The Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship (YEE) approach implemented by TEF is designed to provide underprivileged, underemployed, and unemployed young women and men with the necessary tools, skills, and networks to identify enterprise development and employment opportunities within the agri-food, energy, and water sectors. The approach is guided by SDG 8, which promotes decent work and economic growth, and leverages TEF’s expertise in green and digitally enabled jobs, formal and informal market engagement, system change, and gender equality and social inclusion.

Despite the global youth unemployment rate being estimated at 15.6 per cent in 2021, more than three times the adult rate, TEF addresses these challenges with a responsive market systems approach that integrates climate-smart solutions and considers gender equality and social inclusion issues, to enable markets to function more equitably and sustainably, and to provide an environment where young people can thrive. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the numerous labor market challenges facing young people since early 2020, which TEF is addressing by providing vocational training, on-the-job learning, and concrete employment opportunities for young people.

To achieve scale and make a lasting impact and to enable young people to optimize on opportunities as entrepreneurs and innovators and build resilience, TEF is increasingly emphasizing an enterprise development pathway for youth-led businesses with medium to high growth potential. This work focuses on incubating and accelerating these businesses by linking them to sustainable markets, providing tailored business development support services, deepening partnerships with other ecosystem actors, including enterprise support organizations, technical and vocational education and training institutes, and the private sector.

The YEE approach uses the push-match-pull-enable approach to improve the employability and entrepreneurship capabilities of youth. TEF collaborates with ecosystem actors to contribute and influence policy environments improving the enabling environment for youth-led enterprises and decent employment for young wage earners. The portfolio seeks to generate evidence that can contribute to an enabling environment for youth employment and youth-friendly policy implementation.

Push: TEF’s YEE approach starts with an emphasis on capacity building and skills development for young people. Through vocational training, on-the-job learning, and coaching in leadership and business skills, TEF equips young women and men with the tools they need to become successful entrepreneurs or employees.

Match: Next, TEF helps to identify opportunities for youth employment and entrepreneurship in select sectors and value chains. This includes creating GESI-responsive opportunities that meet the aspirations and ambitions of young people, as well as aligning with market demand and the potential supply of training and coaching providers.

Pull: TEF also engages with the private sector and the informal sector to provide employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. By working with MSMEs and cooperatives that have lower barriers to entry for women and other vulnerable groups, TEF helps to create a more equitable and sustainable labor market.

Enable: Finally, TEF collaborates with ecosystem actors to contribute to and influence policy environments that improve the enabling environment for youth-led enterprises and decent employment for young wage earners. This includes generating evidence that can contribute to youth-friendly policy implementation, as well as creating opportunities for direct dialogue and engagement between young people and key policy actors.

In summary, TEF’s YEE approach is an innovative and sustainable way of addressing the unemployment crisis among young people by providing them with the necessary skills, tools, and networks to identify employment opportunities and establish their own businesses, while also promoting gender equality and social inclusion.