Egypt’s greatest economic challenge is also its greatest asset: its youth. That paradox brought me recently to Sawiris Hall at Cairo University’s Faculty of Economics and Political Science (FEPS). I left energised by the country’s first Development Dialogue, jointly convened by ERF and the World Bank. This event created a space where students, scholars, policy-makers and private sector leaders could sit together and address Egypt’s most urgent priority: creating more and better jobs for its growing youth population.

The jobs challenge

Every year, Egypt needs to create 1.5 million jobs – and yet, over the past two decades, it has created only 600,000 annually. A good job is not just an income: it is dignity, stability and the ability to plan a future. It is about both quantity and quality, and it is about inclusion in a country where women’s employment remains far too low.

This challenge is not unique to Egypt. Globally, 1.2 billion young people will enter the working-age population over the next decade. But on current trends, at least 300 million of them will neither find a job nor be in a training institution.

The recently issued ‘narrative for economic development’ shows the Egyptian government’s focus on jobs. It argues that job creation will require unleashing private sector growth through macroeconomic, labour, industrial, energy and other policies – leading to a structural transformation towards more productive and tradable activities. Private sector growth will bring investment and innovation – but it requires a predictable regulatory environment, strong infrastructure, a productive workforce and a level playing field where the state plays its appropriate role.

Three winning essays – and what they mean for jobs

Listening to the students from FEPS was the highlight of the Development Dialogue. The three winning essays in a departmental competition for students stood out for turning theory into practical ideas, promoting a bridge from the classroom to the labour market.

The first essay built on economist Paul Rosenstein-Rodan’s ‘big push’ concept – the need for coordinated efforts to address multiple constraints simultaneously. It proposed reducing information barriers through live demand maps, enhancing human capital with targeted course pathways and verified badges, and improving job matching through direct employer searches. The core idea is a demand-led, real-time skills engine that certifies competencies and connects young people to opportunities.

This brought to mind the World Bank’s Upper Egypt Local Development Program, which showed that local and bundled reforms in infrastructure, the business environment and institutions can stimulate private investment and jobs. The same coordinated approach can strengthen skills policy.

The second essay emphasised translating economic concepts into hands-on learning. It proposed embedding employer-defined cases, industry mentorship and project-based assessments into university coursework – shifting from memorisation to solving real problems. The idea draws on innovation economics and aligns with this year’s Nobel Prize, which underscores how experimentation, spillovers and idea diffusion drive long-term growth.

The proposal calls for institutions that support applied learning and for universities to advance this agenda with employers and national entities. The nascent Labor Market Observatory hosted by Egypt’s Ministry of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation and the Ministry of Labor is a promising platform to guide youth on occupations and competencies in demand.

The third essay called for embedding entrepreneurship and venture-building in university curricula. It emphasised coupling mentorship, incubation and access to finance with university–industry partnerships, enabling youth to launch and scale viable enterprises. Using performance data on placements, survival rates and earnings enables policy-makers to identify and scale successful initiatives. This also brought to mind a World Bank financed project, with the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA) to foster entrepreneurship.

The students made a passionate case for relevance and fairness: curricula aligned with employer needs; pathways inclusive of women and disadvantaged youth; and systems valuing practical competence alongside academic achievement. Their arguments reflect Egypt’s realities: only about a third of Egyptians possess core digital competencies; formal company training is limited; and many firms struggle to find qualified workers, especially with socio-emotional and technological skills.

Three pillars for a job-rich future

A panel discussion moderated by Hala Abou-Ali included contributions from Hala Elsaid, Ashraf El-Araby, Heba Handoussa, Omar Khashaba and myself. The conversation underscored the need for a competitive, predictable business environment for firm growth, for closing the skills gap with market-relevant training and for leveraging entrepreneurship and innovation to unlock opportunities – especially for young people and women.

The essays and discussion highlighted the key priorities for Egypt as it builds a job-rich future for its youth:

• First, a business environment conducive for the private sector to create jobs. Macroeconomic stability, competition and predictable rules encourage investment and innovation. Removing barriers that disproportionately affect women and young entrepreneurs multiplies impact.
• Second, relevant and adaptable skills. Foundational literacy and numeracy remain essential, as the future will reward analytical and creative thinking, teamwork, communication and digital fluency. The capacity for continuous learning will matter most. Short, market-relevant training can yield large payoffs, especially when combined with soft skills and hands-on experience.
• Third, matching between people and jobs. Active labour market policies, effective intermediation and modern social protection can help workers make the transition into formal, higher-quality jobs. Digital platforms – like the student-proposed skills engine – can reduce search costs, certify competencies and connect employers to job-ready candidates.

Anchoring the dialogue in Egypt’s emerging jobs narrative

The World Bank’s upcoming Country Economic Memorandum, the ‘Country Growth and Jobs Report,’ will articulate a path for a job-rich future. It will provide a comprehensive, data-driven foundation for policy-making based on evidence on what drives firm dynamism and employment, identifying constraints and policies that can catalyse private investment, innovation and opportunity.

This reflects the World Bank’s role as a ‘knowledge bank’. We convene, compare and translate evidence into practical options for governments to accelerate job creation – complementing finance with analytics and learning. Knowledge is powerful upstream, in reports that highlight policy trade-offs, and downstream, in operations that translate ideas into impact, whether by improving the enabling environment in regions such as Upper Egypt, expanding skills and entrepreneurship programmes or strengthening job matching and inclusion.

Above all, the day reminded us that dialogue is essential to inclusive policy-making. The Development Dialogues are a joint ERF–World Bank initiative to create a trusted space for evidence-based conversation between institutions and generations. Bringing youth to the table improves design and legitimacy; listening to private sector practitioners keeps us focused on what firms need; and engaging academics ensures rigour and learning.

We should sustain this momentum by:

• Keeping youth at the table – through regular pitch sessions, internships and pilot projects that test new models in real settings.
• Publishing transparent skills maps showing what employers demand and where there is training supply.
• Measuring placement rates, earnings and employer satisfaction to learn quickly and scale what works.

Egypt’s paradox – that its youth are both its challenge and its solution – can only be resolved by making youth the architects of that solution. The first Development Dialogue showed what is possible when we convert paradox into partnership and pressure into potential. The task now is to move forward together and watch Egypt’s greatest challenge become its greatest triumph.