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Work-based learning can provide a bridge into careers and its potential benefits are particularly noticeable for youth at risk – those most likely to face difficulties in accessing jobs and learning opportunities. If this potential is to be fully realised, work-based learning programmes must be attractive to employers. Achieving this requires a closer look at the costs and benefits for employers when they offer work-based learning. This paper looks at tools designed to help get employers on board for work-based learning, with an emphasis on work-based learning for youth at risk. International experience suggests that financial incentives, such as subsidies and tax breaks are not the answer. Attention should be focussed instead on non-financial measures that improve the cost-benefit balance of apprenticeship to employers. These include adjusting key parameters of apprenticeship schemes, better preparing youth at risk for apprenticeship and providing support (e.g. remedial courses, mentoring) to youth at risk during apprenticeship.
This paper examines how women’s empowerment is essential for food and nutrition security and resilience in West Africa and suggests policy “pointers” arising from the West African experience that can help inform policies and strategies, particularly in view of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. West African women play a significant role at each stage in the food system, from production to distribution to nutrition, and they contribute to building resilience and adaptability to uncertainty and shocks including the effects of climate change. While it is clear that women significantly contribute to the eradication of hunger and malnutrition, it is also evident that there is a need for greater political representation and participation in policy dialogues.
Fueled by a burgeoning population, urbanisation and income growth, West African food demand is rapidly transforming, with striking increases in total quantities demanded, growing preference for convenience, diversification of diets towards more perishable products, and an increased concern for product quality. These changes provide great opportunities for the West African food system to increase production, value added, job creation and food security. Yet a number of structural and policy constraints continue to threaten the ability of West Africa to seize these opportunities. This paper analyses the key drivers of change and their implications on the various demands facing the food system. It then looks at how different elements of the food system respond to evolving demands, discusses the constraints to more effective responses, and finally considers some policy implications and key recommendations, particularly in the context of the ECOWAS-led efforts to develop and implement more effective regional agricultural policies.