What Works for Young Women & Marginalised Youth

The What Works for Young Women & Marginalised Youth: Review of Inclusive Youth Employment Policies & Interventions in Africa initiative marks the second phase of PEP’s partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. Building on Phase I—the What Works for Youth Employment in Africa initiative (2023-2025)—this programme focuses on implementation gaps and youth leadership in policymaking for rural young women and marginalised youth (youth with disabilities, refugees/internally displaced persons). 

The initiative will generate actionable, contextualised knowledge across ten African countries to drive equitable and inclusive youth employment policies while enhancing youth leadership in policymaking. The projects will be conducted in Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda. 

To address systemic gaps identified through empirical research, this programme will explore specific policies and promising interventions that can expand meaningful work opportunities for marginalised youth. Specifically, it will assess:

1. The effectiveness of employment policies targeting young women and marginalised youth, and
2. The extent and quality of these groups’ participation in the design of these policies.

The initiative aligns with the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy, which seeks to enable 30 million young Africans, and particularly women, to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030.

Ten National Research Teams—composed of local multidisciplinary researchers, government officers, policy analysts and youth researchers—will carry out gender-aware policy and impact reviews in each of their countries. Their work will examine how inclusive employment policies are implemented, and whether young women and marginalised youth are meaningfully engaged in policymaking processes.

Six project teams (in Burkina Faso, DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger and Uganda) will provide deep-dive cases. They will conduct intensive participatory research that includes extensive qualitative fieldwork, institutional mapping, and structured engagement with policymakers.

The teams in the four other countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal) will follow a lighter-touch model for a rapid response. Focusing on desk reviews and targeted consultations, these teams will generate timely and policy-relevant insights within the first 12 months.

Ensuring the quality and relevance of the research, each National Research Team is supported and will work closely with their respective country-specific Youth Advisory Board (YAB), a scientific mentor, and a policy outreach mentor. 

The Youth Advisory Boards are comprised of rural young women, youth with disabilities, and refugees and displaced persons to ensure their perspectives are meaningfully represented throughout the research process. Serving as both advisors and co-creators, YAB members will help shape the research design, validate findings, and formulate recommendations for policy dialogues.

The analysis and findings from these reviews will contribute to PEP’s evidence base on youth employment policy in Africa and be added to the organisation’s online knowledge repository. Publications will be designed for accessibility so that diverse stakeholders—including young people and persons with disabilities—can engage with and use the findings.

Africa’s youth population is growing rapidly, yet many young people—particularly rural young women, youth with disabilities, and refugees and displaced persons—remain excluded from meaningful work opportunities.

Although many countries have adopted “inclusive employment policies”, the first phase of this programme identified four persistent challenges that limit their effectiveness:

1. Implementation Gaps – Policies often falter due to limited resources, weak institutional capacity, or social stigma that prevents marginalised youth from accessing programmes.
2. Data Scarcity – Governments and development partners lack robust, context-specific evidence on how inclusive policies function in practice and which interventions truly expand access to dignified work.
3. Exclusion from Policymaking – Marginalised youth rarely participate meaningfully in policy design, resulting in frameworks that overlook lived realities.
4. Policy Fragmentation – Employment policies are frequently dispersed across ministries with limited coordination, weakening accountability and impact.

Country Projects

Deep dive:

• Burkina Faso      
• Democratic Republic of Congo      
• Ethiopia            
• Kenya      
• Niger
• Uganda    

Desk review:  

• Ghana
• Nigeria
• Rwanda
• Senegal