The digital economy can create new job opportunities for young women and help address the
persistent gender disparity in the labor market.
Jobs involving remote, online, flexible work can help young women overcome mobility constraints, challenge restrictive gender norms, and reduce longstanding occupational segregation in traditionally male-dominated industries. However, , and also move up to higher skilled and higher paying digital jobs over time.
The economic impact of #COVID19 will hit developing countries hard. What can be done to support companies and preserve jobs? Join IFC’s Chief Operating Officer, Stephanie von Friedeburg, for discussion on the topic.
Join us on Monday, February 3, 2020 for this special job fair to learn about over 100 
exciting positions that the World Bank is looking to fill by June this year.
As part of a recruitment drive to increase its support for countries dealing with fragility, conflict and violence (FCV), the World Bank Group invites applications from qualified candidates interested in international development. The majority of positions will be located in Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and East Asia.
In recent months across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, youth have been taking to the streets in ever larger numbers to demand improvements in governance, transparency, service delivery, the environment, and job opportunities.
One of the advantages of artificial intelligence (AI) is that it can help us carry out tasks 
faster and with fewer errors than humans. I wanted to test this on analyzing labor market demand and skills gaps. So, earlier this year, I partnered with Headai, a Finnish company, to apply an AI-enabled labor market assessment tool in Kenya. We used the tool to analyze: (a) online job advertisements from select online job portals in Kenya and (b) computer science curricula from the University of Nairobi and Moi University to identify the gaps between what the labor market is looking for and what the university curriculum is providing.
There are uncertainties and misconceptions about the impact of digital technologies on
the future of work. Will robots replace humans in the work place? Will digital technologies create a new “digital divide” and widen inequalities between the higher-educated connected and lower-educated unconnected people? Will new opportunities open up for African countries to create jobs, improve incomes, reduce poverty and climb up the development ladder?
The force of digitalization is driving the global economy, creating distinct groups of 
leaders and laggards. Through institutional reform that leverages the advantages of digitalization, the Mashreq can become a vital hub in international data networks. Furthermore, digital transformation can assuage pressing challenges. It can deliver higher transparency, accelerate lackluster productivity and increase economic opportunities for all, especially the youth of this region. A new report, Mashreq 2.0, charts the roadmap for the region to capitalize on this rapidly emerging opportunity, and assesses the prospect of a digitally integrated regional market.
What are the pathways people follow to better jobs? Economies grow when more people 
find work, when they get better at what they do, and when they move from low-productivity work to better, higher-productivity jobs. Our newest report `Pathways to better jobs in IDA countries’ takes a closer look at how people benefit through jobs in the process of development. It identifies how the available jobs change with economic transformation and shows how the structure of labor markets differs between low, lower-middle, and middle-income countries. It points to key challenges in ensuring that workers can transition between sectors, between locations, and between self- and waged employment.
Is new technology “transformative” or “disruptive”? I’ve heard this topic hotly debated 
at meetings both within the World Bank and more broadly. The issue is not just linguistic hair-splitting. Technology optimists prefer the first term and see new technologies, digitization in particular, as an opportunity for low-income developing countries to leapfrog into the 21st century. Moonshot Africa, an ambitious World Bank initiative to connect individuals, firms, and governments in Africa to fast internet is inspired by this vision. Technology pessimists on the other hand emphasize the disruptive effects digital technologies are expected to have on labor markets. Concerns about robots and algorithms replacing human labor increasingly dominate the public debate not only in advanced economies, but also in emerging and developing economies. Against this background, it is natural to ask how these two views are compatible. To be more specific: How will Moonshot Africa create jobs on a continent where job creation is needed more than anywhere else in the world with Africa’s working-age population projected to rise by 70% in the next twenty years?
Over the next decade, close to 600 million people will be looking for jobs, mostly in the 
world’s poorest countries.
The South Asia region alone will need to create more than 13 million jobs every year to keep pace with its demographics. In Sub-Saharan Africa, despite a smaller population, the challenge will be even greater—15 million jobs will need to be created each year.
Netherlands for the World Bank 
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