This report summarizes the research into the key challenges and opportunities for facilitating industrialization and increased youth employment in Malawi. The research team conducted a desk review and consultations with local sectoral experts in order to understand the structural issues that have hindered Malawi’s ability to achieve its industrialization aspirations and provide employment opportunities for its growing youth workforce. The team then conducted cost benefit analysis (CBA) to quantify the impacts of a subset of interventions that could be pursued in Malawi to promote industrialization and create jobs for youth. Based on the literature review and the policy recommendations for Malawi, the team identified possible interventions to address youth unemployment and promote structural change for sustainable growth and employment. The team prioritized interventions that aligned both with lessons from recent research on industrialization in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Government of Malawi’s strategic priorities. The team then used selection criteria to choose the final interventions to be further analyzed through cost-benefit analysis. The selection criteria included an expected high benefit-cost ratio, high expert priority, a significant gap in intervention coverage, and crucial data availability.
