February 2026 | Africa
PEP launches ‘What Works for Young Women & Marginalised Youth’ initiative in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.
(L-R) Young woman working as a tailor; A man with blindness weaves the seat of a wooden chair; Two young women clear refuse. Photos: Adobe Stock
PEP has launched a new multi-country research programme, What Works for Young Women & Marginalised Youth: Review of Inclusive Youth Employment Policies & Interventions in Africa, marking the second phase of its partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.
The initiative will generate actionable, context-specific evidence across ten African countries to strengthen inclusive youth employment policies, with a focus on rural young women, youth with disabilities, and refugees and internally displaced persons.
“Across Africa, governments have made important commitments to inclusive youth employment,” said Prof. Jane Mariara, PEP Executive Director. “Now we need to understand whether those commitments are being implemented in ways that genuinely expand opportunities for young women and marginalised youth. This programme is about producing the evidence needed to close that gap and ensure that policy translates into dignified work.”
Addressing Persistent Gaps in Policy and Practice
The programme responds to implementation and participation gaps identified through the What Works for Youth Employment in Africa initiative (2023-2025) as well as broader academic and policy evidence. Across countries, inclusive employment frameworks often face similar constraints: weak delivery systems, fragmented institutional responsibilities, limited context-specific data on what works in practice, and the exclusion of marginalised youth from meaningful policymaking processes.
Ten National Research Teams will conduct gender-aware policy and impact reviews in Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda.
The teams will assess both the effectiveness of employment policies targeting young women and marginalised youth, and the extent and quality of these groups’ participation in policy design and implementation.
Six countries (Burkina Faso, DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger and Uganda) will undertake in-depth participatory research, including qualitative fieldwork, institutional mapping and structured policy engagement. In Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal, teams will follow a rapid-response model to produce timely, policy-relevant insights through desk reviews and targeted consultations.
Youth as Research Co-Creators
A defining feature of the initiative is the establishment of Youth Advisory Boards (YABs) as a central pillar of the programme’s governance and research methodology. The YABs are designed to position young people as active co-creators of evidence.
Country-specific YABs will be formed in each of the ten participating countries, bringing together rural young women, youth with disabilities, and refugees and displaced youth.
Their responsibilities will span the full research lifecycle. YAB members will help refine research questions, co-develop data collection tools, participate in data interpretation and play a leadership role in policy dialogues with government officials.
"This initiative moves beyond consultation to true co-creation,” said Dickson Otiangala, Program Manager. “Young people are engaged as co-designers and co-researchers from day one, shaping the questions, interpreting the evidence, and presenting recommendations directly to policymakers. It signals a shift from researching about youth to designing with youth, ensuring that young people, particularly those from marginalised groups, are meaningfully involved and that their lived experiences inform the policies and solutions that affect their futures."
YAB members will receive training in policy context, stakeholder analysis and advocacy, and will work alongside National Research Teams to ensure that the research remains inclusive, non-extractive and responsive to community realities. By modelling youth co-creation in practice, the programme aims to encourage longer-term institutional change in how youth participation is embedded in national policymaking processes.
Contributing to Young Africa Works
The programme aligns with the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy, which seeks to enable 30 million young Africans, particularly young women, to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030.
Findings from the country reviews will contribute to PEP’s growing evidence base on youth employment in Africa and will be published in accessible formats so that diverse stakeholders, including young people and persons with disabilities, can engage with and use the research.
As Africa’s youth population continues to grow, ensuring that inclusive employment policies deliver measurable impact is both an economic and social imperative. Through this new programme, PEP aims to strengthen not only the evidence base, but also the participatory foundations of youth employment policymaking.
