses the importance of incorporating youth voice in the design of youth employment programs and the factors organizations must consider when utilizing radio, short message service (SMS) text, and social media platforms. It also features how technology platforms have been used by S4YE’s Partners and the World Bank, to incorporate youth voice in projects. The Note highlights practical insights, challenges, and solutions that can help youth practitioners.

This brief highlights different ways in which youth employment projects in S4YE’s community of practice, the Impact Portfolio, are adapting their strategies and delivery models in response to COVID‒19. Based on recent and ongoing discussions with our partners, we see six main trends that programs are using to maintain operational and programmatic continuity.

This factbook is designed to aide practitioners and highlights interesting design elements from the 44 youth employment programs that make up S4YE's external community of practice, the Impact Portfolio. Projects from leading organizations such as Harambee, Samasource, Generation, Save the Children, Aga Khan Development Network, Knack, and many more are part of this community.

The knowledge brief describes Global Communities' approach to implementing sustainable workforce development interventions at scale that targeted the informal construction sector. It outlines the key elements of the approach, assesses whether there are early signs of sustainability, and presents some recommendations. 

This note discusses policy options for managing the employment impacts of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis. The note pays attention to the labor market and institutional context of most low and middle-income countries, where informality is large and where existing institutions often lack mechanisms to effectively reach businesses and workers in the informal economy. 

Short-term education and skills training programs are a popular way to meet the needs of unemployed, out-of-school youth by providing them with an opportunity to quickly acquire qualifications and skills that can lead to productive employment. This new paper reviews the global evidence to identify which programs are most effective at delivering results. Based on the findings, recommendations are offered for the future design of these training programs.

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.