From Data to Action: Advancing Youth Skills Development and Employment in Africa through Evidence-Informed Decision-Making

Abstract

Africa’s rapidly growing youth population presents both a significant development opportunity and a pressing policy challenge. While governments and development partners have invested extensively in youth skills development and employment initiatives, outcomes remain uneven, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper examines the role of evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) in shaping effective youth employment policies and programs, with a focus on understanding how evidence is generated, utilized, and institutionalized within youth development systems. Using a qualitative research design, the study examines policy and strategy documents, secondary literature, and field observations from youth-focused projects in Uganda. The study investigates patterns in evidence creation, stakeholder involvement, and institutional capability for evidence use. The findings reveal persistent fragmentation in evidence ecosystems, limited participation of young people in knowledge generation, misalignment between skill development initiatives and labour market demands, and weak institutional mechanisms for integrating evidence into policy and programmatic decisions. At the same time, emerging methods such as youth innovation hubs, digital data platforms, and participatory approaches show promise for improving evidence-based decision-making. The study concludes that advancing youth employment outcomes in Africa requires moving beyond isolated interventions toward more coherent, inclusive, and institutionalized approaches to evidence use. Strengthening analytical capacity, embedding youth participation, and aligning skills development with labour market intelligence are critical to improving the relevance and sustainability of youth-focused policies. The paper contributes to ongoing debates on youth development and governance by highlighting practical entry points for strengthening evidence-informed policymaking in low- and middle-income contexts.