In a joint initiative between ENCISS and the World Bank titled “Voices and Views of Youth and Employment in Sierra Leone” an efficient youth investment strategy to promote sustainable youth employment has been developed.
World Bank and ENCISS researchers recommend that the government of Sierra Leone will have to prioritize policies and programs addressing sustainable employment opportunities for the youths of today and tomorrow.
The first set of actions proposed under priority short term low risk interventions serving today’s youth are programs that are mostly cost effective and have been proven to work based upon international data.
These proposed activities would give the biggest bang for the limited resources available.
The researchers also recommend that in the long term, increasing quality and access to education should be a top priority to prepare future youth.
Government’s capacity to coordinate sustainable youth employment policies and programs as well as increasing access to land for youth in rural areas should not only be developed but must also be a top priority.
Sierra Leone is already spending substantial resources on youth programs they noted adding that traditional training and training programs without clear linkages to the labor market have shown to be ineffective.
The initiative noted that many ongoing programs in Sierra Leone (as in other developing countries) provide short term solutions, are economically unsound, have neither clear exit strategies nor possibilities of sustainable youth employment.
In the short run, resources can be allocated away from those programs that are less effective and toward those that will have greater impacts for creating sustainable youth employment opportunities.
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