The national government affirmative action fund and youth Employability: a comparative study of Homa Bay and Kisumu Counties, 2017-2022

Abstract

The global youth demographic bulge presents a pressing challenge that requires strategic public policy interventions. Projections indicate that the current youth population, as defined by the United Nations, will increase from 1.2 billion to 1.3 billion by 2030. Concerns arise among academics and policymakers regarding the unpreparedness of the world, particularly sub-Saharan African countries, to harness this impending demographic surge into a demographic dividend. Policymakers acknowledge that sustained job creation offers the most viable path toward realizing this goal. This study investigates the impact of innovative public policy interventions, specifically implemented under the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF), on the employability of youth beneficiaries from 2017 to 2022 in Homa Bay and Kisumu Counties. The research specifically examines the influence of various skill sets supported by NGAAF on youth employability, assesses the impact of post-skills acquisition support on youth employability, and scrutinizes the challenges faced by the program in these two counties. Guided by the Social Partners Model and the theory of self-employment, data collection and analysis were structured. Employing a comparative case study design to appraise county-specific experiences, the study involved 29 key informants from NGAAF Management, industry experts/institutions, and National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) centers, as well as 680 beneficiaries of NGAAF training opportunities. The sample size comprised 381 (56% of total: 680) participants, with 157 from Kisumu and 224 from Homa Bay, determined using a formula that gave a sample size whose responses could be generalized. Data were collected through Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) for qualitative data and semi-structured questionnaires for quantitative data. Simple descriptive statistics and thematic content analysis were employed to analyze quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. Triangulation of data from both sources revealed areas of convergence and divergence within each thematic area corresponding to the study's objectives. The findings highlight that the impact of youth empowerment interventions hinges on the skill sets supported, with graduates of quick-service, short-term courses demonstrating higher employability rates compared to their counterparts from long-term technical programs. Additionally, providing post-training support to youth enhances their employability by reducing the time taken to secure employment after graduation. Together both skill-sets and post-training support helped graduate seek employment; underscoring the value of solid practical vocational training as opposed to theory-based education. However, youth empowerment programs face a myriad of challenges, both structural and non-structural, necessitating a collaborative social partners approach to address these obstacles and establish sustainable momentum for reducing youth unemployment through employability-based empowerment initiatives. This study underscores the importance of allowing beneficiaries to choose courses aligned with their preferences, formalizing post-training support, and developing strategies to address contextual factors and policy issues. These include design considerations, stakeholder analysis and involvement, financing, and addressing beneficiary-specific limitations. Ultimately, the research contributes new insights to policy and academic discourse, emphasizing the significance of skill sets, post-training support, and the challenges inherent in these processes. The empirical evidence presented here shifts the ongoing policy dialogue from unemployment – as an ambiguous concept - to a more focused debate trajectories to youth employability.