Project background

Given the high levels of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, rising inequalities in many countries, growing population and high levels of inequality, unemployment and underemployment, in particular among young people and women, more and better jobs are an absolute necessity in the region.

The STRENGTHEN2 project, hosted in the EMPINVEST branch of the ILO’s Employment Policy Department, is a joint initiative of the European Union and the ILO that focuses on job creation through investments. Launched in August 2020, the project is a strategic partnership with the overall goal of leveraging employment impact assessments to promote the creation of more and better jobs in sub-Saharan African countries.

The project pursues two objectives:

• To enhance the capacity to assess the employment outcomes of EU-funded investments and programmes in sub–Saharan African partner countries”.
• To support African partner countries and EC services to design and finance investments and programs with a relatively rich employment content.”

STRENGTHEN2 is scheduled to end in July 2024 and builds on earlier ILO work, more concretely, efforts undertaken as part of the now concluded first STRENGTHEN project. The project collaborates closely with the Mainstreaming Employment into Trade and Investment in the Southern Neighbourhood project (METI), which covers related issues for countries in the Middle East and North Africa.