AFRICAN UNION / / UNION AFRICAINE
/ UNIÃO AFRICANA
Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA P. O. Box 3243 Telephone: (251 11) 550 4988 Fax: (251 11) 550 4985
website: www. africa-union.org
INTRA AFRICAN TECHNICAL COOPERATION PLATFORM (IATCP)
Improving Labour Market Governance in Africa
Introduction/Background:
1. The Heads of States and Government of the African Union dedicated the Key Priority Area 6 of the Ouagadougou 2004 Plan of Action on Employment and Poverty Alleviation to “Human and institutional capacity building for public and private institutions in charge of employment promotion and poverty alleviation, including the social partners and other relevant actors of the civil society”. In this respect, addressing the shortcomings of the public labour market institutions is a central priority for African countries, as their well-functioning is a condition to the effectiveness and efficiency of the other actors in implementing the AU, RECs and member States Policies in employment and labour. This is also required to achieve the objective of the Intra African Trade Plan of Action which requires setting up labour exchanges in Africa.
2. The principal strategy consists on “Building institutional capacity in key ministries relevant to employment creation and fighting against poverty including Ministries of labour, local Authorities, as well as Employers’, Workers and community based organizations.” To this purpose, the Plan of Action called to “Assess capacity needs. Review and/or develop and implement plans for strengthening stakeholders including Ministries of Labour, NGOs, Civil Society Organizations, as well as Employers and Workers’ Organizations”.
3. These provisions are in line with the Inter-African Convention Establishing an African Technical Cooperation Programme (Kampala, July 28th to 1st August, 1975). The main objectives are to (i) Enable African countries with a sufficiency of skilled personnel to make this available to African countries which need them; and (ii) Create and encourage the spirit of co-operation and solidarity among African countries. It is meant for senior cadres with university degrees or equivalent qualifications, and professional experience, and Semi-specialized staff. ;
4. More than fifty years after their access to national sovereignty, the majority of AU member States have accumulated a valuable expertise in various areas of labour market governance, in particular regarding Public Employment Services, Labour Inspectorates, Social Security and Policy Planning. This is not translated into an appropriate technical cooperation between African countries. This gap could be filled by establishing an Intra African Technical Cooperation Platform (IATCOP) on Labour, Employment and Migration.
5. However, the Ouagadougou 2004 Plan of Action on Employment Promotion and Poverty Alleviation recognized that the weak institutional capacity of the African labour market institutions represents a constraint to their effective delivery services for the job seekers as well as to the private sector development. This state of play contributes to the high level of unemployment and underemployment, and to the limited governance of the labour market institutions, in particular the public employment services and the labour administrations along with the labour market information system. Other critical weaknesses are related to the limited capacity of African countries in labour and employment policy planning, in particular in terms of policy and programmes monitoring and evaluation, as it results from a Survey on the funding of the employment policies in Africa (AUC, 2010).
6. Regarding the Post-Conflict countries, the 19th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly adopted a Decision on African Solidarity Initiative for Support to Post-Conflict Reconstruction Development (PCRD) in Africa (Assembly/AU/Dec.425 (XIX)). The aim is to consolidate peace where it has been achieved through support for African countries emerging from conflicts, consolidating and expanding intra-African co-operation and mutual self-help, with in-kind, capacity building, as well as financial contributions.
7. In the backdrop of this context and determined to address this challenge, the AU 8th Ordinary Session of the Conference of the Ministers in charge of Labour requested that “The AUC will facilitate provision of technical assistance to Member States”[1] (EX.CL/ (XIX), “Capacity Enhancement and Modernization of the Public Employment Services and Labour Administrations”. The response will come through the establishment of an Intra African Technical Cooperation Platform on Labour, Employment and Migration (IATCP)
I. Technical Capacity Needs
8. The African Union Commission undertook a series of consultative and technical meetings to establish a common understanding of the current reality and propose strategies that are deemed to appropriately mitigate the situation and improve the capacity delivery of the African labour market institutions. A workshop was organized in December 2009 in Addis Ababa on “The harmonization and coordination of the labour market information systems”, and a second one was held in Dakar in July 2010 on “Capacity enhancement and modernization of the Public Employment Services and Labour Administrations”.
9. In 2010, the AUC in collaboration with the Pan African Employers’ Confederation undertook a survey on the expectations of the jobseekers, the micro enterprises and SMEs in terms of professional services to be provided by the Public Employment Services and the Labour Inspectorates. According to the results of the survey, the expectations are prioritized as follow: (1).Training and skills development programmes, (2) Facilitation of the school to work transition, including dual training and measures to promote entrepreneurship, , (3). Labour Information and Statistics, including studies and research on employment in the SMEs and Micro Entreprises, (3 bis). Support to capacity enhancement of the human resource management units/services existing in the SMEs, (5). Skills gap analysis and evaluation of skills/competencies needs, (5 bis) Apprenticeship, Lifelong Learning and On-the-Job-Training Programmes, (7). Support to establishment of social dialogue mechanisms in the SMEs, (7 bis) Self-Employment and Micro Credit Programme, (8) Occupational Health and Security (OHS) services for the SMEs and Informal Economic Units, (8 bis) Support to establishment of OHS services or units for SMEs, (10). Social protection schemes for the informal and rural workers. There is a need to equip most of the African PES and Labour Inspectorates in the above professional services targeting the SMEs and the micro enterprises on the demand side, and the job seekers and TVET institutions on the supply side. They are expected to take comprehensive responsibility for disability issues within labour market policy.
10. On the side of Job seekers’ expectations and needs, the following was put forward for capacity enhancement of the Public Employment Services and Labour Administration: (i) career guidance/career orientation and job search assistance services for further smoothing of the student transition process from school to work, (ii) comprehensive educational and occupational information, (iii) labour intensive programmes and community services, (iv) placement subsidies, self-employment promotion, (v) registration of job seekers, (vi) increased access to services through better use of information and communication technologies, (vii) collection and dissemination of labour market information, (viii) job search abilities, and (ix) management of other special employment measures, advocacy towards employers et filling the vacancies.
11. Other interventions provide opportunity to have deep analysis on technical cooperation need in Organisational Management and Quality Management in Public Employment Services and Labour Administrations, Labour Market Information System management of labour migration flows by PES and Labour Administrations, Operational Systems and Human Resources.
12. There is still need to pursue the international cooperation with the international partners in other regions of the world. Indeed, even the most advanced labour market institutions in the continent need to expand their expertise and technical capacity. Also, there are new challenges where Africa might need to close its capacity gaps, such as the area of green economy and green jobs/skills, and labour migration flows management.
II. Technical Assistance Supply:
13. It appears that the labour market institutions are at different stages form country to country. Meanwhile, it is observed that most of the technical support for capacity building and enhancement was provided through European countries to African countries. A little technical cooperation exists such as Tunisian National Employment and Self-Employment’s assistance to Djibouti with support of the Swiss government. This situation prevails while African countries have developed strong technical expertise in various areas of labour market governance, more than fifty (50) after their access to international sovereignty. That means that there is opportunity to recognize and leverage on African labour market institutions, and facilitate technical cooperation among African countries.
14. It appears that the labour market institutions are at different stages form country to country. Meanwhile, it is observed that most of the technical support for capacity building and enhancement was provided through European countries to African countries, mainly through bilateral cooperation, with countries such as France and Sweden. At multilateral level, the WAPES includes in its annual programme technical assistance to its African member organizations and sponsors also support from European member organizations. The ILO Turin Centre is a global technical assistance provider. The World Bank also has its own technical assistance strategy covering employment, labour and social protection sectors. The World Bank uses a network distance learning facilities to dispatch its training programmes. The ECA is deploying a support programme for access of the PES to ICT.
15. A little technical cooperation exists such as Tunisian National Employment and Self-Employment’s assistance to Djibouti with support of the Swiss government. This situation prevails while African countries have developed strong technical expertise in various areas of labour market governance, more than fifty (50) after their access to international sovereignty. That means that there is opportunity to recognize and leverage on African labour market institutions, and facilitate technical cooperation among African countries.
III. African Training Capacity in Labour and Employment
16. The training capacity in labour and employment areas is offered by two main institutions: ARLAC[2] (20 Member Countries) in Harare and CRADAT[3] (18 Member Countries) in Yaoundé, delivering respectively in English and French languages. In addition to policy – oriented activities, ARLAC offers a range of regional seminars, workshops and courses directed at increasing the technical competence of labour administrators in various functional areas including labour inspection, work safety and health, international labour standards, industrial relations, information management systems, human resources development, skills development and vocational training, gender, HIV/AIDS and child labour issues, social protection and welfare, employment promotion and employment services. These seminars involve participants in individual assignments designed to strengthen their technical competence as well as their human relations and interpersonal skills. These African training institutions contribute also to the dissemination and advocacy of the ILO Standards and Conventions, as well as its policies and programmes. This intervention is key in capacitating the African countries in mainstreaming the ILO standards and policies into their national policy planning activities.
17. The NEPAD is willing to participate in an intra African technical assistance platform and support through mobilization of the required financial resource and building the technical bridge. NEPAD is engaged with the ARLAC through a MoU signed in February 2012, focusing on agriculture. Furthermore, in line with its general responsibilities on capacity building and resource mobilization, NEPAD could expand its support the African Regional Labour Administration Centres, to improve their capacity in implementing the AU Policy instruments and programmes in the area of social affairs, in particular in labour, employment, migration, and social welfare.
IV. Trust, Outcome and Outputs:
V.1. The Trust:
18. The Trust is to recognize the value of African technical expertise in the areas of labour, employment and social protection, and to leverage on this asset in order to enhance the capacity of the labour market institutions in Africa. The labour market institutions must be in a technical position to play their role as economic development actors, in particular by providing quality professional services to the private sector, particularly the SMMEs, and the TVET systems.
V.2. Intended Outcome as stated in the Key Priority Area 6 of the Ouagadougou 2004 Plan of Action on Employment Promotion and Poverty Alleviation: Human and institutional capacity built for public and private institutions in charge of employment promotion and poverty alleviation, including the social partners and other relevant actors of the civil society
19. The aim is to enhance the capacity of the AU Member States in implementing the AU, Regional and National Policies and Programmes on employment promotion and poverty alleviation.
Specific Objectives:
a. An Intra African Technical Cooperation Platform on labour market governance established
b. Provision of technical assistance to the AU Member States facilitated through the Technical Cooperation Platform, promote cooperation at African level
c. Public Employment Services and Labour Administrations’ technical capacity and expertise enhanced and modernized
d. Advocacy, Awareness and capacity Building on the AU Policy instruments on labour, employment and social welfare promoted
V. Outputs/Activities:
VI.1. Output 1: Establishment of an Intra African Technical Assistance Platform on labour market governance
20. The establishment of an Intra African Technical Assistance Platform on labour market governance will be facilitated through the following activities:
1. Mapping of Technical Expertise (Simplified Questionnaire). A questionnaire will be sent to Member States to identify areas where they possess proven expertise that can be useful for other member States interested in building and/or enhancing the capacity of their labour market institutions in areas of concern for them.
2. Creation of an Experts Roster
21. The Roster will contain information on the senior officials evaluated on their expertise profile according to a set of criteria that ensure credibility of the Platform. The Roster is segmented on the basis of categories of expertise. It will display information on the availability of the experts and will be updated quarterly. The Roster will have an electronic version and a manager will be designated.
3. Identification and assessment of labour market institutions with capacity to participate in the Platform
22. The priority is to build up expertise development system based on existing training institutions. In this respect, the three African Regional Labour Administration Centers, ARLAC in Harare, CRADAT in Yaoundé, and the third in Tunis, will be assessed for analysis of their strengths and areas of improvement, their potential to enter the Platform and play an active role. In addition to providing technical assistance to Member States, these institutions proffer the opportunity to advocate on the AU Policies on labour, employment and social affairs, and extend awareness of MS and RECs of these policies whiles building their capacity in their harmonized implementation, monitoring and evaluation.