More and better jobs for developing nations

Job creation is an immense global challenge. More than 200 million people worldwide are unemployed, many of them young people. Another 2 billion working age adults - mostly women - remain outside the workforce.

With the world's population growing rapidly, 600 million more jobs will need to be created during the next 15 years. Sub-Saharan Africa alone will need 11 million new jobs a year through 2030. In many places, the need for jobs will intensify social and political pressures, contributing to international migration. Above all, job creation will be the key factor for developing countries to reduce poverty, improve people's lives, and reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Creating more and better jobs requires economic transformation: moving workers from lower to higher productivity activities. It also means a spatial transformation with urbanization pulling villagers into secondary towns and cities. This shift will need to be led by the private sector, the main engine of job growth. For this to happen on a large enough scale, we need to look at what has worked best to create jobs, focusing on sectors that have the highest potential.