Knowledge Brief

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Feeling Proud, Feeling Embarrassed: Experiences of Low-income Women with Crowd Work

This Note examines how crowd work platforms, online marketplaces for freelance tasks, can impact low-income women in patriarchal societies. While these platforms offer increased work opportunities, the research explores the challenges women face. The study, conducted in India, found significant hurdles like gaining family permission, limited support, and working in secrecy. Despite these difficulties, the research also highlights positive outcomes such as increased confidence,autonomy, and agency for the women involved. The report concludes by discussing ways to reduce the tensions and diff

The Promise of Ejo Heza : A Brighter Future for All Rwandans - Executive Summary (English)

This report is a product of a two-year engagement between the World Bank team and Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB). It aims to overview the Ejo Heza scheme, a local term that translates to ‘a better future,’ not only holds the promise of income security at older ages but can also be a much-needed source for domestic resource mobilization in the country. The report highlight its key strengths, and provide recommendations to improve coverage, adequacy, operational efficiency, and long-run viability. 

Financial Services for Gig Workers: Lessons on Getting Design and Delivery Right

This Note highlights the challenges of providing financial services to underserved gig workers through online platforms. While these platforms offer a potential channel, innovators recognize that digital skills alone might not be enough. Building trust and understanding requires a balanced approach, combining technology with a human touch. The Note showcases four successful examples from industry leaders who have carefully designed, developed, and piloted solutions to deliver financial services to platform workers.

What is the Price of a Skill? The Value of Complementarity

This report explores how to maximize the economic value of skills in a dynamic job market. It emphasizes that a skill's worth depends heavily on how well it complements other skills, particularly those in high demand. The value of any skill is also relative to the worker's existing skillset, with the greatest value often arising from combining skills from different areas. Focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) skills, the report finds them especially valuable due to their strong complementarity and rising demand, boosting worker wages by an average of 21%. These findings can inform polici

Short Note Series #8: Can Poor, Vulnerable, and Low-Skilled Workers Also Access Digital Jobs?

This Short Note is part of a series building on the report Working Without Borders: The Promise and Peril of Online Gig Work. This short note is based on a survey conducted in one of the largest microwork platforms and supplemented by data scraping from the same platform. Using descriptive statistics, network analysis, constrained linear optimization, linear regressions, and case studies, the note attempts to shed light on the world of microwork, which presents a low entry barrier opportunity for low-skilled people to supplement their incomes and participate in the digital economy.

Unlocking Opportunities for Youth in the Orange Economy: Spotlight on the Fashion Industry

This S4YE Note analyzes the importance of the fashion industry for socio-economic growth and examines its potential as a source of job opportunities for young people. It discusses jobs along the industry’s value chain, its contribution to global revenues and trade, and its evolution with changes in technology, environmental concerns, and changing consumption patterns. The note also highlights the skills required for jobs in the fashion industry and presents analysis to support the claim that the industry is a key driver of jobs for youth and women.

Putting Waste to Work in a Circular Economy: Creating Good Jobs for Youth in the Waste Sector

This Note is part of the Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) Knowledge Brief series that focuses on integrating a youth employment dimension and identifying opportunities in emerging sectors. Building upon S4YE’s Discussion Note on the Circular Economy, which aims to integrate the jobs agenda within the environment agenda, and the World Bank publication, "What a Waste 2.0”, this note focuses specifically on the waste sector.

Measuring Social Value: A new approach to measuring impact of Youth Employment Programs

This S4YE Knowledge Brief describes how The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation (the Foundation), an international charity and licensing body of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award (the Award); a Non-Formal Education and Learning framework for young people aged 14-24 years old, uses the Social Return on Investment (SROI) framework and has developed a social value methodology (SVM) to measure the impact that the Award has on its stakeholders, such as Award holders, adults who support Award delivery, and wider society.