Apply an evidence-based approach to youth employment programs.
- Improve knowledge about youth employment by supporting government collection of labor market outcome data for youth in relevant surveys.
- Monitor the employment situation by age groups by providing statistics for inclusion in country strategies and Country Economic Memorandums.
- Ensure that World Bank and IFC youth employment interventions are informed by relevant analytical work or due diligence on their strategic relevance that also addresses likely costs of possible interventions.
- Monitor or evaluate age-specific employment and earning outcomes in Bank operations, IFC investments, and Bank analytic and advisory activities and IFC Advisory Services designed to address youth employment issues. This would include measures on gender and socioeconomic groups.
The paucity of data limits the ability to assess the impact of Bank Group support to youth employment.
- Although most Bank projects support information on the labor market, little is known about how data is being used. Few projects or analytic products include tracer studies to track the subsequent employment history of youth.
- IFC does not disaggregate employment data by age groups, and the majority of Bank projects with youth employment interventions provide no information on youth as a beneficiary group. If reported, outcome indicators are generally not disaggregated by age.
- Diagnostic work on youth employment is insufficient. It does not identify how the recommended interventions should be formulated or discuss related cost and fiscal impacts.
- Few Bank and IFC operations do identify whether youth employment interventions reached low-income youth or women. Only one (Uganda) impact evaluation conducted quantile analysis.
IFC: Agree. The items that relate to IFC are in the third and fourth bullets. Regarding the third bullet, IFC will sharpen its due diligence and at entry assessments on its youth employment targeted IS and AS interventions, drawing from the knowledge base developed by the WBG, and based on lessons emerging from IFC's ongoing jobs study. Early results of case studies show that IFC's impact on employment is significantly larger than originally anticipated.
IFC will continue to inform the strategic relevance of investments and advisory services in education by leveraging the knowledge base developed by the WBG on education systems, in particular concerning the role of the private sector. IFC is tracking the impact on youth and women in its e4e investments in the MENA region as well as in its Business Edge Programs associated with e4e across the region.
Regarding the fourth bullet, by definition, IFC's investments in higher education (over 2/3 of portfolio) will target the employability of youth. IFC will continue to measure 'access to education' as a main proxy of impact. In addition, IFC will pilot measurements of the direct impact of education investments on employability and quality and explore opportunities to conduct impact evaluations in a select number of projects aimed at addressing youth employment issues.
Monitoring impacts of all youth employment targeted projects will require further analysis with respect to costs and benefits. Tracking age-related job creation in every project could prove very burdensome on our clients. At the same time, as we are learning from our ongoing jobs study, measuring job creation at the firm level provides only a partial picture since the bulk of the jobs provided are outside the firms through indirect and induced employment. As we continue to learn from the jobs study and from our ongoing youth employment initiatives, and if the benefits will outweigh the costs, IFC could consider monitoring impact on youth employment at the firm level for future youth employment targeted projects.
IFC Specific Action 1: Standardize Investment Services (IS) due diligence questionnaire and template for industry specialist report, based on the existing knowledge-base on jobs and skills, to assess more explicitly the potential impact of IFCâs financing for skills development and enhanced employability
Indicator: Due diligence questionnaires and template for industry specialist report used in Investment Review Meetings (IRMs) of education projects
Baseline: No standardized due diligence questionnaire and template for industry specialist report
Target: Standardized due diligence questionnaire and template for industry specialist report used in project appraisal.
Timeline: Starting in FY14
IFC Specific Action 2: Finalize IFCâs education strategy for IS (FY13-15) drawing on the WBGâs knowledge-base and on IFCâs comparative advantages and experience investing in education
Indicator: IFCs education strategy document
Baseline: Current Education Strategy draft, presented to COC in May 2012 and discussed with relevant parties at IFC and the Human Development Network at the World Bank
Target: IFCs Education Strategy presented to the Board
Timeline: FY13
IFC Specific Action 3 Define and pilot indicators for direct and indirect access to education, quality and employability.
Indicator: Access (direct and indirect), quality and employability indicators
Baseline: Existing âstudent reach and direct employmentâ indicators
Target: New definitions and indicators piloted
Timeline: FY14
IFC Specific Action 4: see IFC Specific Action 3 above
Indicator: Applicable employment indicator for education projects
Baseline: Fragmented data available at select client institutions
Target: Consistent employment indicator to be applied to relevant education investments
Timeline: FY15
IFC management agreed to standardize due diligence questionnaires and template for industry specialist reports used in Investment Review Meetings (IRMs) as one of the MAR targets, but decided to not to implement the action. IEG does not expect any further action in that respect. The action failed but is complete.
Action 2.Completed at FY15
IEG recognizes that IFC conducted 2 impact evaluations on tertiary education and these helped enhancing clients' capacity to measure results. IEG could not find any evidence on progress towards the development of definitions and indicators beyond these two examples. IFC completed the pilots but no scale up action is taken (action 3 and 4).
IEG recommends to stop tracking the actions given that IFC recommended it to be made inactive in FY15 and not taking and further progress in these areas.
Action 1. IFC management agreed to standardize due diligence questionnaires and template for industry specialist reports used in Investment Review Meetings (IRMs) as one of the MAR targets, but decided to not to implement the action.
Action 2.Complete
Action 3 and Action 4. IEG recognizes that IFC conducted 2 impact evaluations on tertiary education and these helped enhancing clients' capacity to measure results. IEG could not find any evidence on progress towards the development of definitions and indicators beyond these two examples.
In 2012-13 Industry Specialists designed a template for a standard specialist's report. It was shared with the wider network (specialists, managers, directors and some IOs) There was a diverse range of views expressed, but no clear consensus. Therefore it was decided it was not feasible or productive to implement this type of standardized template.
2. IFC Education Strategy discussed at the Board October 2012 subsequent efforts have focused on joint WBG strategy for the sector, which was presented to President Kim in September 2014.
3. IN FY15, IFC has jointly undertaken with 2 leading clients, Uniminuto (Columbia) and Laureate (Mexico) two rigorous impact evaluations to identify significant evidence of the benefits of tertiary education for their student graduates across several economic and social aspects such as employability, income and job quality, career advancement, gender gaps, and social progress. Because of the evaluations, the clients developed their capacity to measure results, and to assess & understand with hard evidence the impact of their education in terms of social mobility, employability, and gender. This has also contributed to the sector dialogue related to affordable private education. Laureate is now replicating this type of research across Laureate institutions, starting with Peru in FY16. The findings of the studies were disseminated to WBG staff through BBL.
Action 5. The number of students reached is in line with the target.
Action 6. As of October 2014, Education department has 41 commitments. Six of which (15 percent) are in TVET institutions, below the target.
he intention of IFC was to pilot new approaches, but IFC selected its standard training program, Business Edge, to enhance youth employability. IFCâs intention and the selected approach to reach its intention do not match. Regardless, as the management response indicates, IFC faced some delays and is far below the youth training target.
As of July 2014, E4E has implemented six advisory projects in the MENA region: three on ICT (quality frameworks, labor market observatory, capacity building), one on tourism (national qualifications framework), one on capacity building (business edge), and one market study on student lending. None of the projects address the regulatory constraints to private sector entry and operation of education and training firms.
According to E4E July 2014 update, E4E initiative has supported a few WB efforts in MENA region (Tunisia and Morocco). During the period IFC conducted a market study on private student lending. Rest included development quality frameworks, capacity building etc. However these were neither standalone studies nor were in collaboration with the WB.
5. In FY14, number of student reached 2,121,265 (preliminary)
6a. Over 50% of new investments in FY14 were in either TVET or in tertiary institutions with a strong practical skills/professional training focus, reflecting the strategic focus on skills development and employability of graduates. However, it may take additional time for the balance of the portfolio to shift to 30%. Iin the context of E4E, over FY13 and FY14, IFC has made 3 equity investments in post-secondary education providers (Turkey - south/south potential, Morocco and Jordan) to increase and improve the availability of relevant education and training.
On 6.b. On Business Edge, IFC faced some operational delays in implementing the FAST E4E project which is focused on piloting new approaches to improve youth employability in Tunisia, Jordan, Morocco, and Egypt. Hence we are delayed on achieving the targets. So far we have partnered with 5 local training providers (3 in Tunisia and 2 in Morocco) and built their capacity to deliver customized Business Edge management training to youth. The providers very recently launched their training programs and to date have trained 178 youth. Action plans are being set up with all partners to increase their outreach to youth in the coming months. In addition, a new partnership will soon be signed with a third training provider in Morocco and discussions have begun with a strategic partner in Jordan. In parallel, under the BE Yemen II project (568707), we have trained 764 unemployed youth in Yemen through a collaboration with the Education for Employment foundation, and of those 514 were employed (of which 39% women). Project results in Yemen are not included under the FAST E4E project.
On 6c and 7, the E4E Initiative for Arab Youth has been focused on youth employability in the MENA region, namely in Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt since 2012. Thus far, 6 projects focused primarily on enhancing the quality assurance frameworks of public and private education and vocational training providers and labor information available to households in specific growth sectors identified after indepth country diagnostics studies. These studies also identified regulatory issues constraining investment and the ability of both public and private education providers to adapt to the changing needs of the job market in all 4 countries (4 separate studies, against a target of 3).