Good practice

Ajira Digital – Digital Skills and Online Jobs for Kenyan Youth

Kenya's Ajira Digital programme has trained 390,968 young people across all 47 counties since 2017 via 101 free-access empowerment centres, connecting 119,462 to online jobs in the gig economy, with a Dalberg-evaluated impact.

390,968

Jeunes formés (since 2017)

all 47

Comtés couverts

119,462

Mis en relation avec des emplois en ligne

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: ICT Authority, Ministry of Information, Communication and Digital Economy, Kenya
Period: 2017-present
Keywords: youth, women, digital employment, gig economy, low-income, rural, digital skills

Context

Le programme Ajira Digital du Kenya forme les jeunes aux compétences numériques et les met en relation avec des emplois en ligne de l'économie des petits boulots via des centres d'autonomisation en accès libre.

Results

Depuis 2017, il a formé 390 968 jeunes dans les 47 comtés via 101 centres d'autonomisation et mis en relation 119 462 personnes avec des emplois en ligne, avec un impact évalué par Dalberg.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-21
ICT Authority, Ministry of Information, Communication and Digital Economy, Kenya — accessed 2026-06-21
EAA Observatory – Ajira Digital solution profile — accessed 2026-06-21
Mastercard Foundation – Ajira Digital Program — accessed 2026-06-21

Quality score: 92/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 6% in this catalogue (573 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Innovation level3/5

Combining government-run digital hubs, gig-economy job-pathway design, and multi-stakeholder delivery across all 47 counties is a genuinely novel, widely-replicated model for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Sustainability (ongoing)1/1

Government-institutionalised since 2017 and scaled from pilot to 101 centres; Mastercard Foundation partnership extends financial sustainability.

Evaluation evidence1/1

Independent Dalberg evaluation (December 2021) plus official government statistics reported to parliament confirm training and job-placement outcomes.

Demonstrated reach1/1

390,968 youth trained across all 47 Kenyan counties by March 2024; 119,462 connected to digital employment.

Documented learning1/1

Dalberg evaluation explicitly confirms replicability; multi-stakeholder design documented as scalable model across the region.

Cite this

Evidoria. Ajira Digital – Digital Skills and Online Jobs for Kenyan Youth. Persistent ID: 1bbaa397-186a-490c-8ac0-441f00509b59.

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