Skills and Employability in the 21 st Century An Africa Region Perspective

1. Skills and Employability in the 21st CenturyAn Africa Region Perspective World Bank Human Development Network Cross-Sector Learning Event Washington D.C., June 8, 2009 Jee-Peng Tan Africa Region Education Advisor World Bank

2. Outline of Presentation • Overview of Context in Sub-Saharan Africa • Challenges and Africa Region Responses • Knowledge Gaps

3. Sub-Saharan Africa, circa 2006 • 48 countries (E20, F22, P5, S1) • Population: 782 million (30 persons/sq. km) • Per capita GDP: $580 in 2006 dollars • Poverty rate: 40% to 69% • Life expectancy: 51 years • Population growth rate: 2.5% • HIV/AIDS infection: 2 - 26% • Beginning to grow in tandem with rest of the world until global crisis of late 2008

4. SSA economies largely informal Distribution of Out-of-School Population Ages 15-59 by Employment Status, 23 SSA Countries, circa 2003

5. High unemployment among the educated Employment Status by Age Cohort and Educational Attainment, average for 23 African Countries, circa 2003

6. Limited options for skills development

7. Key Challenges and Responses • Diversify pathways into labor market • Align skills development with growth strategy • Leverage partnerships to enhance skills development • Africa Region Responses • ESW and Operations (e.g., Ghana, Mozambique, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Liberia, etc.) • Policy dialogue (e.g., via South-South Learning Visits) • Regional program on new economy skills

8. New Economy Skills for Africa Program (NESAP) • Initial focus on Information and Communication Technology (NESAP-ICT) • A Joint AFTHD/ GICT/ AFTFP Flagship Program • Responds to the Leadership Roundtable ICT Skills Development Initiative

9. Overview of NESAP-ICT • Why NESAP-ICT? • Objective of NESAP-ICT • Strategy for IT/ITES Skills Development • Implementation status

10. Why NESAP-ICT? • Scarcity of ICT skills in Africa amid rapidly growing telecom (35% of total FDI) and services sectors. Skills gap reduces potential returns on ICT investments, discourages new investors. • Potential for job creation for youth over a short period of time. Every ICT job indirectly creates 3-4 other non-ICT jobs. • Potential for wealth creation through export of IT/ITES products and earned wages. India ICT exports $49 billion per year ; global markets projected at $500bn in 2008, 15% tapped. • Rising demand but poor performing ICT components in Bank education projects.

11. SSA has yet to exploit the IT/ITES opportunity ITES market IT services market Source: Tholons 2006 Source: NASSCOM-Everest 2008

12. Objective of NESAP-ICT • Support ICT skills development and meet educational needs of targeted African countries • Build Bank staff and client capacity to better design, implement and ICT projects/components • Pilot a new way of working collaboratively across sectors to address a common development challenge, within the Bank and at country level • Leverage strong results commitment of senior Bank management, Bank TTLs and country counterparts

13. Strategy for IT/ITES Skills Development • Link to ongoing & pipeline Bank operations • Pilot & scale up framework for skills development: • Needs and skills assessments • Skills development plan for: (a) IT services (generic, specialized, lightweight, advanced and researcher; and (b) IT-enabled services (generic and company-linked) • Certification and international benchmarking of skills (essential to strategy for attracting “anchor” FDI) • Training infrastructure requirements (hi-speed networks, training labs) • Institutional structures to align skills development with market needs; private sector partners involved from the start

14. NESAP-ICT Implementation Status • May 2008 launch, with endorsement by Directors of 3 Bank departments • 8 participating countries: Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania; endorsed by country “Champions” • February 2008 South-South Learning Visit to India for policy makers and practitioners from the 8 countries, resulting in draft country-specific actions plans. • Nigeria Pilot Project developed, ready for implementation • Kenya and Mozambique needs and skills assessment underway. • FY10 Plans: needs and skills assessment in 2 more countries; publication on IT/ITES industry in Sub-Saharan Africa

15. The Nigeria Pilot • Objective: Expand IT/ITES employment opportunities through skills benchmarked to global industry standards and certification • Focus areas: • IT Service: Software developer skills • ITES: Business process outsourcing skills • Supporting ecosystem (infrastructure, institutional framework, regulatory environment, cyber security) • Funding and Supervision: STEPB Project (AFTHD) and GEMS Project (AFTFP) • Nigerian Institutions involved:Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), Outsourcing Development Initiative in Nigeria (ODIN, an industry association) and partner post-basic institutions • Partnership with 10 global companies: Microsoft, HP, Intel, Carnegie Mellon University, Oracle, SAP; expected to produce software development certification, knowledge hub, continuous structured student assessments, trainer of trainers

16. Knowledge gaps • How can SSA countries diversify, in a cost-effective and sustainable manner, the pathways for school-to-work transition into the largely informal labor markets? • How can SSA countries leverage FDI to create modern sector jobs and the relevant skills? • What are the implementation challenges for skills development? How can the Bank help facilitate cross-country learning, particularly among practitioners?

17. Thank You!