Africa Youth Employment Clock: Innovative tool launched to track youth employment

In a quest to empower the African youth while confronting youth unemployment in Africa, The World Data Labs (WDL), in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, has launched the Africa Youth Employment Clock in Ghana.

The Africa Youth Employment Clock is a data-driven tool that tracks job growth in real time, enabling conversations and actions to empower Africa’s youth.

The Clock also forecasts youth employment trends in line with the Mastercard Foundation’s mission to enable 30 million young people in Africa to secure dignified and fulfilling work by 2030.

The Clock draws from surveys and datasets made available by the Ghana Statistical Service, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), according to WDL.

Speaking at the Ghana launch on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, VP of Strategic Engagements at WDL, Dr. Reshma Sheoraj, explained that the clock seeks to unpack not only employed and unemployed youth in Ghana but also determine the number of employed people doing dignified and well-paying jobs.

“It is not a question of unemployment but a question of people getting dignified, fulfilling jobs, and higher wages that are associated with those jobs.” Dr. Sheoraj said

She also highlighted the level of inactivity, particularly among women in the labour force, saying, “Women’s participation in the labour force is important in most economies, and I think there is more that can be done to improve women’s labour force participation in Ghana.”

VP Sheoraj urged African economies to take advantage of their growing youthful population (and declining youthful population on other continents) by acquiring critical, job-market-ready skills.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah-Amfo, commended WDL and Mastercard on the launch of the Clock, stating that it would result in data-driven and evidence-based decision-making towards narrowing the African youth unemployment gap.

Describing the clock as an “indispensable resource for policymakers, development actors, educators, and other stakeholders interested in promoting inclusive labour markets,” she underscored the importance of data in developing sustainable societies.

She observed that the Mastercard’s mission aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 8, which emphasises decent work and economic growth, adding that the achievement of SDG 8 will have a positive bearing on the attainment of SDGs 1 to 4.

Prof. Appiah-Amfo revealed present efforts by her outfits within her university, including ISSER, to champion data and research-driven decision-making.

She, however, expressed concern about the inadequate usage of those data and research results by policymakers in economic planning and policy formulation, particularly in youth employment.

The Ghana Director of the Mastercard Foundation, Ric Rwigamba, disclosed that 10% of its 2030 mission of ensuring dignified and fulfilling jobs for 30 million African youth applies to Ghana.

She submitted that since Africa’s youth is projected to grow by approximately 100 million to 600 million, there is a need for the design of policies that would enable them to match up to the demands of the future of work.

Rica touched on some of the developmental imprints of Mastercard in Ghana with regards to job creation within agriculture, digitalization, and women entrepreneurship.

“To date, our efforts have enabled approximately 668,000 young people to find dignified and fulfilling work, with women representing a significant portion of this achievement,” she stated.

Similar launches of the Clock have taken place in Kenya and Rwanda following the formal partnership announcement between World Data Labs and the MasterCard Foundation in September 2022.

The Clock delivers country-level data for all 54 countries in Africa and sub-national data for Kenya, Rwanda, and Ghana.

Over time, access to sub-national data will expand to include Nigeria, Uganda, Senegal, and Ethiopia.