The role of institutional arrangements for youth employment and empowerment in Sierra Leone

Abstract

"Youth is defined in Sierra Leone as people aged from 15 to 35 (Government of Sierra Leone 2003). They account for about 34 per cent of the total population. More than 80 per cent of the country's youth population lives on less than USD2 per day. Sixty per cent of young Sierra Leoneans are believed to be structurally unemployed (National Youth Commission of Sierra Leone and UNDP 2012)—as a result of poverty, the weak private sector as a legacy of the civil war, the low level of coordination to create employment opportunities in the country and the mismatch between the skills demanded by the private sector and those provided by the education system."(…)