Youth Participation and Employment in the Middle East and North Africa

The unemployment rate in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is the highest in the world and is largely a youth phenomenon. Unemployment has far-reaching consequences.

On the societal level, a lack of opportunities generates social stigma and prevents the positive development of a community. Individually, it results in frustration, low self-esteem and apathy among the unemployed, increasing the risk of social unrest and conflict.

Furthermore, studies show that a lack of employment opportunities leads to a brain drain as young people look abroad to the Gulf countries and Europe. If the countries of the MENA region succeed in creating a dignified life and meaningful employment for the large youth population, they could experience increased growth, greater social cohesion, more people contributing to and influencing communities, and increased stability - just as young people want.

The project

The programme was part of the Danish-Arab Partnership Program (DAPP) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. DAPP's vision is to promote a democratic, prosperous and stable MENA region (Middle East and North Africa).

The initiative was organized into five thematic areas, with a variety of organization or consortium as a partner: Kvinfo focused on equality, IMS on media, DIGNITY on human rights, a consortium including DI and LO/FTF on labor market development and the African Development Bank on entrepreneurship, while Oxfam Denmark led the work on youth and job creation.

Oxfam Denmark reached young men and women aged 18-30 across diverse regions and educational backgrounds to create a minimum of 10,000 job opportunities for themselves. Our ways of working towards the goals were to:

• Offer young people knowledge and technical skills to increase the likelihood of them finding jobs, starting their own business and engaging with the community.

• Strengthen the will and capacity of institutions, the private sector and society to support young people in influencing and job seeking.

• Increase the dialogue between young people and the private business community so they can reach a joint understanding of the importance of including young people in the labour market

Time period and funding

The project was implemented between 2017 to 2023 with a total budget of 175 million DKK from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Countries: Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan and Egypt

Results

The project exceeded its expectation in job creation and ecosystem improvement, and managed to reach both women, youth from rural areas and unemployed and uneducated youth. The program surpassed its targets, creating more than 10,500 new jobs for young adolescents aged 18 to 30, with 55% going to vulnerable youth.

Nearly 125,000 participants were positively impacted by tailored training and career coaching and thus stimulated civic engagement. Support for entrepreneurship also yielded significant results, with over 5,000 young entrepreneurs benefiting from the initiatives.

Key drivers for delivering these results included professional and tailor-made life skills- and technical training combined with career coaching, job-matching and private sector arrangements, such as internships and trainees.