Benin Youth Employment Project

The IDA-funded Benin Youth Employment Project4 was designed to improve access to employment skills and employment opportunities for underemployed youth in Benin through four components: Developing skills through apprenticeships, developing small business skills, start-up support, and institutional capacity building and project management. The objective of the PEJ was to deliver impactful employment services to populations deprived of opportunities and with limited capacity to develop robust economic activities on their own, due to a lack of information, skills or capital. The PEJ was therefore designed as a national program focused on all 77 communes in Benin, spanning various local contexts, adapted to the specific needs of the target populations, and delivered at a highly decentralized level to ensure participation of rural beneficiaries. The project has particular sectoral focus on artisanal trades, agricultural transformation, and tourism. The key beneficiaries of the project are the young underemployed men and women of Benin between the ages of 15–35. Women in Benin are particularly vulnerable and consistently work in lower paid jobs than men, and also with incomes on average two times lower than those of men. The project places emphasis on targeting hard-to-reach, poor youth not served by other programs and most affected by underemployment- that is, female, rural, self-employed and/or those with low levels of education. In line with the emphasis on gender in the CPS, the project was designed to ensure that at least half of beneficiaries were women, the specific needs of young women were taken into consideration, and gender disaggregated results indicators were collected.