Under the Asia Middle East Economic Growth Best Practices (AMEG) project, Banyan Global worked with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Middle East Bureau to identify approaches and successful case studies of multifaceted solutions to sustainable job creation in high-unemployment countries. The assignment identified practical tools to integrate job creation and job placement best practices and lessons learned into economic growth programming in the Middle East region. The final deliverable was a Middle East-focused job creation and job placement report, “Best Practices and Approaches for Better Employment Outcomes in the Middle East Region,” which includes a primer on best practices, sample indicators, case studies of several types of employment generation/job placement approaches, and sample scopes of work that can be used by USAID field officers. As a diagnostic tool on how best to apply these approaches and case studies to the Middle East context, the report highlights the critical job creation and job placement success factors demonstrated in each approach and the relevance of these success factors to Middle East developing countries. The report also contains suggested indicators to track progress and results of Middle East job creation and job placement programs.

Banyan Global’s team gathered secondary and primary data to analyze approximately 15 projects that incorporated demand-driven, private sector-oriented, and cost-effective approaches to job creation for vulnerable populations. We researched and wrote the part of the report focusing on sustainable livelihoods approaches that foster self-employment or enhanced micro or small business employment. We gathered the information through field assessments to analyze a small number of high impact approaches in detail.