Green Jobs, Skills and Circular Economy
Under our Climate Resilience pillar, we focus on enhancing the resilience of communities vulnerable to climate change and environmental degradation by promoting solutions aligned with green growth, circular economy principles, and market-driven skill enhancement for job creation.
What is a Green economy?
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 2013) defined a green economy as "one that results in improved human well-being and social equity while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities". A green economy should be low-carbon, resource-efficient and socially inclusive. A circular economy supports the transformation and development of industry and infrastructure towards sustainable consumption and production.
This transition towards sustainable economies will create new jobs in green industries. Still, the skills gap may hinder access to these opportunities due to a mismatch between the skills gained through education and green sector demands, potentially contributing to unemployment or underemployment. An education and training system must be ready to prepare unemployed youth with the skills needed for this transition, provide them with social protections, and contribute to preventing poverty. Among other education and training providers, TVET institutions will have the opportunity to be a catalyst towards green transformations and sustainable economies.
Main challenges
Communities in lower-income countries face interconnected challenges, such as a lack of income opportunities and limited access to education and skills development. In sub-Saharan Africa, 70% of the population is under 30, requiring the relevant skills and competencies to take advantage of potential employment opportunities. Compounding this issue is the disproportionately high rate of youth unemployment compared to adults, with young women facing even more significant obstacles to education and employment.
Furthermore, the planet faces a complex environmental crisis with climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. The unsustainable global economic model, characterised by massive resource extraction, rapid urbanisation, growing consumption, and waste generation, exacerbates environmental pressures, highlighting the urgent need to transition to a green, circular economy.
Our expertise
Our expertise includes supporting MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) in the green economy to develop their skills, capacities, and markets to create sustainable and decent jobs. We also support the private sector in greening their practices using circular economy principles.
In Mongolia, the Switch On the Green Economy (SOGE) project supports agri-food and beverage MSMEs and retailers adopting circular economy practices through a market-based eco-labelling system, capacity building, behaviour change and access to green finance. The SOGE project aims to facilitate Mongolia's transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient circular economy while simultaneously expediting poverty reduction efforts. This project aligns with the country's national strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 22.7% by 2030.
Our approach emphasizes market-driven skills enhancement and collaboration with educational institutions (especially TVET) and with the labor market to ensure trainings align with the skills needed for current and future markets. These solutions ensure that educational curricula match the evolving labour market demands concerning green and circular economy sectors, thereby reducing youth unemployment.
In Cambodia, the ACQUA project aims to improve the quality of secondary technical education nationwide. The project improves access to market-oriented livestock and food processing curricula with integrated aquaculture modules at the national level. It also enables secondary technical institutions to deliver quality aquaculture education and training at the provincial level.
A systemic approach
To achieve long-term sustainability, our systemic approach targets the underlying barriers to development, strengthening the connection between green sectors and vocational education and training. We do so while focusing on inclusion and resilience, poverty reduction, and decent working conditions. Instead of providing direct assistance to a limited number of people, we present sustainable systemic changes that affect local markets on a large scale.
The economic value chains and vocational education are connected systems that mutually support each other and cannot develop independently.
In Ethiopia, our LISEC project contributed to developing the circular economy and reducing the leather industry's environmental impact by transforming waste into valuable products. Cooperation between the leather sector and TVET colleges was critical to ensure a match between new skills needed in managing waste and job opportunities.