About Taqeem Initiative: What Works in Youth Employment

Taqeem (meaning "evaluation" in Arabic) is a partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) as part of an IFAD-financed project, titled “Strengthening gender monitoring and evaluation in rural employment in the Near East and North Africa.”

Through rigorous impact research, this capacity development and learning grant project aims to understand “what works” in the promotion of gender mainstreaming, with the ultimate goal of reaching gender equality in rural employment outcomes across the region.
Taqeem is coordinated by the ILO and supported by the Taqeem Council, a network of research and academic institutions and donor agencies that provides strategic advice and assists Taqeem in achieving its objective. The Taqeem Council includes international institutions such as the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) as well as regional institutions such as Silatech.

Project documentation

  1. ILO and IFAD partner to build evidence on gender outcomes in rural employment in the Middle East and North Africa

    ILO’s Youth Employment Programme and the Near East and North Africa Unit of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) recently signed an agreement to implement a new initiative: “Strengthening gender monitoring, evaluation and mainstreaming in rural employment projects in the Middle East and North Africa”. The project is a capacity development and learning initiative that aims to understand “what works” in the promotion of gender mainstreaming through rigorous impact research with the ultimate goal of reaching gender equality in rural employment outcomes across the region.

  1. Taqeem - Evidence to improve youth productivity in the Middle East and North Africa

    TAQEEM (“evaluation” in Arabic) is a technical support programme of the International Labour Organization whose aim is to increase effectiveness of youth employment and enterprise interventions in the Middle East and North Africa.

  2. TAQEEM Fund for youth employment evaluation (Phase I & II) - A partnership to promote results-based monitoring and evaluation for youth employment in the MENA region: Public-Private Partnership

    Taqeem (meaning “evaluation” in Arabic) has been implemented in two phases. The first phase worked with 15 youth employment organizations and initiatives reaching approximately 15,000 young people a year as part of a competitively selected Community of Practice (CoP) to improve their capacity to measure and monitor the impact of their programmes. This was achieved firstly through “Evaluation Clinics” which taught CoP members the key steps for impact evaluation and equipped them with enhanced, low-cost, high-impact monitoring and evaluation tools and small grants. The development of a web-based knowledge sharing platform and dissemination campaigns supported the reporting of successes and challenges to stakeholders and raised project profiles. Finally, organizations with positive results developed and conducted randomized control trail studies to show the impact of their programmes.

  3. Taqeem Community of Practice: Monitoring, evaluation and impact evaluation for the youth employment community

    This report provides an overview of the Taqeem Community of Practice and describes Taqeem’s approach to M&E and its technical assistance model