GIZ – introducing the Employment Prospects Index

Most employment initiatives monitor the number of created jobs or persons with income growth, but this narrow approach overlooks the complexity of labour market integration. A comprehensive assessment needs to encompass the entire landscape of employment, particularly in rural areas where conditions vary significantly. This is where the Employment Prospects Index (EPI) steps in, integrating a variety of factors that influence young people's ability to thrive in the workforce.

How the Employment Prospects Index works
 

The EPI consists of eleven items, rated by respondents on a scale from 1 (totally disagree) to 10 (totally agree). These items cover diverse aspects of employment prospects, including confidence in finding stable work, access to coaching, skills relevancy and market opportunities. This approach enables more detailed analysis, guiding project managers on where to focus resources for the greatest impact.

Projects using the EPI have already uncovered significant trends. For instance, in Malawi, the index has been used to monitor vocational training outcomes, revealing that while skills acquisition was strong, financial gains lagged behind. These insights led to integrating more sustained coaching and mentoring into the programmes, addressing gaps in income growth post-training.

The analysis also revealed that the factors with the greatest impact on improving employment prospects for rural youth in Sub-Saharan Africa are a stable income, access to coaching and mentoring, availability of information on job and business opportunities, and a thriving agrifood sector. Providing a clearer and more detailed understanding of how young people view the local job market, the EPI enables projects to create more focused strategies that effectively improve youth employment.

Moving forward – empowering sustainable employment initiatives
 

To optimise the EPI, it is crucial to adapt the tool to local contexts while maintaining item clarity. Enumerators should be trained to explain the ten-point scale, particularly to participants with lower literacy levels.

The EPI not only measures outcomes but shapes them by guiding project adaptations in real-time. By identifying key areas for improvement, such as access to financial resources or the need for ongoing coaching, the EPI empowers organisations to make evidence-based decisions that truly enhance employment prospects.

The EPI was developed and implemented to monitor the 360° AgriJobs Approach of GIZ on behalf of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It is already making a difference in Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya and Burkina Faso.

Author: Lukas Marx, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Global Project “Promoting employment for young people in rural areas”, Bonn, Germany. Contact: lukas.marx@giz.de

More information:

Link to the 360° AgriJobs Approach of GIZ

Link to  the Employment Prospects Index

Here you find more information on the method and more concrete examples of how it is applied.

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