Africa, the youngest and fastest-growing continent in the world, faces an important job creation challenge. This is the context in which the Mastercard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity (FRP) operates. While the Fund focuses primarily on financial inclusion, there is some increasing evidence that Fund-supported products and services are resulting in new work opportunities.

Triple Line’s latest learning paper for the FRP proposes a framework for understanding and tracking how the portfolio contributes to rural employment creation across the continent. The paper explores three pathways that have the potential for work creation: i) facilitating agricultural production, ii) encouraging the development of the rural services sector and iii) strengthening local economies.