UNU-WIDER at the 2024 Jobs for Development conference

The Jobs and Development Conference (#Jobs4Dev) is a global event co-organized by the World Bank, UNU-WIDER, the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the Network on Jobs and Development (NJD)—a partnership of research institutes from various regions of the world: Development Policy Research Unit at University of Cape Town (DPRU, South Africa), HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies (HKUST IEMS, Hong Kong), Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER, India), and Institute for Structural Research (IBS, Poland).

The conference takes place on 8 and 9 October 2024, in Cairo, Egypt. The two-day format will feature keynote speeches, a policy panel, special sessions and about 50 paper presentations in parallel sessions. The event will focus on policy-relevant research, applicable to identifying solutions to jobs challenges in low- and middle-income countries.

To expand the frontiers of global knowledge around jobs and advance the discussion on the most effective policies, we are interested in policy-relevant papers on all topics in labor and development economics, but especially in papers that focus on:

• Society, Economic Activity and the Environment
• Trade and Labor issues
• Labor Market Programmes and Regulation
• Youth Employment
• Gender and Labor Markets
• Immigration, Migration and Skills
• Structural Transformation and Technological Change
• Greening, Just Transition, Energy and Jobs
• Skills and Lifelong Learning

This year, UNU-WIDER researchers will present their work on various labour-related topics.

Kunal Sen presents on the UNU-WIDER book, Tasks, Skills and Institutions: The Changing Nature of Work & Inequality. The session presents the findings on new analysis and empirical data of the occupational structure of labour markets in 12 countries in the Global South as a part of the UNU-WIDER project The changing nature of work and inequality.

Aimable Nsabimana presents findings from upcoming research Local economic shocks and human capital accumulation: Evidence from Rwandan coffee mills, in a session on society, economic activity and the environment.

In sessions focusing on employment and youth employment, Ricardo Santos presents findings from recent Inclusive Growth in Mozambique project working paper, Informed job entry - Does labour market information speed job-taking in Mozambique?, Rodrigo Oliveira shares findings on job training programmes' benefits from the context of high-dosage programme in Brazil. Additionally, Sam Jones presents on WIDER Working Paper Sheepskin effects and heterogenous wage-setting behaviour: evidence from Mozambique.