Institute and Policy analysis and research- Rwanda (IPAR’s) - IDRC REGIONAL CONFERENCE ON YOUTH EMPLOYMENT “Innovations that work for youth employment: Voices from the youth” 24 & 25 October 2014 LEMIGO Hotel, Kigali -Rwanda Follow conversation on Twitter #YouthEmploymentEA

1. Innovative Approaches to Creating
Opportunities and Incorporating the Youth
into East Africa’s Labour Markets
Kenya Country Study,
By
Rosemary Atieno and Winnie Mitullah,
Institute for Development Studies
University of Nairobi
Presented at the High Level Regional Conference on Youth
Employment in Kigali 24th -25th November, 2014
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2. Introduction
Youth issue occupies a central place in Kenya’s development agenda:
 Demographic composition: Youth population represents about one third of the
Kenyan population.
 The 2009 population census: about 36 percent of Kenya’s population aged
between 15-35 years; between 15-24 years are estimated to be 21percent
 Most of the youths in the country are unemployed, underemployed or underpaid
and fall easily in the category of the working poor.
 Out of the currently unemployed working age population, 72 % are under the
age of 30 while 51% are under age of 24.
 High youthful population: opportunities for national development, but also
presents development challenges.
 Creation of productive and sustainable employment remains one of the
challenges for the country, need for innovative approaches to create employment
opportunities
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3. Policy Scenario
 Government of Kenya has initiated a number of policies over the years aimed at
addressing youth unemployment in the country
 Policies date back to the early 1990s
Sessional Paper No.2 of 1992 on Small Scale and Jua Kali Enterprises:
 Small-scale enterprise sector identified for support to be assisted to "graduate
into the formal sector" and to become a major player in the creation of new jobs
and economic growth.
 Focus on training for microenterprises targeting the youth using training
voucher.
 Key elements: Access to technical and managerial training, work sites,
involvement of JuaKali in technology innovation, and creation of a positive
enabling environment.
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4. Policy Scenario
 Kenya National Youth Policy 2002
 Provided a framework for addressing issues affecting young people in Kenya.
 Identified unemployment and underemployment among the key issues affecting
the youth
 Identified the need to identify and mainstream youth issues in national
development, empowering the youth in order to exploit their potential, and
ways of engaging the youth in the process of economic development.
Kenya National Youth Policy 2007
 Embraces holistic integration and inclusion of the youth in Kenya’s development
based on national policies and international policies and conventions
 Focuses on employment creation as a strategic area.
Vision 2030
 The country’s current development blue print, identifies the central role of the
youth in development
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5. Policy Scenario
Vision 2030
Identifies interventions fundamental for employment creation for the youth.
 Capacity building and empowerment to equip the youth to engage in productive
activities,
 creating employment opportunities,
 Providing the youth with necessary support: financial and market linkages,
 Strategies: Training the youth in technical, vocational and entrepreneurial skills,
Creative skills to deal with advances in technology.
 Flagship projects targeting the youth: Youth empowerment centres, the
Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) to provide loans to youth owned
enterprises
 The UWEZO fund targeting the youth and women
 The 30 % procurement rule for the youth
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6. Results from the study
 Results based on key informant interviews, survey of 812 youths, and Focus
group discussions
 Key informant interviews conducted at national level, while survey and focus
group discussions conducted in three counties selected for the study.
 Survey covered youth between 15-35 years old, and in the categories of those in
school, formally employed, unemployed or self employed.
Socio Economic characteristics:
 Education achievement:
 11.3 % of the respondents had completed primary education.
 28 % had completed secondary education
 40 % had gone beyond secondary level of education.
 58.8% of the respondents had not attained an education level higher than
secondary education.
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7. Results from the study
Mobility of the youth
Live /work in the same area where you grew up
Living in the same area Frequency Percent
Yes 238 29.3
No 574 70.7
Total 812 100.0
 This scenario reflects the high mobility among the youth.
 84 percent of the respondents indicated that their current place
of residence is urban areas, but only 42 percent indicated that
their original place of residence was urban.
 Most youth seem to migrate to urban areas.

8. Socio-economic characteristics
Occupation Status
Status Frequency Percent
In school 191 23.5
Unemployed 149 18.3
Employed 259 31.9
Self-employed 213 26.2
Total 812 100.00
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Fig 3: Distribution of Activity Status by Age
15-19 20-24 25-29 30-35
Percentages
Age Category
In School
Unemployed
Employed
Self-employed

9. The youth in school/training
 Gender distribution: 50 percent, males 50 percent females. 55% in the age group
of 15-19 years.
 Youths had different reasons for choosing their field of study:
 Job prospects
 Prestige/self esteem
 Parents’ influence
 Easy field of study
 Passion
Post schooling plans: Youth had different plans after completing education
 Further studies- 50%
 Look for employment – 41%
 Start own business – 5%
 81% had not started looking for a jobs while still in school
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10. Post Schooling plans
 The youths expect to reach various levels of education
 44 percent expect to reach postgraduate level of education,
 38 percent expect to achieve a university degree.
 About 10 percent expected to achieve some professional training
Combining work with studies
 Majority of the youths -81% do not work part time while studying
 91% have never stopped their education to work full time and re enter school.
 For those who had stopped and decided to rejoin schooling, the reasons for
rejoining were:
 Not being able to find a suitable job,
 Having earned sufficient money to pay for school
 Returned to school because they were not ready to face the world of work as
yet
The youth in school/training
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11. Unemployed Youth
 63% males, 37% females., 75% in the 20-29 age category
 58 % unemployed for over one year, majority actively looking for emp.
 65% of the unemployed youth did not have beyond 12 years of education
 Stakeholders: a number of initiatives addressing the youth unemployment
but youth attitude a problem as the youth look for white collar jobs
 The youth believe that professional training, university training and
entrepreneurship to start own business are the main ways out of
unemployment
 Most of the unemployed youth place high premium on education, upto 85%
planned to continue their education , upto 60% planning to reach university,
This is a mismatch with government policies on youth employment.
 Youth perception on addressing unemployment centers on providing the
youth with skills and education, supporting industries to create employment,
giving youth opportunity in employment through affirmative action.
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12. Education attainment
 Majority (29%) of the employed youth had completed 12 years of education,
equivalent to form four level of education
 13 % had university level, while 34% had post secondary training.
Contractual arrangements, and job satisfaction
 48 % not satisfied with contractual arrangements, 47% satisfied with job.
 Reasons for satisfaction: job security, flexibility, high wages
 Only 24 % had other jobs in addition to their current ones, but only 4% were
because of being satisfied with their current jobs
 78% plan to change their jobs, 75% willing to move to get better jobs for
better pay, better career prospects, and working conditions.
 Most youth are not willing to accept any job (only 22% are willing)
 Important considerations are wages, stability and appropriateness to
education
Youth in Employment
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13. Youth in Employment
 66 % of the youth indicated they planned to continue their education in the
future.
 Most of those employed received training for their current jobs by their
employers
 62% indicated that the education they received was very useful.
The youth’s awareness of government initiatives on youth employment
 A total of 58 percent were aware while 42 percent were not aware.
 Among those who were aware, 70 per cent found the initiatives useful.
 Only 22 percent of the respondents had participated in the initiatives.
 Main reasons for non participation: lack of time, not aware of the procedure,
not interested, does not have the requirements and inability to repay where
there is credit involved
 From FGDs, the youth largely do not understand the government t funds
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14. Self Employed Youth
 The youth view self employment as a temporary transitory
measure
 Largely use their own resources to start enterprises
 The level of awareness among the government initiatives is
higher among the self employed youth
 Most self employed youth were aware of the government
initiatives, but few had participated in them
 Reasons for non participation: inability to meet some of the
requirements, not interested, complicated to access, too little
money given, not interested.
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15. Innovative Approaches to youth
 Government working through its research agencies to provide incubation
and upgrading of technology for small scale enterprises – multiagency
approach.
 Government has initiated innovative approaches through funds directed at
the youth, affirmative action through public procurement and training.
 Intervention in youth employment needs to be integrated at education level
to change the attitude of the youth towards different types of employment
and instill skills from early stages.
 The youth are flexible and mobile: This is an asset that can be used to
address youth unemployment by making the rural areas attractive and
productive: some youth have ventured into niche production activities in
farming to generate employment examples: rabbit keeping and small scale
horticulture.
 Some youth have also ventured into performing arts to earn incomes and
create employment
unemployment
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16. Key lessons for intervention
Mismatch in perceptions: The youth place a premium on higher education
 The youth irrespective of status aspire to achieve high levels of education and
acquire a profession. Intervene in education
 They prefer not to interrupt their studies to get employed .
 Most interventions target the youth who have dropped out of school.
 Youth attitude towards such interventions is that they are for failures and one
cannot make a career out of it (FGDs)
 This spills out as negative attitude by the youth who expect white collar jobs
Grants are no solutions to the unemployment problem, most financial interventions
are seen as grants by the youth and stakeholders
Market access a problem due to limited diversity in activities, standards and quality
requirements
The youth are mobile and flexible: interventions need to take this into account
Need for change in attitude about the youth and view them as a development asset.
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