Jobs and Development Conference 2024: Addressing Labor Market Challenges in Developing Economies

Overview and Description

The Jobs and Development Conference 2024 will be hosted by J-PAL MENA at AUC, Cairo, Egypt. It is organized in collaboration with the World Bank, the International Labor Organization (ILO), UNU-WIDER, the Institute for Structural Research (IBS, Poland), the Development Policy Research Unit at University of Cape Town (DPRU, South Africa), and the HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies (IEMS, Hong Kong).

Additionally, the participation of a number of African scholars this year is being funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. These organizations combine expertise and experience in labor market dynamics and economic policy.

This is the seventh edition of the Jobs and Development Conference , which will focus on addressing key issues such as job creation, skills development, and inclusive economic policies. The conference gathers researchers, policymakers, and experts to discuss job challenges in low- and middle-income countries. It will include keynote speeches, panel discussions, and over 50 paper presentations focusing on youth employment, gender, labor markets, and technological change to advance global knowledge on jobs and development policies.

Session Recordings

Day 1:

Watch the sessions on Population and Economic Growth here>>

Watch the session on Randomized Evaluations in MENA here >>

Day 2:

Watch the opening session on The Human Centered Economy here>>

Speakers

• Ahmed Elsayed

Executive Director of J-PAL MENA 

• Ahmed Galal 

Chairman of the board of the MENA Health Policy Forum

• Annabelle Krause-Pilate 

Deputy Program Coordinator of the "Gender, Growth and Labor Markets in Low Income Countries" (G²LM|LIC) program at IZA (Institute of Labor Economics) in Bonn, Germany

• Christine Valentine 

Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol, an IZA Research Fellow and J-PAL Affiliate

• Colin D. Sullivan 

Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh

• David Lam

Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, Research Professor Emeritus Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research University of Michigan 

• Federica Saliola 

Advisor and Lead Economist in the World Bank's Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation Global Practice

• Frederico Gil Sander 

Practice Manager of the Global Macroeconomics and Debt unit in the Macroeconomics, Trade, and Investment (MTI) Global Practice at World Bank

• Gary Fields

Professor of Economics Emeritus at Cornell University

• Haroon Bhorat

Director of the Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town

• Kunal Sen

Director of UNU-WIDER

• Lawrence Jeff Johnson 

Deputy Director for Research at ILO

• Mahreen Mahmud 

Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Exeter

• Marc Witte

Assistant professor at the department of Economics of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

• Nadir Mohamed

Regional Director for Prosperity in the Middle East and North Africa region at World Bank

• Nicola Branson

Chief Research Officer in the Southern Africa Labor and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) in the School of Economics, University of Cape Town

• Piotr Lewandowski

President of the Board at the Institute for Structural Research (IBS), Warsaw, Poland

• Ragui Assaad 

Freeman Chair in International Economic Policy at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota

• Richard Samans 

Director of the International Labor Organization's Research Department