February 2020

Improving job matching for Zambia's youth

Only about 55% of employed youth in Zambia have jobs that match their level of education. In 2017, the government introduced new policy measures to bridge education and skills mismatch, focusing on pre-work exposure for graduate students through apprenticeships and internships. While assessing the effects of this intervention, a team of local PEP researchers found that work experience unrelated to a student's field of study may be detrimental to their education without improving job prospects.

Find out more in the PEP working paper 2020-13 and policy brief 207

How the rural reform of the Peace Agreement will help rural Colombia recover from decades of conflict

As part of the peace agreement reached in 2016 with the FARC, the Colombian government introduced new policy measures that aim to support the recovery of the (rural) areas most affected by the conflict by 2030. A team of local PEP researchers used a modelling approach to analyze the effects of these policies on potential earnings for rural households, income distribution between rural and urban areas, and the national economy as a whole. Their findings suggest that these policies should help agriculture in the country recover from decades of conflict and improve wellbeing for rural communities.

Find out more in the PEP working paper 2020-12 and policy brief 209