Fight against unemployment: a priority for Djibouti

        Job insertion program to bridge the gap between job offer and demand 

In Djibouti, young people represent a significant fringe of the population, 73% of its population is under 35 years.  Despite positive economic growth for nearly a decade, Djibouti suffers from persistent high unemployment, especially among young people.  As part of the Djibouti 2035 vision, the government has placed at the center of its policy the fight against unemployment and job creation to curb the effects of youth unemployment.

To strengthen youth resilience, UNDP supports the Ministry of Labor, thanks to the funds from Japan, in improving access to employment opportunities for youth by promoting cooperation between the public and private sectors. To bridge the gap between job supply and demand, they have launched a new job insertion project that enables unemployed youth to acquire the skills needed by employers and match youth skills with business needs. This job insertion  program, launched for the first time in 2018, thanks to this partnership, had enabled the integration of 240 young people, 73% of whom (58% women) found a job after the program.

According to the head of this project at the Embassy of Japan in Djibouti, this project aims to strengthen the existing twinning mechanism between unemployed youth and employers, mainly private companies that are constantly looking for skilled labor.

In 2020, the 90 young people from Djibouti city and the five regions have been trained to acquire the basic business skills required by employers who are constantly looking for qualified human resources. Kere, a young person from the Allieh Sabieh region, who graduated in 2013, was very happy to have been selected to participate in the job insertion program. "I've been looking for work for almost 6 years and this training will enable me to acquire wide range of skills necessary to successfully start my professional life.”

Since November 2020, the selected young people do internships in a private sector company across a wide range of sectors such as tourism, logistics, services in order to acquire the skills and abilities needed in the field.

Fayçal Abdallah, trainee at the Illeyeh garage is one of the young people who benefit from this program. Young Djiboutian, 30 years old and a graduate electrician and auto mechanic for 10 years, he was unemployed. Before, he had knocked on every door, but his attempts were unsuccessful. The internship allowed him to improve his knowledge in the field of automotive electricity. He is very optimistic to be recruited at the end of his training because he is well aware of his professional abilities which could be useful to his employer.  He would like to thank ANEFIP and the UNDP, but also the Japanese embassy for making this training possible. He advises young people that they must not be discouraged and that they should train to find a decent job