The African Development Bank, in partnership with the International Labour Organization, has launched a transformative system to mainstream youth employment, skills development, and entrepreneurship across its investments.
The approach, called the Youth, Jobs and Skills Marker System, is aligned with the Bank’s latest Ten-Year Strategy, which places Africa’s young people at the center of development efforts to maximize the impact of every dollar invested, turning demographics into a dividend. The Marker System ensures that Bank projects spanning diverse sectors, such as agriculture, transport, energy, water, and education, systematically incorporate components that enhance youth employability, foster entrepreneurship, and build market-relevant skills.
“The Youth, Jobs and Skills Marker System is about ensuring Africa’s young people have a real say and active role in building sustainable economies and creating jobs – not as passive recipients of youth programs,” said Dr. Beth Dunford, the Bank’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development. “This transformation of Bank practices and systems is a step toward making sure our investments have a positive impact on Africa’s young women and men.”
The integrated system has three focus areas:
Youth: Supporting youth-led micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises through targeted investments and operational integration.
Skills: Expanding access to practical, market-driven training and apprenticeships to enhance career prospects.
Jobs: Ensuring Bank-funded projects create sustainable job opportunities, particularly by developing youth skills for employability and the promotion of youth-led businesses in priority value chains.
Each year, around 10 to 12 million young Africans enter the labor market, which offers only three million formal jobs annually. The Bank will prioritize youth entrepreneurship and mobilize private sector partnerships to strengthen industry-oriented skills training as well as job creation over the coming decade.
“[This initiative] is very important because it allows us to significantly contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #8 that includes decent work for all,” said Peter van Rooij, Director of Multilateral Partnerships and Development Cooperation at the International Labour Organization. “It also allows the International Labour Organization to influence the Bank’s work, to support their lending that is more geared toward more job creation and better jobs in a sustainable way.”
The Youth, Jobs and Skills Marker System is modeled on the success of the Bank’s Gender Marker System and its online dashboard, which categorize Bank projects based on their contribution to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Similarly, the new system will feature an online platform enabling Bank staff and consultants to access real-time data for preparing country strategy papers, mid-term reviews, annual reports, project supervision, and reporting on youth-related skills, businesses and jobs outcomes.
The Bank has just launched a pilot version of the Youth, Jobs and Skills Marker System in readiness for the full implementation in 2026. This system will enhance data tracking, improve estimates of youth skills attainment and employment, strengthen labor market information systems, and support policymakers in making evidence-based decisions that drive meaningful change.
The International Labour Organization provided technical support for the system’s development with financial support from the Bank’s Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Multi-Donor Trust Fund. The Youth, Jobs and Skills Marker System is the first deliberate action of its kind developed by a development finance institution worldwide.
To learn more about the Youth, Jobs and Skills Marker System, watch this video
