Cote d’Ivoire Youth Employment and Productivity Impact Evaluation

The Youth Employment and Skills Development Project (PEJEDEC : Projet Emploi Jeunes et Développement des Compétences) was launched in 2011, with World Bank support (US$50M). The issue of employment, and particularly the issue of youth employment, is one of the priorities of the Government of Côte d'Ivoire. The objective of this program is to facilitate access to employment opportunities for young people from 18 to 30 years of age. In particular, one of the components of this project, the Labor-intensive Public Works Program (LIPW) (original name THIMO : Travaux à Haute Intensité de Main d'Oeuvre), provides temporary job opportunities for low-skilled youth. The Cote d’Ivoire Emergency Youth Employment and Skills Development creates temporary employment opportunities, while simultaneously introducing and testing a range of strategies to transition into more sustainable sources of productive employment and more productive household enterprises.The target group is youth, defined as 18-30 years of age. THIMO was implemented in 16 localities throughout Cote d’Ivoire, attracting young people from urban and peri-urban areas mainly. The project promotes the participation of women by reserving a percentage of LIPW jobs (30%). 12,693 young people between 18 and 30 benefited from this program between 2012 and 2015.

As part of the labor-intensive public works program, beneficiaries were given temporary employment for six months at a daily minimum wage of 2,500 CFA francs. They are supervised by the National Roads Agency (Agence de Gestion des Routes - AGEROUTE) and perform road maintenance work: earth removal, ditch cleaning, maintenance of green spaces, etc. All participants are paid through bank accounts opened by the project. All participants also take part in sensitization sessions on HIV-AIDS, citizenship and hygiene (around 40h). Through the public works program, youth earn on average 55,000 CFA francs a month for six months, establish a work routine, receive some basic life skills training, and strengthen their social networks by working with groups of peers. This first phase seeks to help youths to stabilize themselves personally, socially and financially, all of which can help overcome constraints to enter self-employment or access wage jobs in the medium-term.

The project also introduces a range of graduation mechanisms to that aim to help them create household enterprises, or to transition into wage employment after graduating from the public works. Youths are paid into a bank account so that they can start savings with the objective to set-up a business after the end of the program. In addition, a randomly selected sub-set of beneficiaries received a basic entrepreneurship training and follow-up support to help them set-up household enterprise. Another randomly selected sub-set of beneficiaries received training that provides sensitization on wage employment opportunities and information on how to search and apply for wage jobs.

2013-07-08

2014-03-14

The main outcomes variables include:
• Individual employment outcomes (employment, unemployment, inactivity, self-employment, wage employment, pluri-activity, hours worked…)
• Individual earnings
• Savings, assets and credit
• Employment aspirations (preference for wage or self-employment, reservation wage, …)
• Attitude towards the future and time-perspective, negative affects, self-confidence, emotional regulation.
• Time use
• Participation in violent or risky behavior
• Individual expenditures and contribution to household expenditures
• Earnings and employment of other household members (employment, unemployment, inactivity, self-employment, wage employment, hours worked, pluri-activity,…)

Participation in violent or risky behavior is measured using list experiments.

The impact evaluation is designed as a multi-arms randomized control trial. The randomization took place in two steps. First, 3,125 youths were randomly selected in the program among 12,000 youths who registered across 16 localities throughout Cote d’Ivoire. The randomization was implemented through public lotteries, stratified by gender. 1,035 youths were randomly assigned to a control group. Youths were grouped in 125 brigades of 25 youths to participate in the public works. The second level of randomization took place at the level of brigades, stratified by locality: 40 brigades were selected to benefit from basic entrepreneurship training and 40 brigades were selected to participate in training on sensitization on wage employment.

As a result, the experimental treatment and control group are as follows:
- Control Group: 1,035 youths
- Treatment Group 1: Beneficiaries of Temporary Employment Opportunities only (45 brigades, 1125 youths);
- Treatment Group 2: Beneficiaries of Temporary Employment Opportunities Plus Basic Entrepreneurship Training to Facilitate Set-up of Household Enterprises (40 brigades, 1000 participants);
- Treatment Group 3: Beneficiaries of Temporary Employment Opportunities plus Sensitization on Wage Employment to Facilitate Access to Wage Employment (40 brigades, 1000 participants).

The randomization took place in two steps:
1) The selection in the program of public works is made through public lotteries. In June 2013, the national roads agency (AGEROUTE) advertised the second wave of the PEJEDEC public works project in 16 localities throughout the country. 12,188 young people applied for the 3,125 positions available through the program. A public lottery was organized in each locality. The randomization was stratified by gender. It resulted in the formation of 125 brigades of 25 young people (each including 17 men and 8 women each). Young people were assigned to brigades within localities based on the number they drew in the public lottery. A waiting list of 5 people per brigade was also formed, in order to allow the replacements of drop-outs. In addition, a control group was composed of 1,035 randomly chosen non-selected youths (excluding the waiting list).

2) The randomized allocation of brigades into two trainings (Entrepreneurship training or “Sensitization to Wage Employment/Job search skills training”) was made through a lottery organized in the project office with representatives from the implementing partner, AGEROUTE. The randomization was implemented by brigade, stratified by locality. Over the 125 brigades of the program, 40 brigades were randomly selected to beneficiate from Entrepreneurship training and 40 brigades were randomly selected to beneficiate from “Sensitization on Wage Employment / Job search skills training”. The 45 remaining brigades participated in the public works without receiving additional training. Results from the randomization were communicated to the brigades upon completion of the midline survey.

For the main treatment (i.e. participate in the temporary public works program), randomization was performed at the individual level, stratified by locality and gender.
For the additional treatment (i.e. participation in additional training or not), randomization was performed at the brigade level (group of 25 participants working together), stratified by locality.

Yes

4,160 individuals, in 16 localities (and with 30% women).

4,160 individuals.

1,035 individuals in control group ; 1,125 individuals (from 45 brigades) in public works only ; 1,000 individuals (from 40 brigades) in public works + basic entrepreneurship training ; 1,000 individuals (from 40 brigades) in public works + sensitization to wage employment/job search skills training

Overall, the impact evaluation has sufficient power to detect MDE between 10.9% and 12.7% across the various sub-groups. For comparison between youths receiving the two types of training, expected impacts are smaller. For this comparison, the MDE is 12,7%, which allows identifying small effect sizes. Comparisons between the control group and the sample of treated youth not receiving training has slightly better power (MDE of 10.9%).