Pages

Youth Policy Advisor

In 2010, UNCDF in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation launched the YouthStart (YS) programme, Building Youth Inclusive Financial Sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa, as a regional pilot. This innovative programme has worked with 10 partner FSPs in eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa, granted access to financial services to over 514,000 young people (of which 46 percent are young women), and trained almost 502,000 youth in financial education (46 percent young women). Youth that have opened savings accounts with YS partners have accumulated $14 million in savings and accessed over $7.3 million in loans (see figure 1). Early findings from research conducted by the regional pilot access financial services (eg. savings, loans etc.) in order to open their own business or to reduce risks associated with the transitions that youth undergo (eg. dropping out of school).
UNCDF has learned from the different approaches in which financial inclusion can help address the youth employment challenge through the regional pilot. In particular, UNCDF gained a deeper understanding of a) the types of financial services that best meet the needs of youth according to their socio-economic context and developmental stages, b) the types of financial services that can best mitigate the risk of lending to youth; c) the business models that FSPs can use to deliver financial education to youth, d) the business case for YFS; e) the types of trainings and tools necessary for FSPs to gain a better understanding of the youth market; and, f) the changes needed in the policy and regulatory environment to increase access to financial services for youth.
However, UNCDF also learned that, if we want to have greater and long-lasting impact in the youth economic opportunity (YEO) sphere, we need to go beyond financial inclusion. We need to ensure that while young people access relevant and affordable financial services they also gain access to entrepreneurship training, mentoring, apprenticeships and other relevant non-financial services that support their transition from school to work, secure decent work and/or start/expand their own business. We also need to ensure that the right policies and regulatory frameworks are in place to support these transitions and greater access to economic opportunities for youth.
UNCDF will take the best practices from the FSPs that participated in the regional pilot and scale them up, as well as improve the programmes based on lessons learned within the framework of a new programme entitled YouthStart Global. The programme will be implemented in 3 phases:
  • An inception phase that entails a country specific analysis of the youth economic opportunities ecosystems in each country and getting the necessary government support;
  • A phase 1 that consists on selecting the right partners to work with in each country; and
  • A phase 2 that consists in supporting selected partners to develop, test and scale up relevant, accessible and affordable services to youth.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the Assignment:
The Inception Phase will engage an institutional partner (i.e. NGO, consulting firm) which will be responsible for conducting in depth mapping of the youth economic opportunities ecosystem in Benin, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Zambia (please click here for the RFA). One of the major objectives of the inception phase will be to ensure a complete review of the regulatory environment is conducted to identify the gaps and opportunities for relevant policies.
As such, UNCDF is seeking a policy advisor to support UCDF during the YouthStart Global Inception Phase in identifying opportunities and constraints within the policy and regulatory framework in each country and develop a roadmap with stakeholders in the youth economic opportunities ecosystem.

HOW TO APPLY:

Popular Posts