Skills for Economic Transformation and Jobs (SET4Jobs) in Eastern and Southern Africa MPA Program

pipeline

Multiphase Programmatic Approach: Skills for Economic Transformation and Jobs (SETforJobs) in Eastern and Southern AfricaThe SET4Jobs MPA is designed to play a pivotal role in creating more and better jobs in the region, setting the foundations for regional skills systems that evolve with the needs of the job market, and expanding job-relevant opportunities for all youth to acquire skills to access good quality jobs. It is designed to be anchored in broader jobs engagements that tackle multiple challenges simultaneously to increase the number of good quality jobs in the region, anchored in the development of value chains with high job growth potential and in policies that facilitate the creation of good quality jobs. If well-coordinated with these interventions, this MPA can help transform the region’s economies while providing opportunities for millions of youth.This MPA is designed to be coordinated in its approach and implementation with a broader jobs agenda and country engagements focused with job creation. Developing value chains with high job potential will require a combination of policy changes (economy wide and sector specific), targeted interventions (projects) and ambitious and coordinated regional programs. The successful implementation of this MPA will require coordination across the three areas. First, leveraging DPOs and sector P4Rs to implement policy changes. Second, coordinating demand side interventions in priority sectors. Third, building on regional engagements such as AIM and coordinating with, M300, Agriconnect, infrastructure and digital. As such, this MPA needs to be considered in the country context and clearly articulated with jobs engagements in countries. The MPA is modular, selecting value chains and components that respond to the needs of the country engagement and anchoring different interventions to create more and better jobs in selected value chains. The MPA is structured around four mutually reinforcing pillars: (i) Strong Skills Systems (ii) Growing employment opportunities in selected value chains, (iii) Preparing youth with better skills to access good jobs in selected value chains and (iv) Promoting Regional Integration. While all four are essential to achieving productivity gains and better employment outcomes, countries retain the flexibility to select and sequence activities based on their strategic priorities and the maturity of their targeted value chains.The MPA Phase 1 Project Building Regional Collaboration for Advancing the Impact of Tertiary Education, Research, Innovation, and Incubation proposes a regional IDA grant of US$5 million to facilitate regional collaboration and coordination of efforts to promote excellence in tertiary education, applied research and incubation for the jobs of the future. Project Development Objective (PDO) is to enhance regional collaboration for skills development, tertiary education, research and incubation for jobs.Component 1: Enhancing Regional CollaborationThis component will support Set4Job MPA’s cross-border engagement by fostering structured collaboration, academic mobility, experiential learning and private sector engagements, and thematic coherence across the region. It will support the establishment and operationalization of thematic regional networks that foster collaboration in priority sectors, including those directly promoting skills development in green sectors and/or contributing to climate change mitigation such as renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and energy efficiency. Specific activities will include regional learning forums, symposia, and research showcases to promote peer exchange, innovation, and policy dialogue. The component will also fund regional research initiatives involving international collaborators. Each learning and exchange activity will be expected to promote and measure female representation.This component will also finance the SET4Jobs Facilitation Unit which will be established at IUCEA. The facilitation unit will implement activities financed by this regional grant, manage the coordination among the countries participating in the MPA and be responsible for results monitoring for the overall SET4Jobs MPA. In addition, the unit will oversee the development of a regional data collection and results-monitoring platform that was first piloted under the ACE II project and will now be expanded to include all MPA countries. The platform will serve as a centralized system for tracking performance indicators, disbursement-linked results, and knowledge products across all participating institutions, thereby strengthening transparency, accountability, and comparability of outcomes. By generating timely and harmonized analytics, IUCEA will help inform regional policy dialogue, support evidence-based planning, and guide reforms in skills development across the region.Component 2: Capacity building for accelerated private sector engagement and institutional strengthening The grant will support a robust learning agenda to support achievement of the SET4Jobs program’s objectives over its 10-year implementation period. There will be a strong emphasis on capacity building to accelerate private sector engagement, while directly addressing the climate vulnerability context of the region by identifying skills gaps in adaptations sectors such as water management, sustainable agriculture, and disaster risk reduction. It will also emphasize building a workforce for the low-carbon economy by strengthening regional centers of excellence with an explicit focus on labor market transitions into green jobs, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other mitigation-oriented sectors. It is designed to address key policy questions through a comprehensive approach that involves various methodologies and activities aimed at enhancing skills development and labor market outcomes. The main focus areas include scaling work-based learning (WBL) to increase job placement rates, improving governance and accountability in tertiary and TVET institutions, supporting NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) youth through second-chance education, operationalizing Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and micro-credentialing systems, and strengthening regional approaches for scholarship and academic mobility. To support these priorities, the project will also introduce practical instruments such as a gender-informed collaboration toolkit and climate-responsive interventions to guide institutions and partners in designing more inclusive and resilient approaches.