Promoting youth employment in rural areas

Project description

Title: Promoting youth employment in rural areas (PEJ III)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Morocco
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Labour and Professional Integration (Ministère du Travail et de l’Insertion Professionnelle, MTIP) and the National Agency for Promoting Employment and Skills (Agence Nationale de Promotion de l’Emploi et des Compétences, ANAPEC)
Overall term: 2015 to 2023

Young people in front of an information and advisory centre

Context

Promoting employment is one of the Moroccan Government’s principal concerns and crucial for the country’s socio-economic development. Despite steady economic growth, Morocco is currently failing to create enough jobs for young people.

The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated existing inequalities, especially for young people and women. For example, the percentage of youth unemployment rose to 31.2 per cent in 2020. Added to this is a high percentage of underemployed and informal workers among the rural population. Women in rural areas in particular are economically disadvantaged: only one in four is in formal employment.

Objective

The employment situation of young people in rural areas has improved.

Participants at a workshop on employment promotion

Approach

The project supports the extension of employment policy to rural areas. To this end, it is working with Ministry for Labour and Professional Integration (Ministère du Travail et de l’Insertion Professionnelle, MTIP) and the National Agency for Promoting Employment and Skills (Agence Nationale de Promotion de l’Emploi et des Compétences, ANAPEC).

Since 2015, the project has been working with Moroccan institutions to develop tools for the economic integration of young people and has introduced and developed them further in two pilot regions. The approach is a combination of the following measures:

  • Monitoring labour markets and identifying economic sectors with employment potential;
  • Establishing information and advisory centres in rural areas to assist young people in their vocational orientation and to support young entrepreneurs;
  • Improving employability, especially by means of suitably adapted training courses.

This approach is to be applied in other regions in future. To this end, the project is adapting it to the different socio-economic circumstances. It is also creating a capacity-building and knowledge transfer system, monitoring regional labour markets and promoting dialogue with local stakeholders.

Last updated: September 2021

Additional information