English
Français
Sierra Leone's socioeconomic development is highly dependent on improving the country's human capital and a more dynamic private sector. Therefore, effective job creation must strengthen both the supply side (technical and vocational training) and the demand side (private sector development) of employment promotion.
The mismatch between labor demand and skills supply prevents businesses from increasing productivity and undermines job creation efforts. Accordingly, improving youth employment remains a key challenge with the two variables of economic development and quality of education. Youth employability is low. Accordingly, EPPIV aims to strengthen youth employability on both the supply and demand sides, and thereby help to improve the employment and income situation of young people.
The project targets youth (defined as the age group from 15 to 35), in the agricultural value chains of rice, coffee, cocoa, and vegetables (especially in the latter two) in the rural eastern districts of Kailahun, Kono, Falaba and Koinadugu.
Particularly, the assignment is to provide capacity building and other support measures aimed to
- lead to the creation of 500 new jobs for employees and 2,000 new self-employed jobs, 50% of each for women; and
- to increase the income of 5,000 self-employed young people, 50% of whom are women, by an average of 33%.