The DPRU is a member of the Network for Jobs and Development (NJD) partnership, initially established to pursue a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach to the global jobs agenda during the period 2013-16. The DPRU, for Sub-Saharan Africa, is one of five global institutions that joined the NJD, financed from of the World Bank’s Development Grant Facility (DGF).

The World Bank Jobs group was our counterpart at the World Bank, and our partner institutions include:
•    The Institute for Structural Research (IBS), for Europe and Central Asia
•    The Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS) at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST), for East Asia and Pacific
•    The Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), for South Asia
•    Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA), for Latin America

Building on the WDR 13 on Jobs, the Jobs Knowledge Platform, and the interest of the international community in employment as part of the post-2015 MDG and the G20 agendas, this programme built a vibrant community of individuals and institutions working on issues related to jobs that shared experiences and knowledge to inform policy debates and offer development solutions. The NJD Initiative recognized employment generation as a critical condition for raising living standards, achieving poverty reduction, and the role of globalization in improving labour working conditions.

It supported the extension of the benefits of growth and good jobs to lagging regions within countries and emphasized the role of employment and skills in driving economic growth. The goal of the NJD was to contribute to the creation of multi-sector, multi-disciplinary solutions to the jobs challenges around the world based on research and empirical evidence from programs on the ground. This would help facilitate the identification and dissemination of best practices and innovations on job creation.

The DPRU, in managing and co-ordinating the regional Sub-Saharan African programme, had three specific objectives:

1.    Knowledge Sharing:

•    To share and distribute data; interesting, novel and innovative research; policy interventions; country experiments and developments; and other outputs in a readable; digestible format to a global audience interested in employment issues in Sub-Saharan Africa.
•    To organise high-level dissemination activities, and act as a hub for sourcing, interpreting and packaging knowledge around Sub-Saharan Africa and jobs, as well as taking regional information and making it accessible, useful and of value globally.
•    To share insights; inform policy discussions and debates about practical, multi-disciplinary solutions to expanding job creation and improving job opportunities around the world in general and Sub-Saharan Africa in particular.

The outputs produced for the first objective included for example: regional events, blogs; vlogs (video blogs); Google+ Hangouts, and social media on key job topics which relate to Sub-Saharan Africa.

Events:

The First IZA / World Bank / NJD Conference on Jobs and Development: Following the success of the 2016 Jobs and Development Conference in Washington D.C.,  IZA – Institute of Labor Economics with the World Bank Jobs Group and the Network on Jobs and Development,  will be hosting a 2-day conference at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, in May 2018. For more information, please click here.

Global event: The 2016 Jobs and Development Conference, hosted by the NJD, and the World Bank Jobs Group, convened on November 2-3, 2016 in Washington, D.C., to discuss the latest policy-relevant research to foster the creation of multi-sector, multi-disciplinary solutions to jobs challenges around the world. (Event summary report)

Regional events: The DPRU hosted a workshop in Cape Town in 2015, on "Labour Markets in SubSaharan Africa", and also co-hosted a symposium in November 2014, in Johannesburg, on: "China’s Impact on African Employment: What Do We Know and Where are the Gaps?".

Jobs and Development Blog: 

Vlogs:

Google+ Hangouts:

2.    Knowledge Generation:

•    To encourage and support relevant African research, preferably in collaboration with African partners.  Ideally this will be achieved through fostering new approaches to research and data; filling knowledge gaps with innovative, cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary analysis; and learning from programmes on the ground, including evaluations of impact effectiveness.

The outputs produced for the second objective included for example: commissioning of Working Papers, and Policy Notes based on substantive research, and in 2014, the generation of Data Fact Sheets Sub-Saharan Africa.

Working Papers:

Policy Briefs:

3.    Create a Community:

•    To participate in a global network and exchange practical approaches to, and solutions for, the Sub-Saharan Africa jobs agenda.
•    To act as a conduit for relationships between specific groups and institutions interested in Sub-Saharan Africa, and link researchers and institutions for potential collaborative research.

For more information, please contact the team:

Research: Toughedah Jacobs
Communications: Sarah Marriott       
Contracts and Finance: Fatima Samsodien