Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa Toolkit

Business mentoring programmes pair experienced business professionals (mentors) with less experienced entrepreneurs (mentees) for the purpose of guidance, support, and knowledge transfer. Business mentors help mentees build skills by providing advice and feedback on their business practices.

✅The impact of business mentoring programme

Overall, business mentoring has a significant but small size effect on employment, equivalent to an 2% increase compared to a comparison group not receiving business mentoring. There is a similar size effect on skills and a slightly smaller effect on wages and earnings.

🌎In what contexts are business mentoring programmes implemented?

Business mentoring programmes have been implemented in various contexts such as

• post-conflict environments
• humanitarian crises and economic downturns
• with adaptations like virtual platforms especially during the COVID-19 pandemic

• one-on-one mentoring or part of a larger package, such as combination of training, mentorship and access to finance.

   

📈How are business mentoring programmes expected to work?

Business mentoring programmes are expected to increase youth employment by providing support to business establishment and development. They can do this by:

• improving business skills
• enhancing financial access for cooperatives, fostering for example inclusive agribusiness
• empowering women by encouraging them to enter traditionally male-dominated fields
• strengthening intersectoral and public-private partnerships
• connecting mentees with networks
• improving business practices, increasing assets and income for unemployed and underemployed youth

🖋Design choices for business mentoring interventions

Design choices include:

• eligibility criteria for mentors
• mentor training and supervision
• structured versus unstructured mentoring
• material to be covered during mentoring
• the duration and frequency of mentoring
• the number of mentees per mentor
• individual or group mentoring

❗Implementation issues

Implementation issues in youth mentoring programmes include

• the scarcity of qualified mentors
• challenges in measuring programme effect
• difficulties in securing stakeholder support
• inefficiencies in mentor-mentee matching processes
• the need for better gender parity.

🦾Strength of evidence

There is medium confidence in the evidence of effects (4 impact evaluations) and medium confidence in findings from implementation evidence (27 process evaluations).

🔎Implications for research

More impact evaluations are needed, which can assess different design approaches including the need for longitudinal studies to understand the long-term impact of mentoring and sustain its benefits.

📜Evidence based findings for policy and practice

• Business mentoring has little effect, so more testing is needed of approaches which may be more effective
• Policymakers and practitioners should develop tailored mentoring programmes for female entrepreneurs, focusing on financing, technical skills, and business knowledge, while implementing robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks to track long-term impact and make necessary adjustments.
• Diverse mentoring formats, including virtual mentoring, should be explored to accommodate different preferences and contexts.
• Policies should focus on building resilient mentoring programmes that can withstand political and economic challenges, by establishing strong governance structures, ensuring fiduciary accountability, and implementing robust risk management strategies.

Back-to-Top

Access the Full Technical Report below