Youth Employment Program in Egypt

Responsible researcher: Adriano Valladão Pires Ribeiro

Article title: OVERCOMING YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IN EGYPT: RANDOMIZED EVALUATIONS SHOWCASE THE PROMISE OF ACTIVE LABOR MARKET PROGRAMS

Article authors: Ahmed Elsayed; Kevin Hempel; Adam Osman

Intervention Location: Beni Suef, Mynia and Greater Cairo - Egypt

Sample Size : 1743 individuals

Big topic: Job Market

Variable of Main Interest: Employment

Type of Intervention: Internship and on-the-job training; Professional advice

Evaluation Method:  Experimental Evaluation (RCT)

Assessment Context

The 2010 Arab Spring brought several challenges to Egypt, including unemployment. In the country, unemployment, according to data from the World Bank , jumped from 8.76% in 2010 to 11.85% in 2011, registering a peak of 13.15% in 2013 and remaining above 11% throughout the decade from 2010-2019. In turn, unemployment among young people aged 18 to 24 has always remained above 29% in the same period, thus showing that the unemployment problem is even greater for young people.

Intervention Details

In response to the challenge of unemployment, the Government of Egypt launched the Emergency Employment Investment Project (EEIP) in 2014. This project, which lasted until December 2017, received a contribution of 67.6 million euros from the European Union, was administered by the World Bank and implemented by the government through the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA). ).

The project had some objectives, including: (1) the creation of employment opportunities for unemployed people and employees with low or no technical qualifications; and (2) improve the employability of young people through short-term training or support for the transition to salaried or self-employment. The program's target audience was young people between 18 and 29 years old, unemployed and inactive, residents of poor areas and special attention to groups with disadvantages in the labor market (for example, poor people, young women, low educational level, people with special needs, without experience in the formal job market, etc.).

It is also worth highlighting some characteristics of the design of the implemented program:

Public-Private Partnership : the program was adopted through a partnership between the public sector (MSMEDA) and NGOs responsible for implementing services for the beneficiary.

Adoption of Global Good Practices : Participating NGOs had to prove, as part of their proposals, that there was employment demand for the services they would offer.

Focus on Results : the result achieved would be more important than the activities carried out themselves, having, for example, part of the payment linked to goals. The result reported by the NGO would be validated by independent verification.

Focus on knowledge generation : Projects that received support would serve as a basis for implementing future youth employment interventions in Egypt.

MSMEDA, then using its own criteria, chose some NGOs to participate in a workshop and select the best ideas for implementing the employment program. 10 NGOs were listed and the two best proposals were selected to continue the program (thus called NGO1 and NGO2). NGO1 focused on self-employment and is based in the cities of Beni Suef and Minya, while NGO2 focused on obtaining paid employment and operated in Greater Cairo and Beni Suef.

Assessment Method

The method adopted by the two NGOs to evaluate policy results is similar. In order to actually assess the impact of the adopted employment program, those enrolled in each program were randomly selected between a control group and two treatment groups. The randomness when choosing candidates for the program aims to eliminate selection biases and ensure that, on average, all groups have similar characteristics, differing only in terms of whether they receive treatment or not. Therefore, the difference in the final results can be factored into the employment program. Next, the two NGOs are discussed in more detail.

NGO1 – Own employment

NGO1 made a public call to receive applicants for training and counseling services. Because they received more applicants than they had available, they selected 1011 people who would be more suitable and less likely to drop out halfway through the training. Those selected were randomly distributed into three groups: (1) a group that received only training (337 people); (2) a group that receives training and counseling (335 people); and (3) a control group that does not receive any of the services (339 people).

The next step is to ensure that the sampling was done well, that is, that the groups are balanced and thus guarantee the research result. It appears that the three groups are balanced, with insignificant differences between each in terms of characteristics such as age, family income, proportion of women, education, among others. Another point to be checked for the research is whether the individuals actually adopted the treatment, that is, whether they attended the training and participated in the counseling sessions. This was the case, highlighting that the control group did not receive any training.

Therefore, both the balance between groups and the randomness in the division of individuals into each group allow comparing the average result of each group to evaluate the impacts of the employment program.

NGO2 – Search for salaried work

NGO2's intervention focused mainly on supporting young people in obtaining paid work. The control group - which did not receive any benefit - had 241 individuals, while the treatment group was divided into two: (i) a group with 250 individuals who received training and (ii) another group with 241 participants who received training and individual counseling.

As with NGO1, those enrolled in the NGO2 program were randomly divided into each of the groups to ensure that the results could be interpreted as an impact of the program. It is also worth highlighting that the division between the groups was balanced and that both training and counseling were correctly distributed to each group, that is, the control group did not receive training or counseling and only the group that should have received counseling received it.

 Results

Below are the results reported by the two NGOs' programs regarding job retention, wealth and weekly working time.

Employment : Of the program implemented by NGO1, the group that received only training reported that 45% were employed, for those who also received counseling the share was 43%. These values ​​contrast with the average for the control group, which was 15%.

For NGO2, both treatment groups reported that 47% of individuals were employed, a value higher than the 35% reported by the control group.

Income : For NGO1, the monthly income of the training group increased by 91 EGP (Egyptian currency) and for the training and counseling group it increased by 63 EGP when compared to the average of the control group. Furthermore, the share of individuals without income decreased by 17% and 19% for those who had training and those who had training and counseling, respectively, in relation to the control group.

For NGO2, the training group reported an increase in income of 99 EGP, while the training and counseling group observed an increase of 104 EGP when compared to the average income of the control group. The portion without income in the control group was 18%, a figure that decreased in the other groups, to 15% in training and 11% in training and counseling.

Working Time : The control group of NGO1 reported an average increase of 6 hours in hours worked per week, the training group reported an increase of 7.85 hours, while the training and counseling group increased by 8.6 hours.

In NGO2, when compared to the control group, both treatments had an increase in hours worked weekly. The increase in the training group was 2.7 hours and the training and counseling group was 3.6 hours.

Public Policy Lessons

As public policy lessons, there are three important takeaways from this study. First, youth-oriented employment programs can bring positive results in terms of employment and income, as noted above for Egypt. Second, Public-Private partnerships are a promising way of implementing employment programs. This is due to the mix of clear objectives as a result with the flexibility to implement the type of intervention appropriate to the context of the target group. Finally, following an appropriate methodology, it is possible to measure and evaluate the impact of public policies when well designed.

Reference IZA, Ahmed Elsayed; HEMPEL, Kevin; OSMAN, Adam. Overcoming Youth Unemployment in Egypt. 2018.