ToRs: Barriers to job creation and labour market access

Activity Stream: Activity D

Title: Terms of Reference: Barriers to job creation and labour market access

Date / Person
Draft ToR Submitted for BERF QC / 28/11/16 / JZ
Draft ToR QC Completed by BERF / 7/12/16 / PW
Draft ToR Submitted to DFID CO/CPT / 8/12/16 / JZ
DFID CO/CPT Approval Received for ToR / 9/12/16 / OWB
Draft ToR, Budget & CVs Submitted to ICT / CO / CPT / 9/12/16 / DA
DFID CO / CPT Approval Received for ToRandCVs / 9/12/16 / OWB
DFID ICT Approval Received for ToR, CVs, Budget / 19/12/16 / HC
Cross-cutting Marker / Yes?
- Gender / Yes
- Youth / Yes
- FCAS / No
- Environment / No

Terms of Reference –Barriers to job creation and labour market access

1.Overview

The objective of Policy Research commissioned throughthe Business Environment Reform Facility (BERF) is to help DFID country offices (COs) and central policy teams (CPTs) to improve their understanding and implementation of business environment reform (BER) by contributing to the evidence base of what works and what does not work. The research will aid implementation of DFID’s programmes, DFID’s central policy work and the global development community more broadly.

We will produce a number of reports over the course of the project, each taking 2-6 months to complete. In order to identify the priority gaps in the evidence for BERF policy research to address, and to develop a suitable set of hypotheses which the research should test, we will commission short term scoping studies.

These terms of reference are for a mediumstudy into the impact of the formal and informallabour market rigidities and policies that can help or hinder job creation and access to employment opportunities. The study will consider the particular effects of the labour market rigidities on young people and other disadvantaged, marginalised or vulnerable groups, including women.

Employment opportunities for the young

There is a global jobs problem that increasingly affects young people. Over half of the world’s population is under 30 years old. Of the 1.8 billion young people aged 10-24, 42% of them live in the countries where DFID currently works. Ensuring this often excluded majority benefit from their political settlements, including through providing access to quality education, jobs and the space to participate, is critical to supporting sustainable development and global stability. Youth unemployment rates are exceptionally high, 75% of young people in developing countries are underutilised, either unemployed or in irregular or informal employment with youth unemployment three times the rate of adults, globally.[1] To absorb the growing labour force in Sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 18 million new jobs will be needed each year until 2035. Where labour markets are slow or reluctant to offer opportunities to new hires with limited experience, young people are particularly affected. The African Development Bank estimates that without concerted action nearly 50% of youth will be unemployed, discouraged, or economically inactive by 2025.[2]

DFID’s youth agenda

DFID’s youth agenda aims to change the way the international community delivers the SDGs by ensuring young people are not only beneficiaries of but active contributors to development programmes. This means going beyond asking beneficiaries for feedback as part of programme reviews to engaging them in designing, implementing and monitoring programmes.

DFID’s ‘lifecycle approach’ to youth goes beyond defining young people by age, focusing instead on the transition into adulthood and is inclusive of vulnerable groups of young people such as girls, women and people with disabilities. Working with policy teams and country offices, DFID’s approach will be to drive the youth agenda forwards by:[3]

  • Building the research and evidence base.
  • Building strategic partnerships across UN organisations, the World Bank, Civil Society and the Private Sector.
  • Supporting young people to be leaders at local, national and international levels.

DFID’s policy is to significantly increase support for investment in, and creation of, employment opportunities for young people.

DFID recognises that women and girls face the most challenges in obtaining access to education and employment opportunities. Unemployment levels are 10% higher for young women than for young men. Additionally, women are working primarily in the informal sector and in vulnerable or insecure employment.[4]

Whilst there is a large collection of research around how to design BER in general, there is relatively little which looks specifically at what particular barriers to entering the labour market young people face, how different BERs affect them, and whether young people engage in and benefit from BER differently from older adults.

DFID’s Youth Team is commissioning a study to understand better the barriers to creating employment opportunities for the young and other groups which may be disadvantaged in the labour market. This study will focus on three countries where youth employment is a priority for the DFID country office: Kenya, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

2.Objectives

The objectives of this study are to:

  • Identify the formal andinformal labour market rigidities and policies that help or hinder job creation in Kenya, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
  • Identify the formal and informal labour market rigidities and policies that may help or hinder access to employment opportunities for young people (and especially young women).[5]

3.Link with BERF Theory of Change

The evidence linking business environment reform with increased investment, greater numbers of jobs for young people and reductions in the numbers of young people living in poverty is limited. DFID is increasingly focusing on youth, as young people constitute the majority of the populations of most DFID priority countries;over 500 million young people live on less than USD2 a day; and 75% of young people in developing countries are either unemployed or in irregular or informal employment.[6] It is therefore vital that the direct and indirect, intended and unintended consequences of BERon young people are better understood, to ensure that programmes address the needs of young people.

This research will enable DFID COs and CPTs, and the wider development community, to design reforms which have a greater impact, both directly on the youthin formal and informal employment, , and indirectly through higher levels of investment and higher rates of inclusive economic growth.

4.Client and Beneficiaries

The primary beneficiaries are DFID’s three COs, Kenya, Nigeria and Sierra Leone which have been selected for detailed analysis in this study. Other beneficiariesinclude other DFID COs and the Investment Climate Team (ICT). Final reports will be posted on the BERF website and the R4D website. Theultimate beneficiaries include all donors, development practitioners and governments who are looking to design sound BER programmes for young people, in particular young women.

DFID’s Youth Policy Team will act as the client, responsible for approving the terms of reference and deliverables. The ICT will review and approvefinal deliverables.

5.Scope

The study will provide an in-depth analysis of the formal and informal labour market rigidities in Kenya, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. This study will primarily investigate the(formal and informal) statutory, regulatory and institutional labour market constraints and rigidities, and then apply a youth lens to the findings to consider:

1)The concerns of policy makers with a particular focus on youth-related problems.

2)The perspectives of potential employers who are (or could be) in a position to create new youth-relevant jobs and/or make jobs more accessible to young people.

3)The perspectives and experience of young people themselves, and should incorporate social and political factors that matter in their lives and influence their labour market opportunities, outside conventional economic factors.

The study will provide an analysis of labour markets in the selected countries, and address the following questions:

  • What are the formal and informal constraints (including labour market rigidities and labour market policy) to creationof productive employment opportunities and decentjobs in the formal sector of the economies of the selected countries?
  • What are the formal and informal constraints (including labour market rigidities and labour market policy) to access to these jobs for different groups, and in particular young peopleincluding women and girls?
  • Are these constraints binding (i.e. are employment opportunities in practice lower because of them and would removing them lead to more employment opportunities)?What is their impact? and how have they been addressed elsewhere?
  • What labour market policies or reforms have supported growth in employment opportunities and access to the labour market in these countries?
  • What particular disadvantages do young people face when accessing labour markets in these countries? Do these vary by sector (considering the priority sectors of DFID country offices)? Do they vary across different age groups (data should be collected for the following age ranges 15-19, 20-24, and 25-29), gender, household income or other stratum?
  • What labour market policies and practices help young people access the labour market and what type of policies and practices hinder their access?

The report should explicitly take into consideration priority growth sectors identified by DFID country offices, other donors or the Government.

6.Method

The team will undertake the following:

  • A desk based review of the key literatureon the design and impact ofBERon youth.
  • Prepare a detailed methodology on how to identify the formal and informal labour market rigidities or policies which hinder or support job creation and labour market access.
  • Consult with DFID country offices and reflect DFID country office priorities within the research framework, including ensuring that implications of study for design of labour market reforms in the countries are explicit and practical in nature.
  • Avoid duplication and inefficiencies by building on existing DFID evidence and research and BERF related workstreams, including for field research coordination purposes. The research should, to the extent possible, coordinate with other BERF assignments being undertaken concurrently for DFID in Sierra Leone to ensure minimal inconvenience to DFID and local stakeholders (MDAs, private sector, civil society).
  • The field research will involve gathering stakeholders’ views (using a rigorous survey and/or extensive stakeholder consultations) on what particular market rigidities and policies have the biggest impact (positive and negative) on job creation and access to jobs in each selected focus country.
  • Key stakeholders consulted will include:

-International and national employers, within the national private sector and government

-Young people seeking informal or formal employment, in the following age ranges: 15-19, 20-24, and 25-29

-Young people in informal and informal employment

-Government officials, including key policy makers

-Development partners working in inclusive growth space.

  • Any survey should be based on a carefully selected sample which includes job seekers from the most marginalised groups, which includes the bottom 10%. It should be able to distinguish responses by age group (e.g. five year age brackets), gender, household income, regional disparities and other stratum which may be linked to employment opportunities (such as disability, religion, ethnicity etc.).
  • Consider the evidence collected to determine how rigidities and policies differentially impact the young.
  • Where relevant, the methodology may include a review of past programmes on youth employment in the selected countries and summarise the lessons learnt. DFID country offices will provide guidance on the extent to which these should be considered.
  • The methodology may include a review of data, where available, on employment trends in selected countries and analyse whether particular interventions on labour markets had an effect on the youth employment trends, to the extent that this provides useful context or corroboration of findings of the primary research.
  • Draft a report in the BERF template providing an overview of the available evidence, the gaps in the evidence DFID should prioritise, and recommended next steps.

7.Timeframe

The timeframe set out below is indicative.

Item/Activities / Date/2016
Drafting of ToRs / 7 October
Approval of ToRs and CVs / 16 December
Team mobilisation and consultant brief / 31 January
Submit draft report to Dan Aylward (Activity D Coordinator) / 31 May 2017
Submission of Report to DFID / 30June 2017
Address comments from DFID / 31 July2017
Submit Report to BERF Team Leader / 21August2017
Approval of final report by Youth Policy Team / 4September 2017

8.Deliverables

The deliverables will be a draft and final report in the BERF template, approximately 40pages in length. The consultant will ensure that these meet the standards set out in the BERF style guide and be suitable to be published. The report should avoid being too theoretical and academic in nature and should focus on providing practical findings and recommendations suited to an audience of DFID country office staff and programme implementers.

The report should:

  • Produce a short stand-alone executive summary of 1-2 pages of the study’s overall findings.
  • Provide a summary of the existing evidence and any ongoing research around the impact of labour market rigidities, and those that affect youth employment in the three chosen countries.
  • Identify the labour market policies that help young people access the labour market and those that hinder their access in the three focus countries.
  • Present stakeholders’ views (based on a rigorous survey and extensive stakeholder, including extensive in-country youth consultations) on what particular market rigidities affect young people worst and suggest possible policy and programme solutions.
  • Contribute to the global evidence base on how BER can assist young people in overcoming labour market rigidities.
  • Suggest recommendations for policy and programming to remove barriers to job creation and labour market access for young people.
  • Identify the other key gaps in the evidence that should be addressed as a matter of priority for DFID and make recommendations for further research to help build evidence around these gaps.

9.Dissemination

This report will be posted on the BERF and R4D websites and circulated in DFID. It may form the basis of subsequent discussions with other institutions and therefore be circulated more widely. It will be used to guide further research.

10.Workplan (schedule)

Team Leader / Labour Markets Advisor / Qualitative Methods Expert / Youth Research Advisor / Mixed Methods Advisor / Research Support / Country research assistants (x 3)
Programme management / 4
Desk Based Review / 2 / 4 / 15
Prepare a detailed methodology / 2 / 1 / 5 / 1 / 4
Gather stakeholder views / 5 / 66 (22 x3)
Data analysis / 2 / 4 / 20
Draft report / 6 / 2 / 4 / 1 / 10 / 15 (5 x 3)
Finalise report / 2 / 1 / 1 / 5 / 3 (1 x 3)
Total / 16 / 5 / 10 / 10 / 5 / 55 / 84 (28 x 3)

11.Competencies Required

The project will require a small team of social science researchers and practitioners with demonstrated expertise in working with young people and on BER in the target countries. A partnership between a labour market expert (statistician or economist), southern researchers and a youth organisation/ youth employment expert is preferred.

Key competencies required by the team are as follows:

  • Experience working on and researching labour market issues, particularly barriers to entry into labour markets
  • Detailed knowledge of the political economy of the focal countries and understanding of the characteristics which may impact labour market access in those countries, for example religion, ethnic groups, affluence etc.
  • Experience of working with young people (including the most marginalised) in the focus countries to support survey design and deployment
  • Experience ofdesk based research and research methodology design
  • Excellentwritten English
  • Knowledge of youth and gender issues
  • Understanding of the BERF audience and readership

12.CVs

Name / Dr. James Sumberg
Fellow, IDS
Proposed Position / Team Leader
Nationality / American
Country Experience / Nigeria, Gambia, Colombia, Mali
Languages
(1 native, 5 basic) / English (1)
Education, Training & Qualifications /
  • Ph.D Plant Breeding and Animal Nutrition, Cornell University, USA
  • MS Plant Breeding and Animal Nutrition, Cornell University, USA
  • BS Plant and Soil Science, University of Massachusetts, USA

Summary of Experience / African rural development & youth research; Jim is an experienced researcher and researcher manager who has played a central part in IDS research around young people in Africa.Extensive experience designing, undertaking and managing research on small-scale agriculture, natural resource management, agricultural research policy, food and rural development in tropical regions, with a particular emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa.
Employment Record / Dates (years) / Company / Position
2009 - Present / Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex / Leader, Director, Co-convenor
2005 - 2009 / The New Economics Foundation / Programme Director
1992 - 2005 / School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia / Senior Lecturer, Lecturer
1989 - 1992 / CARE International / Regional Technical Advisor in Agriculture and Natural Resources
1987 - 1989 / University of Wisconsin/Gambian Agricultural Research and Diversification Project / Associate Scientist/Livestock Advisor
1982 - 1984 / International Livestock Centre for Africa / Senior Agronomist
1979 - 1980 / Tropical Pastures Program, International Centre for Tropical Agriculture / Postdoctoral Fellow in Forage Legume Breeding
Selected Relevant Experience /
  • Institute of Development Studies,University of Sussex
-Leader, Rural Futures research cluster
-Director, Strengthening Evidence-Based Policy, cross institute accountable grant
-Co-convenor, Young People and Agrifood theme of the Future Agricultures Consortium
-Four years as director of major cross-IDS DFID-funded accountable grant.
  • School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia
-Director of Research, WARDA – The Africa Rice Centre, Bamako, Mali.