Realising Aspiration Youth in Ethiopia through Employment

The RAYEE project created meaningful employment in agriculture and agri-business for 240,000 young people (of which 70% were women) until the end of 2024. RAYEE targeted five geographical areas: the SNNPR, Oromia, Amhara, and Tigray regions as well as the Dire Dawa city. The project was funded by the Mastercard Foundation as part of its Young Africa Works strategy.

Youth unemployment in Ethiopia

More than a quarter of Ethiopian young people are unemployed. While most are willing and ready to take on any job, there is a mismatch between their abilities and the skills needed in the job market. A lack of access to financial services, working places or land, and training are major barriers for young people to overcome.

Our response

SNV leveraged its long-term presence in the five target areas and built on its existing network of private and public sector partners. The project applied our proven Opportunities for Youth Employment product and, however, tailored it to local needs.

In the target areas, the RAYEE project identified the skills that potential employers required from prospective employees and provided tailored training courses in life and technical skills for young women and men. The trainees were actively linked to identified employment opportunities.

SNV supported existing SMEs to grow employment opportunities for young people. We also provided business development services to ambitious young people to enable them to establish new enterprises. Business development services included training on business, administration and marketing, improved access to inclusive financial services, input supply, and market information.

Unemployment amongst young Ethiopian women

Unemployment amongst young women in Ethiopia was 10% higher than amongst young men. While the country had one of Africa’s more progressive societies in terms of legal and societal gender equality, women’s economic opportunities tended to be limited to lower-quality jobs. There was also a clear correlation between the social and health problems seen in Ethiopia and limited opportunities for women. Due to domestic responsibilities, women were constrained from searching for work, accepting work, or remaining in work.

The RAYEE project implemented focused interventions to maximise opportunities for young women, during the entire employment trajectory from the screening capacity building phase to the matching and coaching phases. We also provided targeted support to young women who wanted to establish their own enterprises.

Systems change: supporting an enabling environment.

By collaborating with authorities such as the high-level technical working group of the Job Creation Commission and government offices dealing with Enterprise Development, Labour, and Social Affairs, we coordinated initiatives and resources more effectively. This maximised the project’s direct outcomes. More importantly, we fostered the development of an enabling environment for youth employment in the targeted regions as well as across the entire country.

Project goals

Specifically, SNV aims to achieve the following project goals:

1. Secure dignified and fulfilling wage employment for unemployed and underemployed young people through efficient market-driven skills development and job matching (applying physical and digital interfaces). Improve performances of enterprises for enhanced employment creation.

2. Establish new youth-led enterprises through better access to finance, inputs, market information, markets and workspaces;

3. Improve long-term young women's and men’s access to employment by influencing the existing youth employment ecosystem and policies.

Targets

By February 2025, the project exceeded expectations and contributed by:

• Target: Create waged and meaningful employment for 60,000 young people
  Achieved: 60,000+ placed in wage employment

• Target: Create 45,000 youth-led enterprises, with four employees each, impacting 180,000 youth
  Achieved: Youth enterprises contributed to a total reach of 278,760 youth engaged, surpassing the projected 240,000

• The project also documented key youth employment barriers and supported advocacy efforts led by young people themselves.

Project legacy

Beyond numbers, RAYEE leaves behind a stronger youth employment ecosystem, trained professionals, and a model of inclusive employment that can be scaled for the future. The stories of these young people, now shared in a dedicated publication, demonstrate what is possible when aspirations meet opportunity.

Mastercard Foundation: Young Africa Works

The Mastercard Foundation funded the SNV RAYEE project as part of its Young Africa Works strategy. The Foundation recently launched this strategy with the target of creating meaningful employment for 30 million young people across Africa by 2030, including 10 million in Ethiopia. The strategy aimed to establish, operate and provide programmes and services to help children and young people access education, understand and utilise technology, and develop the skills necessary to succeed in a diverse and global workforce.

Young Africa Works also provided micro-finance programmes and services to financially disadvantaged persons and communities in order to economically enhance communities and develop entrepreneurs as a means of relieving poverty.