This report presents a first diagnostic of Africa’s gender gap in financing early-stage ventures in the digital economy (start-ups). The report’s findings indicate that since 2013, only 3 percent of total funding for Africa’s tech start-ups went to all-female founding teams, compared with 76 percent of funding for all-male teams.
This report seeks to focus attention on the challenges that Africa’s women entrepreneurs face and identify practical solutions. The report draws on new, high-quality, household and firm-level data to present the clearest evidence to date about the barriers to growth and profitability faced by women entrepreneurs. It goes beyond looking at contextual, endowment and household restrictions in isolation, and, through deep-dive analysis, uncovers new evidence on how social norms, networks and household-level decision making contribute to business performance.
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.
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.
This report focused on Digital Agriculture in Africa (i) defines digitalization for agriculture and an implementation framework (ii) shares how far the sector has advanced as of 2019; (iii) offers perspective on where the sector will go in the next 3–5 years; and (iv) shed light on what it will take to unlock the potential of the sector further and explore the roles of different stakeholders.
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.
This report examines the challenge facing youth seeking employment in Sub-Saharan Africa's mobile industry: the skills gap. It then explains how the mobile industry will continue to be a significant job creator for youth and unpack the role the industry will play in creating jobs and supporting youth through their employment journeys.
Collaboration between IFC and Google, this report talks about the potential of Africa’s Internet economy, promising tech entrepreneurs driving innovation, and the growing tech talent across the continent. Analysis in the report finds that Africa’s Internet economy can reach $180 billion by 2025, accounting for 5.2% of the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP). By 2050, the projected potential contribution could reach $712 billion, 8.5% of the continent’s GDP.
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.
