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Youth Employment in Sierra Leone
to economic growth are needed. To address the factors underlying the disequilibrium in the labor market, such efforts must be combined with education and training for more productive jobs in the growth sectors of the economy. Policies and programs also need to address constraints young people face outside of the labor market, including by improving access to land. While employment of young people can be improved through the interventions proposed below, limited work opportunities will remain a reality for both young people and mature adults in the near future, given the poor economic and human development situation in Sierra Leone. A sustained recovery of the economy, improved investment climate, and increased development of the private sector are prerequisites for improved labor market opportunities; even the best-designed and implemented polices and programs are likely to fail in a stagnant economy. Policy and programming areas to improve sustainable livelihood opportunities for young people in Sierra Leone can be classified into four categories: •
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Priority short-term interventions that build on international experiences of cost-effective programs with positive impact or current opportunities in Sierra Leone (these interventions potentially have the greatest impact on the sustainable employment opportunities of young people and would require relatively limited resources); Programs and policy interventions that need to be implemented in the short term that have higher risk of failure and may entail high costs but are nevertheless needed in the context of Sierra Leone (these types of intervention need to be implemented on a pilot basis and carefully monitored and evaluated before being scaled up); Long-term interventions to improve employment opportunities of the young people of the future; and Medium- to long-term interventions to get the environment right to benefit the young people of today and tomorrow.
Priority Short-Term, Low-Risk Interventions The proposed priority short-term, low-risk interventions for enhancing labor market opportunities for young people include strengthening the skills of formal and informal private sector employers and their employees; implementing specific interventions in agriculture; developing work experience of young people through public work schemes; and strengthening the skills profile of out-ofschool young people. 1: ENHANCE LABOR MARKET OPPORTUNITIES BY STRENGTHENING THE (FORMAL AND INFORMAL). Providing support to businesses to achieve higher productivity and APPROACH
SKILLS OF PRIVATE SECTOR EMPLOYERS AND THEIR EMPLOYEES