The share of working-age young people in Africa south of the Sahara has risen due to past declines in mortality coupled with high fertility. This “youth bulge” has created a sense of urgency among national governments and the international development community as the prospect of widespread youth unemployment in Africa, and the social instability and political unrest it could bring, looms closer. As a result, African governments are under pressure to create more and better jobs for the region’s young and rapidly growing population.
Although the scale of policy reforms and actions needed to address Africa’s youth bulge is daunting, there is an increasing alignment of interests and incentives: African governments have made youth employment a policy priority, and African youth are demanding policies that improve their job prospects. This creates promising opportunities to enact policies that effectively address rural youth employment—policies that are grounded in local evidence rather than stylized facts.
"Youth and Jobs in Rural Africa" presents a series of thematic and country case studies (including Malawi) that analyse household and firm surveys across a range of country contexts. The book was edited by Valerie Mueller, Assistant Professor, School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University, USA, and James Thurlow, Senior Research Fellow, Development Strategy and Governance Division, International Food Policy Research Institute.
Table of content
1: Africa's Rural Youth in the Global Context
Part I: Thematic Trends on Youth Employment
2: Can Migration be a Conduit for Transformative Youth Employment?
3: Policies for Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa
4: Troublemakers, Bystanders, and Pathbreakers: The Political Participation of African Youth
Part II: Case Studies on the Role of Youth Employment in Structural Transformation
5: Rural Youth and Employment in Ethiopia
6: Change and Rigidity in Youth Employment Patterns in Malawi
7: Cities and Rural Transformation: A Spatial Analysis of Rural Youth Livelihoods in Ghana
8: Rural Nonfarm Enterprises in Tanzania's Economic Transformation: The Role of the Youth
9: Youth Mobility and its Role in Structural Transformation in Senegal
10: Conclusion
An updated version of Chapter 6: Change and Rigidity in Youth Employment Patterns in Malawi is available as IFPRI-Malawi Working Paper 27 with the title Malawi's Challenging Employment Landscape. Download the working paper here. The corresponding Policy Note, published in May 2019, is available here. The updated version of Chapter 6 uses more recent data, covering the fourth (IHS4) Integrated Household Survey conducted in 2016.
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