Over the past seven years, the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE), funded by the Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken (the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs), has supported the creation, matching or improvement of more than 260,000 jobs for young people (56% women) across 11 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Working with nearly 8,000 local businesses, CFYE has also mobilized €180 million in private sector funding.

As the programme comes to an end, its experiences offer valuable lessons for the future of youth employment programming, particularly in:
🔹 Linking skills development to decent work
🔹 Engaging local businesses
🔹 Leveraging private investment
🔹 Delivering sustainable results at scale

💬 To reflect on these lessons and explore their implications for future development cooperation, CFYE is hosting its closing event, “Beyond the Fund: When Market Meets Impact”, on 17 November 2026 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The event will bring together policymakers, private sector representatives, investors and development practitioners to discuss how market incentives and development impact can reinforce one another.

📍 Based in or traveling to the Netherlands? Join the conversation!
🔗 Learn more about CFYE: https://fundforyouthemployment.nl
👉 Register for the event
📩 Questions? Contact info@cfye.nl

As discussed in our recent webinar, The Opportunity Engine: How JobTech Is Transforming Youth Livelihood Pathways, the goal is not just to help young people find work, but to help them build sustainable livelihoods.

⚡ Speakers emphasized that skills training alone is not enough to solve youth unemployment. Young people also need access to real market demand, employers and customers, finance, mentorship, digital tools, and social protection.

Through examples from Nigeria, Egypt, and Bangladesh, we explored how technology can expand employment opportunities, support entrepreneurship, and improve access to services.

💬 Discussion Point: What can governments, employers, and JobTech platforms do to ensure digital opportunities translate into meaningful and inclusive work for young people?

Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments! 👇

Civil society organizations and public interest groups are a priority gap for this year's study, and your perspectives will be invaluable for us to understand the challenges and opportunities in providing accessible energy services globally.

Climate action is a key job creating opportunity for young people, and your input feeds directly into the World Energy Leaders Dialogue this December to the World Energy Congress 2027.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DD739HK

Thank you for adding your voice to this global picture!

How are digital platforms, AI and new models of work changing the way young people move from learning to earning?

TOMORROW, 28 October, YouthForesight brings together UNICEF, Generation Unlimited, the Jobtech Alliance and JobTech entrepreneurs to explore what this shift looks like in practice.

Expect:
🔹 A look at the evolving #JobTech landscape
🔹 Real platform examples from Mamamoni, FORASNA and Relaxy
🔹 Perspectives on AI, digital work and emerging livelihood pathways
🔹 A discussion on inclusion, partnerships and what it takes to build a stronger JobTech ecosystem

🎙️ With Sam Muradzikwa, Michelle Hassan, Nkem Okocha, Ameer Sherif, Jahnnobi Rahman and Tom Kaye.
📅 28 October 2026
🕘 09:00–10:00 ET
💻 Online via Zoom
➡️ Register: https://ilo-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/2817901874752/WN_azLmVqnTReKSJV2CGhhLgw

⚡ Learn more about the webinar's speakers and agenda

Over three days, participants are exchanging evidence and experiences on youth employment programmes, meaningful youth engagement and partnerships for youth employment, while bringing youth perspectives into the policy process.

What’s being discussed so far:

💡 What works on youth employment: The first policy learning session explored evidence from the ILO–World Bank Systematic Review of Active Labour Market Programmes (ALMPs) for Youth and what it means for policy action in Rwanda.

🎤 From evidence to action: Government, private sector, development partners and practitioners shared perspectives on approaches that can promote youth employment in Rwanda.

🔎 A key question: How can evidence, partnerships and youth perspectives inform the implementation of youth-focused actions under the revised National Employment Policy?

From the opening of the consultations: Central government representatives and development partners came together to discuss the future of employment policy in Rwanda. The opening remarks highlighted the importance of youth employment in the revised NEP.

📌 Coming up today:

Sessions on Meaningful Youth Engagement and Partnerships for Youth Employment, alongside group work with participants. The three-day exchange will culminate in a Call to Action.

⌄
⌄

💬 Following along? Share your key takeaways, questions or reflections in this post.

⌄

I’m Qiqing He, thrilled to be part of the community! I focus on AI governance and workforce transformation, that is how to help young people build emerging skillset in the age of AI.

Much of my work starts with one question:

How do we make sure young people, especially those with fewer opportunities, can actually benefit from the AI transformation, rather than simply being disrupted by it?

Over the past few years, I’ve been speaking with young people, employers, educators and policymakers about how AI is changing the transition from education into work. Again and again, I hear similar questions:

“If AI changes entry-level jobs, where do I start?”
“What skills will actually matter?”
“How do young people without access to elite universities, companies or networks keep up?”

These questions have shaped much of what I work on today.

I’m the founder of the Global AI Governance & Workforce Transformation Policy Observatory(https://gaeedu.org/

), where we study how AI is reshaping work, skills and institutional responses — and translate those changes into practical tools for young people, educators and organizations.

Alongside the research, we’ve been building AI capability curricula, workforce-readiness tools and assessments designed to help people understand not simply whether they “know AI,” but whether they can actually use it to learn, solve problems and create value.

Our tools and learning program have now been used across 12 regions, reaching 10,000+ young people, and we have been developing AI capability programs specifically for communities in places such as India and Kenya, including young people who may have limited access to traditional education, technology and professional networks. Check my initiative "Stay in the Loop"(https://gaeedu.org/stay-in-the-loop)

For me, that last part matters enormously.

The AI divide will not only be about who has access to a model or a laptop. It may increasingly be about who has the confidence, capabilities, guidance and real opportunities to turn these technologies into better livelihoods.

I’ve also had the opportunity to bring some of these questions into global conversations — including speaking at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions (Summer Davos) and contributing to the World Economic Forum Agenda on AI, young people and the future of work.

But I’m increasingly convinced that the most important evidence does not come only from conference rooms.

It comes from young people themselves.

So I’m very excited to join the YouthForesight community and learn from what everyone here is seeing across different countries and communities. 🌍

I’m particularly interested in three questions:

1. What is AI actually doing to entry-level work in your country or community?

2. Which young people are most at risk of being left behind — and why?

3. What kinds of program, tools or learning experiences are genuinely helping young people move from AI anxiety to AI agency? (https://gaeedu.org/aiep

   )

I’d love to connect with researchers, youth organizations, educators, employers and fellow young people working on these questions.

And if there are communities where our research, assessments or AI capability programmes could be useful, I’d be very happy to explore how we can contribute.

Looking forward to learning from everyone here — and hopefully building something useful together! 🙌

ILO PROSPECTS is looking for a consultant to support the development of practical training and facilitation materials for meaningful youth engagement in employment programmes.

The assignment will help translate existing guidance into ready-to-use materials for in-person delivery across PROSPECTS countries. Interested? Explore the assignment and apply by the deadline.

🔗 View the opportunity: https://www.ungm.org/Public/Notice/313908

Two key Network outputs capture this work:

📌 The Network’s Position Paper – “Priorities of the EU–ILO Network of Youth Employment Experts” presents the priorities identified through consultations with Network members and partners, complemented by evidence on youth labour market trends and a mapping of existing youth employment networks.

The paper identifies four priorities for the Network’s knowledge sharing and peer-learning agenda: TVET and skills development; addressing youth labour market exclusion; youth employment promotion; and meaningful youth engagement. It also highlights four sectors with significant potential to create decent jobs for young people: the just transition, agri-food systems, care economy and digital economy.

These priorities have informed the thematic focus and delivery of the Network’s activities, including in its four focus countries: Cambodia, Malawi, the Philippines and Rwanda.

👉 Read the Position Paper: Priorities of the EU-ILO Network of Youth Employment Experts | International Labour Organization

📌 The Network’s Joint Action Plan shows how this work is being translated into potential collaboration with other institutions.

Part of this is about alignment: ensuring that Network activities connect with what other institutions are already doing on youth employment and skills. But several activities go further and have been jointly designed with partners from the outset, around shared objectives and complementary expertise.

Both outputs were developed under the project Supporting youth employment and investment in skills in developing countries, implemented by the ILO and co-financed by the European Commission.

We’d like to hear directly from young people on two things:
💬 Which topics and themes would be most useful to you?
📱 Which content formats make learning most engaging?

The survey is short, but the input will help make the course more relevant, practical and accessible.

🔗 surveymonkey.com/r/7PHVXY9

Help shape learning that works for young people.