Young people in Mozambique face a daunting challenge of securing work with 300,000 youths joining the labor force every year and with very few jobs being created in the formal market. Almost three-quarters of these youth end up working in the informal market, with the situation being much worse for women, especially young women. Young girls are more likely to work as unpaid family workers and be taken out of school to care for younger siblings. At the same time, Mozambique is facing a human resource shortage in the health and social sectors making it difficult to deliver on its promise to provide such services to its population. This dual crisis of youth unemployment and human resource needs for the health and social sectors provides a unique opportunity of creating an employment market that helps meet both goals.

Purpose To investigate the potential of this market, YouthPower2: Learning and Evaluation (YP2LE) conducted a comprehensive mixed-method assessment from April 2020 – December 2020. This report documents the findings from the assessment and provides recommendations for creating a market of youth employment in the health and social sectors. The assessment included: 1) a literature review covering the period 2015 – 2020, 2) 16 focus group discussions with 162 male and female youth ages 18-35 in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas of Mozambique, 3) 46 key-informant interviews with a variety of stakeholders, 4) an online survey of 72 youth, and 5) an observation and mapping exercise of current businesses operating around nine health facilities in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. Each of these methods provided unique insights into the problem and solution of youth employment.

View the Opportunities for Youth Employment in the Health and Social Sectors in Mozambique report.