PARTNERSHIP, RESEARCH AND CAPACITY-BUILDING FOR YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT SOLUTIONS IN AFRICA (PRAC 4 YUSA)

为解决非洲青年失业问题而出台的政策、战略和方案(例如，创业技能发展、资助青年农民、咨询、投资加速器和孵化器以支持新企业的启动)没有奏效。在撒哈拉以南非洲，2016年有6440万青年生活在极端或中等贫困中(每天不到3.10美元)。尼日利亚青年失业率从2014年的11.7%增长到2018年的36.5%，埃及、肯尼亚和南非的青年失业率在2017年创下历史新高。为了设计和实施能够有效减少非洲青年失业的方案，我们需要提高非洲大学教授的多学科研究能力，向成功降低青年失业的国家学习，让非洲青年参与确定失业问题的核心和解决办法的过程，并维护存储和管理大量准确可靠的数字信息的数据库。该项目的目标是在非洲各大学建立重要的研究能力，以帮助降低非洲国家的青年失业率，首先是尼日利亚、加纳、肯尼亚、埃及、塞内加尔和南非。项目开始三年后的预期成果是：i)一个有能力筹集外部资金、建立伙伴关系、探索创业活动、吸引世界各地优秀导师的高绩效中心，并在非洲各大学建立一个研究网络；ii)12名博士后和博士后研究员以及13名教职员工分布在非洲各大学，他们能够开展关于如何减少非洲青年失业率的研究；以及三)可用于减少非洲青年失业的模式、当地最佳做法和可靠的数字数据。为了实现其目标，该项目将开展五项主要举措：i)基线评估--确定需要进行研究投资的现有差距；ii)联网活动--主办会议、讲习班和研讨会；iii)开展国际安置活动，以培养参与中心和辐射网络的所有个人和组织减少青年失业的能力；iv)研究实验室--培训和指导来自六个非洲国家的青年学者，以确定问题、确定目标和优先事项、进行可靠的研究、找出解决非洲青年高失业率的办法以及开展协作；五)基础设施和传播--记录和更新可用于设计和实施减少非洲青年失业的政策、战略和方案的模型、当地最佳做法和数字数据库；与所有利益攸关方分享编写的报告以及该项目使用和创建的数字数据。该项目由来自五个非洲国家的大学(尼日利亚拉各斯大学、加纳大学、南非开普敦大学、肯尼亚内罗毕大学和埃及开罗的美国大学)、英国的三所大学(兰开斯特大学、斯特拉斯克莱德大学、考文垂大学和德比大学)和北美的两所大学(加拿大卡尔顿大学和美国爱荷华大学)的专家组成，所需投资为60万英镑。这些资金将投资于能力建设和联网(70%)、范围研究(20%)和行政支助(10%)。该项目是对采取多国战略办法以解决非洲国家高青年失业率的迫切需要作出的回应。该项目极大地造福了非洲不同国家的年轻职业学者，因为它为他们提供了一个平台，让他们在阿鲁阿、美元和欧洲共同体九个重点领域中的一个或多个领域建立研究能力，并提供可用于结成伙伴关系和探索创业机会的资源。

The policies, strategies and programs introduced to address youth unemployment in Africa (e.g., entrepreneurial skills development, funding young farmers, counseling, investing in accelerators and incubators to support the launch of new businesses) are not working. In sub-Saharan Africa, 64.4 million youth lived in extreme or moderate poverty (less than $3.10 per day) in 2016. Nigeria's youth unemployment rate grew from 11.7% in 2014 to 36.5% in 2018 and youth unemployment rates in Egypt, Kenya and South Africa reached all-time highs in 2017. To design and implement programs that can effectively reduce youth unemployment in Africa, we need to increase the multi-disciplinary research capacity of African university professors, learn from countries that have successfully reduced youth unemployment, engage African youth in the process of identifying the core of the unemployment problem and approaches to solve it, and maintain databases that store and manage large amounts of digital information that is accurate and reliable. The goal of this project is to build significant research capacity across African universities to help reduce youth unemployment in African countries, starting with: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, Senegal and South Africa.The expected outcomes at the end of three years after project start are: i) One high-performing hub that has the capacity to raise external funds, form partnerships, explore entrepreneurial activities, attract excellent mentors worldwide, and anchor a research network across African universities; ii) 12 doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows and 13 faculty members distributed across African universities who can carry out research in how to reduce youth unemployment in Africa; and iii) Models, local best practices and reliable digital data that can be applied to reduce youth unemployment in Africa. To achieve its objectives, the project will carry out five major initiatives: i) Baseline assessment- establishes existing gaps that necessitate research investment; ii) Networking Events - hosts conferences, workshops and seminars; iii) international placement events to develop the capacity to reduce youth unemployed of all the individuals and organizations that are part of the hub-and-spokes network; iv) Research Labs - trains and mentors young academics from the six African countries to define problems, set objectives and priorities, conduct sound research, and identify solutions to high youth unemployment in Africa as well as work collaboratively; v) Infrastructure and Dissemination- documents and updates models, local best practices and digital databases that can be applied to design and implement policies, strategies and programs to reduce youth unemployment in Africa; and shares the reports produced and the digital data that is used and created by the project with all stakeholders. The project comprised of a team of experts drawn from universities in Five African countries (University of Lagos Nigeria, University of Ghana, University of Cape Town, South Africa, University of Nairobi Kenya, and The America University in Cairo, Egypt), three universities in the United Kingdom (Lancaster University, University of Strathclyde , Coventry University and University of Derby) and 2 in North America (Carleton University, Canada and University of Iowa, USA) The investment required is 600 thousand pounds. The funds will be invested in capacity building and networking (70%), scoping studies (20%) and administrative support (10%). This project responds to the urgent need for a multi-country strategic approach to address high youth unemployment rates in African countries. The project greatly benefits young career academics in different African countries because it provides a platform for them to build their research capacities in one or more of the nine focus areas of the ARUA, USD-CoE and the resources that can be leveraged to form partnerships and explore entrepreneurial opportunities