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This paper discusses a randomized control trial to measure the short-term impacts of a skills intervention among urban youth in Sierra Leone at the onset of the Ebola crisis. The intervention provided (i) technical skills training, plus on-the-job training; (ii) business skills training; and (iii) a mix of (i) and (ii). All groups received stipends and literacy and numeracy training. The findings support evidence that combining cash injections and skills training can stimulate employment and entrepreneurship. The program boosted household consumption and investments in housing and assets, thereby building resilience to the Ebola shock. The effects on cognitive and noncognitive skills were positive and heterogeneous. Youth with greater initial ability experienced more positive labor market and entrepreneurship investment impacts. Youth with less initial ability upgraded skills more extensively, although they channeled benefits into more consumption. These findings emphasize the role of basic safety nets and show that noncognitive tests may improve the targeting of skills interventions in fragile contexts. The results also confirm the age-malleability of noncognitive ability and suggest that, in low-ability contexts, the sensitive years for skill investments may reach into early adulthood.

Capital --- Impact Evaluation --- Skills --- Social Protection --- Youth

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This paper provides evidence on the labor productivity growth and employment impacts of foreign direct investment in selected countries in Africa over the years 2001-2012. It uses data from five emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and advanced countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America). The estimation, using system generalized method of moments, shows that foreign direct investment from emerging economies and advanced countries has increased labor productivity growth and employment in Africa, when human capital and governance are controlled for. However, the level of impact varies based on the origin of investment.

International Economics and Trade --- Social Protection and Labor

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The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development's Goal for Gender Equality (SDG5 to: Achieve Gender Equality and Empower Women and Girls) sets a series of ambitious targets that will measure progress towards attaining this goal. One such target is to: 'eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation. In this paper we examine how efforts to achieve legal identity for all, including birth registration for all, can contribute to ending child marriage. The authors begin by setting out the current context presenting data on child marriage and its impacts and then turn to birth registration drawing out its links with fundamental human rights and development goals. We then present estimates of the numbers of unregistered children in the world's global regions based on the World Bank Identification for Development Initiative (ID4D) dataset. The authors turn next to the link between birth registration and child marriage rates6 using data on birth registration in the 106 countries for which authors also have data on child marriage. The authors find a correlation between high birth registration rates and low child marriage rates and discuss this link in the context of evidence on the underlying causes and drivers of child marriage. The authors explore the links between birth registration and child marriage in greater depth in two case studies: the first one examines the role of identity papers, particularly birth and marriage certificates, in the enforcement of minimum age of marriage laws for Syrian refugees in Jordan; the second one discusses how a recently adopted strategy to streamline the process for obtaining birth certificates in Indonesia can contribute to reducing child marriage. Despite evidence of a correlation, however, a policy pursuing universal birth registration is unlikely to have impact on child marriage rates unless it is embedded in broader efforts to end child marriage, including legal reform, advocacy, and national and local policies and programs which work with communities to change social norms and are designed to reach people that are at risk from being excluded from national efforts, for example refugees and internally displaced peoples.

Gender --- Gender and Social Policy --- Human Rights --- Information and Communication Technologies --- Law and Development --- Law Enforcement --- Refugees --- Social Protection and Labor Policy Systems --- Social Protection and Risk Management

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This policy note outlines options for aid coordination and delivery in Yemen. It draws on a vast amount of experiences and lessons learned from post-conflict recovery and peace building processes both in Yemen and elsewhere over the past decade.Its central message is that timely international support and targeted financial aid will be critical to the implementation of a new peace agreement in Yemen, but delivery ofthis support will have to be carefully designed, sequenced, and coordinated in order to overcome divisions and assist Yemen in addressing the challenges driving the cyclical nature of conflict in the country.This note highlights the importance of focusing efforts in the immediate termon sequencing and coordinating while the conflict is ongoing, and negotiations move forward to support immediate recovery programming once negotiations achieve a positive outcome.This note argues that the peace dividend, that is recovery and development, and humanitarian assistance need to be effective immediately to build peace and overcome the causes of conflict. At the same time such arrangements should strengthen national systems and capacities that are needed toeliminate poverty, promote development objectives, and help to build peace.These challenges are compounded by the fact that expectations will be extremely high during the immediate aftermath of the latest round of conflict,absorptive capacity will remain limited for years to come, and the government capacity to deliver will be hindered by its lack of access and legitimacy in certain parts of the country even following a peace agreement.

Conflict and Development --- International Governmental Organizations --- Social Protection and Risk Management

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Centralized targeting registries are increasingly used to allocate social assistance benefits in developing countries. There are two key design issues that matter for targeting accuracy: (i) which households to survey for inclusion in the registry and (ii) how to rank surveyed households. The authors attempt to identify their relative importance by evaluating Indonesia's Unified Database for Social Protection Programs (UDB), among the largest targeting registries in the world, used to provide social assistance to over 25 million households. Linking administrative data with an independent household survey, they find that the UDB system is more progressive than previous, program-specific targeting approaches. However, simulating an alternative targeting system based on enumerating all households, they find a one-third reduction in undercoverage of the poor compared to focusing on households registered in the UDB. Overall, there are large gains in targeting performance from improving the initial registration stage relative to the ranking stage.

Poverty --- Poverty Impact Evaluation --- Poverty Reduction --- Proxy-Means Testing --- Social Protection --- Targeting --- Transport --- Urban Development