2016 General Assembly. Federation of West African Employers Associations

Transcription

1 2016 General Assembly Federation of West African Employers Associations Opening remarks by: Mr Aeneas C. Chuma ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Africa 4 March 2016 Praia, Cabo Verde 1

2 - Honourable Minister; - Representative of the employers of Cabo Verde; - Representative of ECOWAS; - President of the Federation of West African Employers Associations; - Representatives of the International Organisation of Employers and Business Africa; - Employers from across West Africa; - Colleague Directors from ILO Dakar and ILO Abidjan; - My dear colleagues from the ILO Bureau for Employers Activities; - Esteemed Delegates; - Ladies and Gentlemen, Allow me first of all to express our sincere gratitude to the Government of Cabo Verde for hosting this Assembly. I extend warm congratulations to the Federation of West African Employers Associations for regularly convening its General Assembly and I commend you for your decision to make youth employment the central theme of your discussions. This is a theme that resonates well, not only with the mandate of the organization I represent the International Labour Organization, but which also addresses one of the key challenges of our time creating jobs, decent jobs, for Africa s fast growing population. Esteemed Delegates; In December last year, more than 400 tripartite constituents from across the Africa region gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the 13 th African Regional Meeting of the International Labour Organization. The Meeting adopted the Addis Ababa declaration, which recognizes the central importance of full and 2

3 productive employment and decent work for inclusive and sustainable development across Africa. Furthermore, the Meeting acknowledged the need to transform and diversify African economies through accelerated industrialization, investment in infrastructure and new technologies as well as increased agricultural productivity. The timing of your Assembly, therefore, could not have been more opportune, as it offers an immediate forum to consider how to put the Addis Ababa Declaration into practice. Ladies and Gentlemen, The African Union s Agenda 2063 the Africa we want! reaffirms our aspiration for a continent where unemployment, particularly for youth, is eliminated and Africa s people guaranteed full access to education, training, skills and technologies jobs and economic opportunities. Generating decent jobs for the youth is one of the most pressing post-2015 challenges in the Africa region. Half of the region s population today is under 25 years of age. Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to have the fastest growing working age population in the world until From 2015 to 2030, 5 million new jobs will need to be created every year just to keep up with the growth of the labour force. The much-hailed opportunities of Africa s demographic dividend will not materialize automatically. Unless bold actions are taken in the coming years, Africa s youth bulge could be a recipe for social and political instability for the region and beyond. The ILO firmly believes that creating opportunities for 3

4 decent jobs for the youth, and more specifically, reducing the number of young people not in employment, education or training, is critical to ensure peace, greater social and political stability, and economic progress. Fortunately, Ladies and Gentlemen, Africa is increasingly taking its place on the global stage as a continent of growth and opportunity. Over the last decade many African economies witnessed sustained economic growth rates and reduction in absolute poverty. Yet critical challenges remain, particularly the need to strengthen a cadre of home-grown business leaders able to access regional and global markets and drive growth in a sustainable and inclusive manner. For this reason, African entrepreneurship is central to Africa s future prosperity. The biggest business opportunities in the coming decade will be created by Africans who start businesses, generate jobs and wealth, and capture growth opportunities. But while entrepreneurship is growing rapidly in Africa, youth entrepreneurship is low and those who venture into entrepreneurship are faced with daunting challenges that impede their efforts, including a lack of access to affordable funding, support services and skills training, as well as administrative barriers. This realization is critical and reminds me of the words of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan who once stated that it is the absence of broad-based business activity, not its presence, which condemns much of humanity to suffering. Ladies and Gentlemen, To advance its economic transformation and create decent jobs, Africa needs to value and promote entrepreneurship. With so many young women and men unable to secure formal employment opportunities, encouraging 4

5 entrepreneurship is critical to harnessing their enthusiasm, energy, creativity and ambition to industrial development. I would like to encourage Africa and its regional organizations to pursue an ambitious continent-wide initiative to generate jobs through small and mediumsized enterprises. You, the employers can contribute to making it happen! But no one can meet this challenge alone. We need to foster and cultivate new partnerships. Effective policies for youth employment and entrepreneurship require a high degree of policy coordination and coherence nationally and globally, between Governments, employers and workers, to ensure a conducive environment for young entrepreneurs. We in the ILO believe that some of the measures required involve: - Introducing entrepreneurship education in schools. This is essential in order to ensure that the next generation not only has the right skills to compete in a complex business world but also has an entrepreneurial spirit to create their own jobs and engagement. It is also essential in order to effect a change in attitude towards small and medium-sized enterprises among young people themselves as well as their parents; - Providing business development services for out-of-school youth; - Supporting access to finance for young entrepreneurs; and - Promoting evidence-based advocacy particularly for an enabling environment for sustainable enterprises. Ladies and Gentlemen, 5

6 I see cause for optimism. The Sustainable Development Goals that were adopted in New York late last year acknowledge that getting young women and men into productive employment is a critical aspect of the global development agenda. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to realizing this goal. Each country has different constraints, shaped by their own national and regional specificities and cultural and historical experiences. Countries that have experienced sustained rates of high growth are certainly not identical. But if you analyze what works to promote business growth and entrepreneurship, the following points are probably key: - Openness to the global economy, which greatly facilitates exposure to ideas, expertise and technologies from the rest of the world while also drawing on global demand to complement domestic production; - Conducive business and investment environment, anchored on macroeconomic stability, including control of inflation and sound public finances; - High rates of saving and investment, especially public and private sector investment in physical and social infrastructure; - Committed, credible, and capable governments that act in a manner that is consistent and representative of the interests of the citizens of the country; - Labour mobility enabling the movement of people from rural to growing urban job-creating centres; and - Social cohesion and political stability; without these the economy cannot perform adequately. Employers organizations can play an important role in this respect. 6

7 Overall, employers organizations around the world are facing new and competitive pressures. While many organizations are adapting and changing to new demands from their members, others are struggling to provide relevant services to their members. Many enterprises are therefore yet to be convinced of the value of paying to belong to business membership organizations. The strengths of employers organizations are their independence, their representative voice, and the capacity of that collective voice to be more effective than its members operating individually. It will be these qualities that put employers organizations in a position to meet the challenges of serving the employer community in the 21st century. This will only occur, however, if a conducive environment is created for the free and independent operation of employers organizations, and if employers organizations themselves develop and implement strategies that lead to the realization of operational goals that respond to the needs of the employer community as economic and social circumstances rapidly evolve. And, importantly social dialogue is a key element in the creation of an enabling environment for sustainable enterprises. I remain firm in my belief that a renewed emphasis on promoting effective social dialogue and tripartism will strengthen constituents contribution to the implementation of the new regional and global sustainable development frameworks. To conclude, I would like to confirm the ILO s availability to support FOPAO and its members in their efforts to successfully meet these challenges. Once again, I congratulate FOPAO and I thank you for your attention. 7