GIGA Focus Afrika

Young people in sub-Saharan Africa are often inadequately trained, underemployed, and work in low-paid jobs offering poor conditions. A key instrument of active labour-market policies and German development cooperation must be, as such, improved employment training tailored specifically to the needs of companies in order to place people in "good jobs." Studies have shown that the effectiveness of training programmes in developing countries varies greatly and many have little impact. In view of possible budget cuts regarding German development cooperation, funds should be used where they will have the greatest impact. To date, there have been insufficient studies on education and training programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. To strengthen the evidence base, we evaluate three German development cooperation programmes in West Africa. The effects are, on average, moderate and vary considerably in some cases: spatially, between training programmes, and according to provider. This and previous evidence on the moderate effectiveness of such training programmes stands in contrast to the often high expectations regarding the anticipated effects such measures will have. We show here that training programmes funded by development cooperation initiatives can nevertheless still provide important impetus to the creation of good jobs for young people in Africa.

German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA)

DOI: 10.57671/gfaf-24041