A joint post by PhD alumni Racky Balde and Elvis Avenyo. … The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated counter-measures continue to shed light on the social and economic challenges facing African countries. Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa countries is expected to decline, putting pressure on already limited fiscal space and resources in the region. The worst affected will be people working in the informal economy, which in most African countries represents the biggest part of the econom...
The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the global economy, with world output contracting at 3.5% in 2020, and no recovery likely before the fourth quarter of 2021. Similar to other developing regions, sub-Saharan Africa recorded a 2.6% decline, following strong growth of 3.2% in 2019. Unfortunately, this comes at a time when the region has been experiencing a surprising and very welcome manufacturing renaissance. Historically, industrialisation has been associated with rapid technological im...
Inspired by the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, this series is the product of an international team from UNU-MERIT that first came together in the summer of 2020. It aims to provide a substantial and accessible platform in the fight against racism, articulated by young African thought-leaders who put a premium on robust debate and other non-violent approaches. #blacklivesmatter #whiteforblack … One issue barely registers in the Black Lives Matter movement, and that is the career challenges ...
A new report out from the International Labour Organization features contributions from five researchers at UNU-MERIT. Along with the ILO’s youth employment specialist Drew Gardiner, Micheline Goedhuys collaborated with Alison Cathles, Chen Gong, Michelle González Amador and Eleonora Nillesen. The report begins with two main questions: How can young people around the world – even the most marginalised – navigate the fast-moving currents of modern labour markets? How can UN agencies, nation...
Marking International Migrants Day, 18 December 2019, our new Director of Executive Education and Capacity Building in Migration at UNU-MERIT, Nava Hinrichs, joined a conference on “Advancing Human Capital Development through Migration and Innovation” at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, based in Vienna. Contributing to a panel discussion on “Harnessing innovation to promote prosperous, diverse and inclusive societies”, Nava spoke on three key points, outlined below. Firs...
The Great Recession of the late 2000s hit Europe hard, with the perfect storm of an economic downturn and a productivity slowdown. What’s more, it compounded years of already anaemic growth. Since then, EU states and agencies have worked hard to contain these problems, but a decade later there are still no comprehensive solutions. A new EU-funded project involving Prof. Pierre Mohnen and Assistant Prof. Tania Treibich aims to change all that. GROWINPRO will provide a raft of joined-up policies t...
Labour market experts Inge Hooijen and Julia Reinold researched the mobility intentions and behaviour of graduates in the Meuse–Rhine Euroregion – the borderlands of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands – and found that big life decisions are down to more than an attractive labour market. “Obviously the hard factors play a role: you might not find a job in the region or leave for a better opportunity elsewhere,” explains Hooijen. “But we found that soft factors are really important too – from re...
When people ask me where I’m from, I pause. I take a deep breath and try to decide if I should give the long story or the short story. I was born in Abergavenny, a small town in Wales. When I was one year old, we moved to Hong Kong, and spent an amazing 10 years living there....