Hard Work: Youth Employment Programming in Honiara, Solomon Islands

employment issues and constraints in Honiara; ii) examine international evidence and experience relating to job creation programs and their capacity to address youth unemployment; iii) provide a summary of the two Honiara-based employment programs together with an overview of available data relating to their effectiveness (as well as a discussion of evidence gaps); and iv) within the limits of the available evidence, assess the extent to which these programs are fostering youth work and addressing employment constraints in Honiara, reflecting lessons from international experience. A further point of discussion will be the extent to which these programs can be said to be contributing to increased social stability in the capital. The first part of the paper commences with an overview of the position of youth in Solomon Islands, including a discussion of the youth labour market in Honiara and factors influencing the formal and informal employment dynamics of the country. A broader examination of Solomon Islands’ economic and sociocultural context is then provided, including issues of political economy. This analysis suggests that employment in the Solomon Islands context is, and will remain, different from that experienced in many other contexts, requiring targeted policy responses. Having set the context for the analysis, the second part of the paper commences with an overview of international practice in the area of youth employment programming, before turning to an overview of REP and Y@W, together with an assessment of their achievements using available program data. Drawing on this analysis, a number of tentative policy implications for current, and future, youth employment initiatives are presented. SSGM DISCUSSION PAPER 2016/7 Hard Work: Youth Employment Programming in Honiara, Solomon Islands