The study piloted a “flipped creative model”—starting with market analysis, then pre-production, content creation, testing, and mentorship—among 984 youth creatives across Nairobi, Kiambu, Mombasa, and Kisumu counties in Kenya, randomly assigning 462 to treatment and 522 to control. Using a Difference-in-Difference design, it found that treated participants saw significant gains in job decency (+3.14 points), well-being (+5.36 points), monthly income (+$112), knowledge of intellectual property rights (awareness rising from 59.1% to 81.9%), business registration rates (10.8% to 20.3%), Artificial Intelligence use (32.2% to 45.5%), and access to sector information (40.7% to 50.9%).
To build on these successes, the study recommends enacting youth-friendly creative-sector policies to formalize businesses; scaling AI-focused training; promoting gender equality through targeted support; and institutionalizing ongoing capacity-building programs that keep pace with industry trends and technologies.
Research Team: NIERA members Professor Amos Njuguna, Jennifer Nyakinya, and collaborators Salome Asena and Kevin Akumu from USIU-Africa.
