Working Paper 204 - Skills and Youth Entrepreneurship in Africa: Analysis with Evidence from Swaziland

For the past decade, Swaziland, as most of the other middle income countries in Southern Africa (e.g., Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa) has been among the slow growing economies on the continent. With high unemployment and youth unemployment, inclusive growth in the region has remained elusive (Jauch, 2011; Ncube et al., 2014). Despite the oversized public sectors, the overall employment has been low, reflecting limited private sector job creation and entrepreneurship, both in the formal and informal sector. The countries were also negatively impacted by the global financial crisis, either through trade with Europe – directly (South Africa), via South Africa (Lesotho and Swaziland) – or through fall in commodity export proceeds (Botswana, Namibia).