ILO (the International Labour Office) just released an Employment Research Brief titled: “+789 Million and Counting: the sub-Saharan African Equation” prepared with Bruno Losch, GovInn’s co-director.
This 8-pager is based on an ILO working paper published last November by Bruno Losch (Structural transformation to boost labour demand in sub-Saharan Africa: the role of agriculture, rural areas, and territorial development”). This brief focuses on SSA’s equation of providing quality jobs for a rapidly expanding and young labour force, in a context of limited economic diversification, critically challenged education systems, and under the constraints of increasing competition and climate change. 789 million is the expected increase of SSA’s labour force by 2050 and represents 62{4b05898ae60f9b5e2d93b69cb2027f6f0d06dfa7d8f8611bbe8472c2532adfa6} of the labour force growth worldwide.

The employment challenge in Africa is persistent and unique. It is not solely a challenge of unemployment, but one of providing quality jobs for a rapidly expanding, and markedly young, labour force. This research brief explores the opportunities that economic diversification offer to foster structural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. It highlights three interconnected actions needed to achieve this goal: (i) supporting evidence-based multi-sectoral development strategies; (ii) supporting family farmers and diversification of rural incomes; and (iii) strengthening rural-urban linkages and promoting territorial policies.

To read the full document, see below: [pdf-embedder url=”http://governanceinnovation.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ILO_Research-BRIEF-Losch.pdf” title=”ILO_Research BRIEF Losch”]