Working for Yemen's Future

“I will never forget the moment I entered the job fair and saw all of these companies at my disposal. I was so moved by this. When young graduates find a place where companies welcome them and offer them jobs, it’s like an unreal world.” – Rana Gazem Ahmed Moheddine

Rana is a Yemeni college student who will graduate this year with a bachelor’s degree in business. She and her peers face extraordinary challenges finding jobs and planning for their futures. Their war-torn country is suffering an economic and humanitarian crisis that has driven its people to the brink of famine. Yemen’s population is one of the youngest in the world, with 75 percent under 30 years old. Faced with these obstacles, many young people turn to criminal activity and political violence. For Yemen to advance on its journey to stability and self-reliance, young people, like Rana, must be empowered to find sustainable work.

In countries around the world, USAID is leveraging private-sector partnerships to help young people find jobs, which in turn gives rise to economic growth and political stability. Yemen is no exception. Even though violent conflict forced the closure of the U.S. Embassy and the suspension of USAID development projects in 2015, USAID continues to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance and to support critical economic stabilization efforts throughout the country.

USAID’s Yemen Economic Stabilization and Success (YESS) program pilots enterprise-led solutions to Yemen’s social and political challenges. This market-driven approach grows the economy by generating thousands of sustainable jobs and enhancing competitiveness in key growth sectors. YESS targets high-potential small- and medium-sized enterprises because they serve as engines of growth and play a catalytic role in economic recovery and community revitalization. The program also helps health care institutions and employment agencies fill critical gaps caused by the economic and humanitarian crisis.

The process begins by identifying growing businesses and asking them what their main obstacles are. The program then offers those companies technical and training assistance to expand sales and create jobs. Because companies overwhelmingly report that they can’t find enough qualified employees, a team of local and international YESS business advisors responds by matching partnering companies with strong candidates and then providing those candidates with the training they need to succeed in their new careers. “This isn’t cash for work,” says Boutheina Lassadi, YESS Workforce Development Team Lead. “We’re matching young people with real careers that have opportunities for advancement.” To ensure sustainable impact, the program partners with the Ministry of Education, colleges and vocational institutions, and other major training programs to ensure that graduates are well-prepared for the labor market.

While there are other programs in Yemen that provide job training, USAID’s approach is unique in its commitment to supporting young people through the full job search process—from training to applying, interviewing, securing jobs, and ultimately advancing in their careers. Rana is one of the thousands of young Yemenis this year to have utilized USAID support through the complete job cycle. She began by participating in a YESS training session at her community college. Based on her performance, the team encouraged her to apply for the USAID-sponsored Aden Job Fair, an invitation-only event where 22 businesses would interview for open positions. Of the 2,000 young people who applied for the event, 600 were selected to participate. Rana was one of them.

Before the fair, participants took part in YESS-led workshops on CV writing and interviewing, while partnering businesses received training on writing job descriptions and selecting qualified candidates. This support was crucial for Rana and her peers. “It is difficult to get a job these days,” she explains. “Jobs are only available based on who you know, so young graduates are afraid they will be rejected if they go and apply for jobs. This is really challenging for young people, this feeling of depression from not finding a job.”

In October, the Aden Job Fair was not only the city’s first employment event in over three years, but it was also Yemen’s first-ever job fair organized through a digital job matching platform. Rana applied to interview at the event on AnaMehani.com, Yemen’s premier job matching website. AnaMehani—which translates to “I am professional”—is a new business run by a young Yemeni entrepreneur who volunteered to promote the event to young people across the country, growing his business in the process.

"I will never forget the moment I entered the job fair and saw all of these companies at my disposal,” Rana recalls. “I was so moved by this. When young graduates find a place where companies welcome them and offer them jobs, it’s like an unreal world.”

Rana was one of many young people to receive a job offer on the spot that day. In fact, the participating companies indicated that they planned to retain more than 100 candidates from the job fair alone. While Rana is delighted to have an offer for a position in her chosen field, she shares that the greatest reward she took away from the experience was confidence. “The next time I interview for a job, I will not be afraid anymore. This was a starting point for me.”

In the past year, USAID’s YESS program has partnered with over 100 small-and-medium-sized businesses in Yemen to generate over 3,000 jobs. As for the fair’s greatest impact? For Lassadi, the answer is clear: “We gave hope to youth on that day.”

USAID’s Yemen Economic Stabilization and Success (YESS) program supports self-reliance and resilience by facilitating trade, increasing employment, supporting sustainable livelihoods, and stabilizing crucial macroeconomic policy issues. In the past year, YESS has leveraged private-sector commitments to generate over 3,000 jobs for at-risk populations by June 2019, built international stakeholder support for a trade facilitation agreement, provided livelihood support to over 3,000 farmers, and assisted the Central Bank of Yemen to articulate major macro-financial reform challenges and support needs. The program is part of the USAID Middle East Economic Growth Best Practices Project, which provides the Middle East Bureau, field missions, and operating units with tools to support economic growth and reform across the Middle East and North Africa.