Beyond training: What actually shapes young women's economic options

Beyond Training: What Actually Shapes Young Women’s Economic Options draws on BLOOM Africa’s Labour Market Assessments⁣ in Somaliland, Tanzania (Dar es Salaam) and Rwanda. The brief finds that adolescent girls and young women are not shut out of higher-value livelihoods because they lack interest or ability, but because gender expectations shape the systems around them. Family permission, safety, mobility, care work, employer attitudes and limited access to finance all influence whether skills turn into real income. The brief outlines six findings and what BLOOM can do about each, from pairing training with work on social norms to engaging employers, strengthening protection from harassment and gender-based violence, and tailoring support to young mothers, youth with disabilities and internally displaced persons. It concludes that BLOOM’s gender-transformative approach should change the conditions young women enter the labour market under, so that skills lead to dignified work, agency and income they control.