Elizabeth Nsenkyire

2 Publications in AERD

Author Publications

Cognitive and non-cognitive skills effect on labour market outcomes: a systematic review with implications for the African labour market

By Jacob Nunoo

The persistent skills gap in Africa poses a significant barrier to both economic growth and individual career advancement. While cognitive skills (CS) are well-recognized for their crucial role in enhancing employability, non-cognitive skills (NCS) have received less attention, especially in African labour markets. This systematic review examines the combined impact of CS and NCS on labour market outcomes in Africa, offering recommendations for aligning educational systems with labour market demands. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, the review incorporates 52 peer-reviewed studies published between 2014 and 2024, identified through the Scopus database. The findings highlight that both CS and NCS are crucial for success in Africa's labour market. While foundational cognitive skills, such as literacy and numeracy, remain essential, employers are placing growing importance on non-cognitive skills. NCS significantly enhance job performance, boost wages, and promote career advancement. Furthermore, targeted interventions in NCS development was found to be effective for women, reducing gender wage disparities. Additionally, a significant gap has emerged between the skills cultivated by educational systems and those sought by employers, highlighting the urgent need for reforms. This review offers a unique perspective on the combined effect of CS and NCS on labour market outcomes in Africa.

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Household Multidimensional Energy Poverty: Impact on Health, Education, and Cognitive Skills of Children in Ghana

By Elizabeth Nsenkyire

Energy poverty in Sub-Saharan African countries continues to be of global concern. Its grave implications for the achievement of the sustainable development goal 7 (SDG 7) by 2030, validate this concern. Current studies, therefore, focus on analyzing the impact of energy poverty on child well-being, thus, their health, education, and cognitive skills. Despite this, studies in Sub-Saharan African countries where the highest energy poverty rates are remains scanty. Hence, using data from the current wave of the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS 7), this paper analyzes multidimensional energy poverty and its impact on the health, education, and cognitive skills of children in Ghana. The multidimensional energy poverty analysis reveals that nearly 59% of children in Ghana are living in multidimensional energy-poor households. Further, the structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses show that a standard deviation increase in multidimensional energy poverty reduces child health, education, and cognitive skills by 0.155, 0.13, and 0.402 standard deviation respectively. The government through the Ministry of Energy and allied agencies and departments must commit to making modern energy accessible and affordable throughout the country to mitigate the negative impact of multidimensional energy poverty on child well-being. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

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