Decent Jobs for Egypt’s Young People: Tackling the Challenge Together in Qalyoubia and Menoufia

Geographical area of implementation: Egypt, Qalyoubia and Menoufia
Donor: Danish Arab Partnership Programme (DAPP)
Contact(s): Nashwa Belal, Chief Technical Advisor | Racha El Assy, National Project Coordinat

Project Background

Following the revolution, Egypt’s youth unemployment rate has exacerbated from 19 per cent in 2010 to 28.9 per cent in 2012. Egypt’s ‘youth bulge’ has become a major predicament rather than a unique opportunity for development. In addition, when jobs are created, they are very poor in quality, and mainly concentrated in Egypt’s informal economy, which fails to provide decent work conditions. This lack of decent work is preventing the next generation of Egyptians from gaining skills, experience and income necessary for furthering the economic, social and political development of their country.
Drawing on lessons learned from numerous youth employment initiatives in Egypt and in other countries, this project proposes an ambitious multi-dimensional and integrated approach to stimulating youth employment in two Egyptian Governorates: Qalyoubia and Menoufia.

Implementation strategy

The project operates within the ILO programmatic framework “Decent Jobs for Egypt’s Young People– tackling the challenge together”. It operates around three pillars: (i) creating more decent job opportunities for the young people; (ii) increasing youth employability; and, (iii) developing and improving labour market policies and programmes.

The project operates at three levels:

• Policies relevant to youth employment at the Governorate level.
• Partnerships at the local level to ensure sustainability and participation of all actors, including youth.
• Direct implementation of pilot interventions and transfer of knowledge for replication and scaling-up in the future.

Objectives and expected outcomes

The overall development objective of this project is to contribute to increased decent employment opportunities for young men and women in Qalyoubia and Menoufia.

The project is based on a two-pronged approach of i) increasing capacities of local labour market institutions and the social partners to design and deliver relevant policies and services for youth employment with a focus on agriculture, while at the same time ii) reducing vulnerability of youth in the labour market through employability and job creation programmes in Qalyoubia and Menoufia. During the direct implementation of these pilot interventions through the project resources and structures, partners, beneficiary institutions, and other stakeholders will benefit from the technical assistance of the ILO, thereby improving knowledge, linkages and coordination among relevant actors towards the identification of longer-term sustainable solutions to the structural employment challenges identified above.

Outputs include, among others:

• A local economic and employment development interventions plan at the Governorate level.
• A sectoral Jobs Pact for agriculture and food industries in the selected Governorates.
• Specific capacity development programmes for selected partners "enterprises and employers’ organizations, trade unions, youth organizations, Public Employment Services (PES) offices and Vocational Training Centres (VTCs)".
• Employment creation programmes targeting young men and women.

Implementing partners

• Ministry of Manpower (MOM)
• Ministry of Social Solidarity (MOSS)
• Ministry for Local Development
• Ministry for Youth and Sports
• Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation
• Ministry of Trade and Industry
• Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics
• Governorate officials in Qalyoubia and Menoufia
• Workers’ associations and employers’ associations at the Governorate level
• Selected businesses
• Social Fund for Development
• Public Employment Services offices
• Business services providers and financial services providers
• Schools, Universities, VTCs of MOM and MOSS, other training institutions
• Selected partner UN agencies
• Social Economy units such as farmers associations and cooperatives;
• Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Target groups:

Ultimate beneficiaries are young men and women in the Governorates of Qalyoubia and Menoufia, especially those who face multiple disadvantages in entering the labour market engaged in agriculture and food industries

Additional stakeholder groups are:

• Governorate officials in Qalyoubia and Menoufia
• Public Employment Services offices.
• Business services providers and financial services providers
• Schools, Universities, VTCs of MOM and MOSS, other training institutions
• Businesses
• Social Economy units such as farmers associations and cooperatives
• NGOs