Rockefeller looks to new digital skills for Africa's youth

Africa’s populations are growing at a rapid pace and job opportunities are not keeping up with the growth, particularly among the youth. Youth unemployment is increasingly a challenge in many African countries and to overcome this.

The Rockefeller Foundation launched the Digital Jobs Africa (DJA) initiative in 2013. This was done to catalyse new, sustainable employment opportunities and skills training for African youth, with a focus on the ICT sector. The goal of the DJA initiative is to influence change in business practice by demonstrating the value of impact sourcing and contribute to the social and economic well-being of the youth and their circle of influence.

In order to influence change in business practices, the DJA initiative needs to identify and showcase the benefits of impact sourcing to increase commitment to this among new corporate partners. Genesis was contracted in 2016 to fulfill this objective as the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) partner for the DJA. In this role, Genesis:

• Developed a detailed results chain to understand the systems-wide changes that The Rockefeller Foundation sought to influence.
• Collaboratively and iteratively designed a monitoring system to gather data from grantees.
• Prepared quarterly and annual synthesis reports for The Rockefeller Foundation.
• Conducted an end-term evaluation of impact that used youth case studies to amplify youth’s voice.