Non-Governmental Organizations and Youth Entrepreneurship Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of Support Mechanisms, Outcomes and Challenges
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53819/81018102t7099Abstract
Youth entrepreneurship is often presented as one response to the shortage of wage employment in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this setting, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become important providers of training, finance, mentoring, savings groups, market linkages and digital support. Even so, evidence on whether these interventions produce lasting results remains scattered. This systematic review therefore examined which NGO and related non-state support mechanisms appear to work, the conditions that shape their effectiveness and the limitations of the available evidence. Searches covered publicly accessible bibliographic platforms, publisher databases and development-agency repositories for English-language studies published between 2010 and July 2026. The search identified 41 records. After seven duplicates and twelve records excluded during screening, 22 studies were included in the synthesis. Design-sensitive appraisal rated 13 studies as high quality and nine as moderate quality. The clearest evidence favored practical, multifaceted support that combines capability-building with finance, mentoring and access to markets. Training on its own generally improved knowledge and confidence, but its effects on income, productivity and enterprise survival were less consistent. Experimental studies from Rwanda and Uganda showed that liquidity and integrated support can increase enterprise activity, assets and economic participation, although cash sometimes produced stronger results than training and some gains weakened over time. Savings groups, digital support and market linkages were promising, but the evidence was mainly moderate in quality. Overall, NGOs appear to contribute most when programs are locally grounded, responsive to gender and rural inequalities, connected to real market demand and sustained beyond the initial training period. The most important remaining gap is the shortage of independent, longitudinal evidence on enterprise survival, productivity and job creation.
Keywords: youth entrepreneurship; non-governmental organisations; enterprise development; Sub-Saharan Africa; business support; systematic review
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