IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rfa/journl/v4y2016i10p16-28.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Youth Unemployment Challenges and Opportunities:the Case of Sierra Leone

Author

Listed:
  • Molla Mekonnen Alemu

Abstract

Sierra Leone has gone through a ten-year civil conflict which brought considerable destruction, on the livelihoods of many. A good percentage of the population, before the war, was composed of young men and women who provided the labour force for activities on the farms. These youth (15-35 years of age) have undergone serious transformations as a result of the civil conflict. Most of them have got themselves completely disoriented. About 60% of the country¡¯s youth are believed to be structurally unemployed. The study was aimed at assessing the main causes of youth unemployment in Sierra Leone and to develop sustainable employment strategic principles which will enhance the management of youth employment opportunities in the country. Primary data were collected through structured questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Different reports, policy papers and publications were also reviewed. Legacy of the civil war, mismatch between the demand and supply side of labour, weak entrepreneurship services, rural to urban migration, and low level of involvement in agriculture were among the identified factors that aggravated the youth unemployment rate in the country. The study has also identified strategic directions which could help policy and decision makers in their effort for the development of the youth of the country.

Suggested Citation

  • Molla Mekonnen Alemu, 2016. "Youth Unemployment Challenges and Opportunities:the Case of Sierra Leone," International Journal of Social Science Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 4(10), pages 16-28, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:rfa:journl:v:4:y:2016:i:10:p:16-28
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://redfame.com/journal/index.php/ijsss/article/view/1818/1877
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://redfame.com/journal/index.php/ijsss/article/view/1818
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. International Labour Office., 2014. "Global employment trends 2014 : risk of a jobless recovery?," Global Employment Trends Reports 994846163402676, International Labour Office, Economic and Labour Market Analysis Department.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bangura, Kabba. S. & Lynch, Kenneth & Binns, Tony & Gbanie, Solomon, 2023. "Facing post-crisis livelihood challenges? Insights from young farmers in Kenema city, Eastern Province, Sierra Leone," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    2. Jackson, Emerson Abraham, 2023. "Economic anthropology insight: Narratives of livelihood exploration from fieldwork experience in Goderich-Sierra Leone," MPRA Paper 118575, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 0202.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. William Baah-Boateng, 2016. "The youth unemployment challenge in Africa: What are the drivers?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 27(4), pages 413-431, December.
    2. Amjad, Rashid, 2015. ""Expanding employment opportunities: Embedding "Human Utilisation" in the Post-2015 MDGs", in Tanuka, E., S. Mazumdar and M. Sengupta ed.,Human Development in the Global South: Eme," MPRA Paper 63791, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Girum Abebe, 2015. "State-inducement Versus Self-initiation: A Comparative Study of Micro and Small Enterprises in Ethiopia," Working Papers 013, Policy Studies Institute.
    4. Sara Lourenço & Filomena Carnide & Fernando G Benavides & Raquel Lucas, 2015. "Psychosocial Work Environment and Musculoskeletal Symptoms among 21-Year-Old Workers: A Population-Based Investigation (2011-2013)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-15, June.
    5. Nishtha Langer & Ram D. Gopal & Ravi Bapna, 2020. "Onward and Upward? An Empirical Investigation of Gender and Promotions in Information Technology Services," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 383-398, June.
    6. Swati Mehta, 2016. "Innovation and Employment: A Study of Indian Manufacturing Sector," Millennial Asia, , vol. 7(2), pages 184-206, October.
    7. Hassan Jaghoory & Kaj Björkqvist & Karin Österman, 2020. "Self-reported Peaceful Conflict Resolution Behaviour in Iranian and Finnish Adolescents," European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 7, ejser_v7_.
    8. Abdul Hadi, 2020. "Intimate Partner Violence and Its Under-Reporting in Pakistan," European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 7, ejser_v7_.
    9. Sarah Lynne Daway & Geoffrey Ducanes, 2015. "A note on the effects of remittances and overseas migration on some Philippine statistics," Philippine Review of Economics, University of the Philippines School of Economics and Philippine Economic Society, vol. 51(1), pages 95-116, June.
    10. Michael Rosholm & Mai Bjørnskov Mikkelsen & Michael Svarer, 2019. "Bridging the gap from welfare to education: Propensity score matching evaluation of a bridging intervention," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-20, May.
    11. Anselm Komla Abotsi & Tongyai Iyavarakul, 2015. "Tolerable Level of Corruption for Foreign Direct Investment in Africa," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 9(3), September.
    12. Elva Bova & Christina Kolerus & Sampawende Tapsoba, 2015. "A fiscal job? An analysis of fiscal policy and the labor market," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-17, December.
    13. Deguilhem, Thibaud & Frontenaud, Adrien, 2016. "Régimes de qualité de l’emploi et diversité des pays émergents," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 19.
    14. Pothen, Frank & Hübler, Michael, 2017. "A Regional Trade Model with Ricardian Productivity Gains and Multi-technology Electricity Supply," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-585, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    15. Pothen, Frank & Hübler, Michael, 2021. "A forward calibration method for analyzing energy policy in new quantitative trade models," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    16. Ibarrarán, Pablo & Kluve, Jochen & Ripani, Laura & Rosas Shady, David, 2015. "Experimental Evidence on the Long-Term Impacts of a Youth Training Program," IZA Discussion Papers 9136, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Italo A. Gutierrez & Krishna B. Kumar & Minhaj Mahmud & Farzana Munshi & Shanthi Nataraj, 2019. "Transitions between informal and formal employment: results from a worker survey in Bangladesh," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-27, December.
    18. Borsi, Mihály Tamás, 2018. "Credit contractions and unemployment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 573-593.
    19. Chaudhuri, Sarbajit & Biswas, Anindya, 2016. "Endogenous labour market imperfection, foreign direct investment and external terms-of-trade shocks in a developing economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 416-424.
    20. Doctorovich, Anatoly (Докторович, Анатолий) & Zimin, I (Зимин, И.), 2015. "Comparative Analysis of the Development of Human and Intellectual Potential in the Global Economy and in Russia [Сравнительный Анализ Развития Человеческого И Интеллектуального Потенциалов В Мирово," Published Papers mn8, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    youth; unemployment; strategy; development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rfa:journl:v:4:y:2016:i:10:p:16-28. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Redfame publishing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.