The African Development Bank, in partnership with the International Labour
Organization, has launched a transformative system to mainstream youth
employment, skills development, and entrepreneurship across its
investments.
The approach, called the Youth, Jobs and Skills Marker System, is
aligned with the Bank’s latest Ten-Year Strategy which places
Africa’s young people at the centre of development efforts to maximize
the impact of every dollar invested, turning demographics into a
dividend. The Marker System ensures that Bank projects spanning diverse
sectors, such as agriculture, transport, energy, water, and education,
systematically incorporate components that enhance youth employability,
foster entrepreneurship, and build market-relevant skills.
“The Youth, Jobs and Skills Marker System is about ensuring Africa’s
young people have a real say and active role in building sustainable
economies and creating jobs – not as passive recipients of youth
programs,” said Dr. Beth Dunford, the Bank’s Vice President for
Agriculture, Human and Social Development. “This transformation of
Bank practices and systems is a step toward making sure our investments
have a positive impact on Africa’s young women and men.”
The integrated system has three focus areas:
* Youth: Supporting youth-led micro, small, and medium-sized
enterprises through targeted investments and operational integration.
* Skills: Expanding access to practical, market-driven training and
apprenticeships to enhance career prospects.
* Jobs: Ensuring Bank-funded projects create sustainable job
opportunities, particularly by developing youth skills for employability
and the promotion of youth-led businesses in priority value chains.
Each year, around 10 to 12 million young Africans enter the labor
market, which offers only three million formal jobs annually. The Bank
will prioritize youth entrepreneurship and mobilize private sector
partnerships to strengthen industry-oriented skills training as well as
job creation over the coming decade.
“This initiative is very important because it allows us to significantly contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #8 that includes decent work for all,” said Peter van Rooij,
Director of Multilateral Partnerships and Development Cooperation at the
International Labour Organization. “It also allows the International
Labour Organization to influence the Bank’s work, to support their
lending that is more geared toward more job creation and better jobs in
a sustainable way.”
The Youth, Jobs and Skills Marker System is modeled on the success of
the Bank’s Gender Marker System and its online dashboard, which
categorize Bank projects based on their contribution to gender equality
and women’s empowerment. Similarly, the new system will feature an
online platform enabling Bank staff and consultants to access real-time
data for preparing country strategy papers, mid-term reviews, annual
reports, project supervision, and reporting on youth-related skills,
businesses and jobs outcomes.
The Bank has just launched a pilot version of the Youth, Jobs and Skills
Marker System in readiness for the full implementation in 2026. This
system will enhance data tracking, improve estimates of youth skills
attainment and employment, strengthen labor market information systems,
and support policymakers in making evidence-based decisions that drive
meaningful change.
The International Labour Organization provided technical support for the
system’s development with financial support from the Bank’s Youth
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Multi-Donor Trust Fund. The Youth, Jobs
and Skills Marker System is the first deliberate action of its kind
developed by a development finance institution worldwide.
