Where Do We Work

Raleigh is the capital city of North Carolina. It’s known for its universities, including North Carolina State University. The number of technology and scholarly institutions around Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Durham make the area known as the Research Triangle. The North Carolina State Capitol is a 19th century Greek Revival–style building with a statue of George Washington dressed as a Roman general in its rotunda.

Located in West Africa, Togo covers an area of 56,785 km2. From an administrative point of view, the country is divided into five (5) regions: the Maritime Region, the Plateaux Region, the Central Region, the Kara Region, and the Savannah Region.

In 2010, following the fourth General Population and Housing Census (RGPH4), the Togolese population numbered 6,191,155 inhabitants, of whom 3,009,095 men (48.6%) and 3,182,060 women (51.4%).

One of the major implications of this strong growth is the extreme youth of the population. In 2010, an examination of the age structure revealed that the Togolese population was young: 43% were under 15 years of age, and only 3.3% were aged 65 and over. The working-age population (15-64 years) is 53.7%, the latter being larger in urban areas (59.2%) than in rural areas (50%).

On 1 June 2020, the Togolese population reached 7,706,000 inhabitants with a population growth rate of 2.3%, according to inseed2 estimates. The shape of the age pyramid has an expanded base that narrows as one moves towards the highest age. This pace reflects the youth of the Togolese population. This high proportion of young people creates, as one would expect, immense challenges in terms of care and particularly in terms of creating sustainable and quality jobs. The combined effects of the macroeconomic context of the 1980s and 1990s, characterized by the implementation of structural adjustment programs, the devaluation of the CFA franc, and the political crisis that the country has gone through have not been favorable to the adoption of initiatives relating to employment and the reduction of poverty. Thus, as in most African countries, the general employment situation in Togo remains very critical, despite the efforts made by the government to improve the situation. Thus, despite a reduction in the unemployment rate from 6.5% to 3.4%, underemployment increased from 22% to 24.9% between 2011 and 2015.

Men are affected by this phenomenon to the extent of 25.8% compared to 24.1% for women. The spatial analysis shows that the assets of Greater Lomé (29.2%) find themselves more underemployed compared to those in other urban areas (25.3%) and rural areas (22.9%)3. The main barriers to employment are related to the mismatch between young people’s skills and labor market needs, as well as the lack of economic opportunities.