The Taqeem Initiative is a partnership between ILO and IFAD as part of an IFAD-financed project, titled “Strengthening gender monitoring and evaluation in rural employment in the Near East and North Africa.” Through rigorous impact research, this capacity development and learning grant project aims to understand “what works” in youth employment, with the ultimate goal of achieving gender equality in rural employment outcomes across the region. Taqeem (meaning “evaluation” in Arabic) advocates to strengthen evidence-based employment policies and provides technical and financial support to implementers of employment programmes targeting young people and women in rural areas.

The Taqeem Initiative champions evidence-based policies and programmes to improve employment opportunities for young people and promote women’s empowerment in the Middle East and North Africa region. An iterative cycle of capacity development, impact research and policy dialogue aims to strengthen programme management and gender mainstreaming of government institutions, workers and employers organizations, NGOs and other development partners. A Community of Practice (CoP) of gender-focused and youth-serving implementing organizations receives technical assistance to improve results measurement strategies. Basic and advanced evaluation workshops train youth employment practitioners as well as researchers. Delivered in partnership with ITC/ILO they cover impact evaluation methods, innovative tools for measuring women’s empowerment and provide step-by-step guidance for conducting assessments of labour market programmes. Through the Fund for Evaluation, Taqeem and its partners 3ie and IDRC provide seed funding for impact evaluations to build a critical mass of evidence on their effectiveness and how they can enhance labour market outcomes. Taqeem manages a broad portfolio of impact assessments that evaluate employment interventions focused at rural populations, young people and women. Selected research proposals pilot the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI). Technical support ranges from grant management to data collection and analysis. Evidence Symposiums, Policy Roundtables and an interactive online knowledge-platform target policy-makers and practitioners and disseminate findings from impact research. The objective is to ensure gender and rural mainstreaming in youth employment strategies. Recommendations are validated by stakeholders on the national level where partners, such as the Population Council (in Egypt) facilitate productive dialogue and evidence-uptake.

International Labour Organization (ILO); International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); International Development Research Centre (IDRC); International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie); Population Council