Literature review – Education and employment for refugee children and youth
IOB has initiated an external literature review of what is known of the effectiveness of initiatives in the areas of education for refugee children and employment for refugee youth in the MENA region and the Horn of Africa. The review is based on publicly available material in English (evaluations, scientific and grey literature).
A first finding is that this material does not permit firm conclusions on what works and which specific interventions need to be supported. Future interventions require better monitoring and evaluation, with specific attention for gender. Potentially, the following initiatives seem most promising:
Education: teacher training, improving access to education both in refugee camps and in existing schools, conditional cash transfers, accredition and curriculum reform (especially with respect to the language of instruction).
Employment: offering a long-term perspective, combining different types of activities and with attention to the legal obstacles that prevent youth to work in the host country.
For both sectors, it is important to avoid blue-prints and to undertake context-specific needs analyses and a detailed inventory of already existing activities of both national and international stakeholders.