Female labor force participation levels in Arab countries are the lowest in the world—despite the rising educational attainment of women reaching working age. Indeed, young women ...
In Bangladesh, unemployment stems more from lack of the right skills rather than scarcity of jobs. Soft skills can help create an adaptive nature and a lifelong learning culture, ...
Individual-level employment data are crucial to monitoring labor markets and SDGs, capturing socioeconomic conditions and informing labor market policies, and are key priorities in ...
The increased availability of free and open satellite imagery is opening a world of new possibilities for the agriculture sector in developing countries.
When you hear about satellite information in agriculture, you often imagine a farmer driving his tractor in a large field, with the help of a GPS and a fancy display showing the ...
MSMEs are crucial to Bangladesh’s financial and economic development. Close to 99 percent of non-farm enterprises in the country are MSMEs. Reexamining outdated policies and ...
In countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence, the private sector plays a critical role in providing jobs and income. Inclusive and sustainable economic growth can ...
The publication describes how economic migration can be leveraged for development and what role could the World Bank Group and other MDBs play in that process
Globally, unemployment is hitting young people the hardest. The ILO estimates that youth unemployment rates are 300 percent higher than unemployment rates for adults over 25 years ...
Globally, the proportion of people working in the agriculture sector has seen a steady decline. However, looking at global averages is not enough to understand this trend, as this decline has not been evenly distributed.
Rural economies are in transition as countries seek to boost productivity and growth in the face of rapid out-migration to urban areas, as well as a rise in smallholder farming.
In the developing countries of the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) more than 60% of the population lives in urban areas. At the same time, poor people are ...
How Jeevika was able to “disrupt” exploitative market practices by leveraging technology platforms to connect women-farmers with markets and financing institutions
What are the pathways people follow to better jobs? Economies grow when more people find work, when they get better at what they do, and when they move from low-productivity work to better, higher-productivity jobs.
The Agri-Entrepreneurship (AE) model follows a decentralized approach to empowering local youth as “Agri-entrepreneurs” (AE) who champion agriculture development in neighboring villages. Besides local self-employment, the model facilitates the delivery of services such as access to high-quality inputs, crop advisory, doorstep financial transactions, and aggregation of surplus produce for distant markets.
Jobs and wage growth have been the most important driver of poverty reduction globally, and Central Asia. In Tajikistan, for example, it has cut poverty by about two-thirds since 2003. In Kazakhstan, it accounted for more than three-quarters of income growth over the past decade — even among the poorest 20 percent.
The challenges faced by the different actors within the rice value chain in Côte d’Ivoire while distinct, are also interconnected. How could we address these constraints so that the chain can reach its full potential and contribute to poverty reduction through more and better jobs?
Many people in Sub-Saharan Africa still work in agriculture; on average, over half of the labor force, and even more in poorer countries and localities. The share of the labor force in agriculture is declining (as is normal in development), leading African leaders and economists to focus on job creation outside agriculture.
Since the concept of the “informal sector” was coined half a century ago, countries all over the world have promoted the formalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises. The perceived benefits of formalization include better access to credit, justice, large formal clients, and, for the government, higher tax revenues. But according to recent literature, most formalization efforts resulted in modest and short-term increases informality rates.
Non-farm household enterprises provide an important opportunity for employment in Tanzania. Agriculture is still the primary economic activity of the country, but the economy is shifting away from it, and the number of people employed in this sector has been declining since 2006.
Agriculture is Uganda’s ‘green gold’ that can transform the economy and the lives of farmers. Why it is then that Uganda’s well documented agricultural potential is not realized? What specific public-sector policies and actions are required to unleash the entrepreneurial energy of Uganda’s largest private sector actors—its farmers?
Across South Asia, our agriculture and rural development projects are helping transform the lives of poor rural women. From daily wage laborers, they are now becoming entrepreneurs who generate jobs for others. Over the last decade, these projects have supported an estimated 5 million micro and small entrepreneurs, most of whom are women.
Investments in agriculture, particularly horticulture, have produced tangible returns as unique weather conditions are favorable to growing produce that is in-demand in local and regional markets.
Technology and the internet are also opening opportunities for agriculture, and urbanization and changing diets are calling for new ways to process, market, and consume our foods. So, can agriculture provide job opportunities for youth?
Youth employment projects face varying contextual realities and constraints that often result in generating innovations when adapting and customizing their monitoring and evaluation system. There is a lag in the spread of innovations due to the various contexts, funders, and organizations often operating independently.
Innovations in youth employment programs are critical to addressing this enormous development challenge effectively. Rapid progress in digital technology, behavioral economics, evaluation methods, and the connectivity of youth in the developing world generates a stream of real-time insights and opportunities in project design and implementation.
Job creation has become a mantra in the country since the government has set the goal to create a million jobs in key sectors over the next five years under the Seventh National Development Plan.
Blog » Blogs
Blogs
OCT 09, 2019
Fair Competition Is Needed for the Economic Empowerment of Women in the Arab World
Female labor force participation levels in Arab countries are the lowest in the world—despite the rising educational attainment of women reaching working age. Indeed, young women ...
Ferid Belhaj, Rabah Arezki
OCT 07, 2019
Skilling up Bangladesh’s youth for a changing job market
In Bangladesh, unemployment stems more from lack of the right skills rather than scarcity of jobs. Soft skills can help create an adaptive nature and a lifelong learning culture, ...
Mustahsin-Ul Aziz
OCT 07, 2019
Are women and youth employment rates a matter of survey design and data quality?
Individual-level employment data are crucial to monitoring labor markets and SDGs, capturing socioeconomic conditions and informing labor market policies, and are key priorities in ...
Valentina Costa
OCT 04, 2019
The sky is not the limit: Satellites in support of smallholder farming (part 2)
The increased availability of free and open satellite imagery is opening a world of new possibilities for the agriculture sector in developing countries.
Erick C.M. Fernandes
SEP 26, 2019
The sky is not the limit: Satellites in support of smallholder farming (part 1)
When you hear about satellite information in agriculture, you often imagine a farmer driving his tractor in a large field, with the help of a GPS and a fancy display showing the ...
Erick C.M. Fernandes
SEP 25, 2019
The private sector can be a powerful partner in West Africa and the Sahel
A vibrant private sector is a powerful driver of jobs and can underpin sustainable economic growth, fueling innovation and poverty reduction.
Akihiko Nishio
SEP 25, 2019
How can Bangladesh’s micro, small, and medium businesses thrive?
MSMEs are crucial to Bangladesh’s financial and economic development. Close to 99 percent of non-farm enterprises in the country are MSMEs. Reexamining outdated policies and ...
Mihasonirina Andrianaivo, Aminata Ndiaye
SEP 24, 2019
The private sector—an engine for growth and stability in fragile countries
In countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence, the private sector plays a critical role in providing jobs and income. Inclusive and sustainable economic growth can ...
Martin C. Spicer, Franck Bousquet
SEP 14, 2019
How can alternative data help Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) access credit?
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) play a huge role in facilitating economic development due to their flexibility and affinity to innovation.
Anja Robakowski-Van Stralen
SEP 12, 2019
Making farmers better off by tackling the whole of the value chain
There are a fair number of interventions out there that work with an entire value chain with a set of interventions.
Markus P. Goldstein
SEP 11, 2019
Leveraging economic migration for development
The publication describes how economic migration can be leveraged for development and what role could the World Bank Group and other MDBs play in that process
Dilip K. Ratha
AUG 19, 2019
Burkina Faso reclaims landscapes and livelihoods
By 2030, climate change could result in Africa’s drylands expanding by 20%, with larger increases in Sahelian countries.
Maria Sarraf
AUG 12, 2019
Meet 3 young leaders tackling youth unemployment
Globally, unemployment is hitting young people the hardest. The ILO estimates that youth unemployment rates are 300 percent higher than unemployment rates for adults over 25 years ...
Sonia Madhvani, Timothy Joseph Peter Clay
AUG 05, 2019
As incomes rise, farm employment drops
Globally, the proportion of people working in the agriculture sector has seen a steady decline. However, looking at global averages is not enough to understand this trend, as this decline has not been evenly distributed.
Miyoko Asai, Silvia Malgioglio
AUG 01, 2019
Measuring rural women’s employment in surveys: key issues for research and policy targeting
Rural economies are in transition as countries seek to boost productivity and growth in the face of rapid out-migration to urban areas, as well as a rise in smallholder farming.
Gayatri Koolwal
AUG 01, 2019
Innovative financial solutions critical for Bangladesh jobs and growth
Innovative financial solutions critical for Bangladesh jobs and growth - included in July 2019 FCI Newsletter
Mihasonirina Andrianaivo, Aminata Ndiaye
JUL 18, 2019
Rural non-farm activities in the Middle East and North Africa: a path to poverty reduction?
In the developing countries of the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) more than 60% of the population lives in urban areas. At the same time, poor people are ...
Aziz Atamanov, Sharad Alan Tandon
JUL 16, 2019
Social and Cultural Barriers Keep Young Women out of the Economy. But we can change that
Social and Cultural Barriers Keep Young Women out of the Economy. But we can change that
Danielle Simone Robinson, Sonia Madhvani
Nov 26, 2018
Game-changing technology empowers India’s women farmers
How Jeevika was able to “disrupt” exploitative market practices by leveraging technology platforms to connect women-farmers with markets and financing institutions
Paramveer Singh, Anjani Kumar Singh, Vinay Kumar Vutukuru, Mio Takada
JUL 26, 2018
Five new insights on how agriculture can help reduce poverty
The view that productive agriculture is critical for employment creation and poverty reduction is now widely shared within the development community
Luc Christiaensen, Will Martin
APR 12, 2019
Five facts about jobs and economic transformation in IDA countries
What are the pathways people follow to better jobs? Economies grow when more people find work, when they get better at what they do, and when they move from low-productivity work to better, higher-productivity jobs.
Dino Leonardo Merotto
OCT 24, 2018
Budding entrepreneurs in rural Bihar
The Agri-Entrepreneurship (AE) model follows a decentralized approach to empowering local youth as “Agri-entrepreneurs” (AE) who champion agriculture development in neighboring villages. Besides local self-employment, the model facilitates the delivery of services such as access to high-quality inputs, crop advisory, doorstep financial transactions, and aggregation of surplus produce for distant markets.
Vinay Kumar Vutukuru, Anjani Kumar Singh, Paramveer Singh
OCT 22, 2018
Growth in Central Asia hinges on creating more jobs with higher wages
Jobs and wage growth have been the most important driver of poverty reduction globally, and Central Asia. In Tajikistan, for example, it has cut poverty by about two-thirds since 2003. In Kazakhstan, it accounted for more than three-quarters of income growth over the past decade — even among the poorest 20 percent.
LILIA BURUNCIUC
MAR 18, 2019
Rising with rice in Côte d’Ivoire - More and better jobs by connecting farmers to markets
The challenges faced by the different actors within the rice value chain in Côte d’Ivoire while distinct, are also interconnected. How could we address these constraints so that the chain can reach its full potential and contribute to poverty reduction through more and better jobs?
Luc Christiaensen, Raphaela Karlen
NOV 12, 2018
In Africa, more, not fewer people will work in agriculture
Many people in Sub-Saharan Africa still work in agriculture; on average, over half of the labor force, and even more in poorer countries and localities. The share of the labor force in agriculture is declining (as is normal in development), leading African leaders and economists to focus on job creation outside agriculture.
Luc Christiaensen, Karen Brooks
OCT 16, 2018
Debunking three myths about Informality
Since the concept of the “informal sector” was coined half a century ago, countries all over the world have promoted the formalization of small- and medium-sized enterprises. The perceived benefits of formalization include better access to credit, justice, large formal clients, and, for the government, higher tax revenues. But according to recent literature, most formalization efforts resulted in modest and short-term increases informality rates.
Jamele Rigolini, Juan Chacaltana
JUN 20, 2018
How can we unlock the potential of household enterprises in Tanzania?
Non-farm household enterprises provide an important opportunity for employment in Tanzania. Agriculture is still the primary economic activity of the country, but the economy is shifting away from it, and the number of people employed in this sector has been declining since 2006.
Julia Granata, Maria Laura Sanchez Puerta, Odette Maciel, Mohamed Ihsan Ajwad
JUN 19, 2018
Agriculture is the ‘green gold’ that could transform the economy and the lives of Ugandan farmers
Agriculture is Uganda’s ‘green gold’ that can transform the economy and the lives of farmers. Why it is then that Uganda’s well documented agricultural potential is not realized? What specific public-sector policies and actions are required to unleash the entrepreneurial energy of Uganda’s largest private sector actors—its farmers?
Christina Malmberg Calvo
JUN 12, 2018
In South Asia, poor rural women have begun to set up lucrative new businesses
Across South Asia, our agriculture and rural development projects are helping transform the lives of poor rural women. From daily wage laborers, they are now becoming entrepreneurs who generate jobs for others. Over the last decade, these projects have supported an estimated 5 million micro and small entrepreneurs, most of whom are women.
Adarsh Kumar
SEP 19, 2017
Horticulture offers hope for growth and jobs in rural Afghanistan
Investments in agriculture, particularly horticulture, have produced tangible returns as unique weather conditions are favorable to growing produce that is in-demand in local and regional markets.
World Bank Afghanistan
SEP 06, 2017
Can agriculture create job opportunities for youth?
Technology and the internet are also opening opportunities for agriculture, and urbanization and changing diets are calling for new ways to process, market, and consume our foods. So, can agriculture provide job opportunities for youth?
Luc Christiaensen
NOV 21, 2017
Measuring youth employment projects: What can we learn from each other?
Youth employment projects face varying contextual realities and constraints that often result in generating innovations when adapting and customizing their monitoring and evaluation system. There is a lag in the spread of innovations due to the various contexts, funders, and organizations often operating independently.
Jose Manuel Romero
NOV 15, 2017
Accelerating and learning from innovations in youth employment projects
Innovations in youth employment programs are critical to addressing this enormous development challenge effectively. Rapid progress in digital technology, behavioral economics, evaluation methods, and the connectivity of youth in the developing world generates a stream of real-time insights and opportunities in project design and implementation.
Namita Datta, Jose Manuel Romero
JUN 15, 2017
How can Zambia create 1 million jobs?
Job creation has become a mantra in the country since the government has set the goal to create a million jobs in key sectors over the next five years under the Seventh National Development Plan.
Ina-Marlene Ruthenberg