2009/HRDWG31/009 Item: Plenary 4

Transcription

1 2009/HRDWG31/009 Item: Plenary 4 Progress Report (HRD 08/2009): Human Resource Impacts of the Global Economic Crisis: What Is Working in APEC Members Social Safety Nets and Labour Market System Policies Purpose: Information Submitted by: United States 31 st Human Resources Development Working Group Meeting Chicago, United States June 2009

2 APEC PROJECT PROGRESS REPORT (Tick one) [ ] Project seeking APEC funding [ ] Project for self-funding [ ] Progress Report [ ] Evaluation Report Name of Committee/Working Group: Human Resources Development Working Group (HRDWG) Title of Project: HUMAN RESOURCE IMPACTS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS: What Is Working in APEC Members Social Safety Nets (SSN) and Labour Market System (LMS) Policies Proposing APEC Economy: United States Co-sponsoring APEC Economies: China, New Zealand, and the Philippines. Project number: HRD 08/2009 Date received by Secretariat: Financial Information Total cost of proposal (US$): $250,000 Amount being sought from APEC funding (US$): $125,000 Type of Project: [ ] seminar/symposium [ ] short-term training course [X] survey or analysis and research [ ] database/website [ ] others (Please specify): Project start date: May 2009 Project end date: September 2010 Brief Description of Project -- its purpose and the principal activities: The overall purpose of the project is to assess the human resource impacts of the global economic crisis and to identify what is working and what is not working in retaining existing, and creating new, employment and earnings. To achieve this purpose, this project has four objectives: a) Develop a cross-cutting analytic framework to assess the human resource impacts of the economic crisis and the effectiveness of Social Safety Net (SSN) and Labour Market Systems (LMS) (including active labour market interventions) b) Assess the human resource impact of the current global economic crisis and document Economy SSN and LMS responses. c) Build the capacity of APEC member economies to effectively use SSN and LMS responses when dealing with the current fiscal crisis. d) Evaluate the effectiveness of the SSN AND LMS responses of APEC member economies to evaluate what is working and what is not working. This will include a particular focus on the gender dimensions of these responses. Human resource impacts include changes in employment (including skill retention), employability, earnings, family income and other indicators of human economic well-being. Government responses to address these outcomes typically involve strengthening SSN and LMS. Strengthening SSN alleviates the economic duress from reduced income, or loss of income, due to unemployment. Strengthening LMS addresses employment concerns in a variety of ways including creating jobs, matching workers with jobs, or improving skills so citizens may obtain jobs. SSN and LMS should, when configured optimally, should be part of a integrated policy package. This project will build upon two HRDWG studies conducted during the Asian financial crises in : The Human Resource Dimension of the Asian Financial Crisis: Towards the Definition of an APEC Response (1998) and Innovative Labour Market Policies and Programmes in APEC Member Economies (1999). The project classifications used by these reports were innovative and can provide a foundation for this activity. However, these reports focused largely on documentation, while this proposed analysis would go beyond documentation to include assessment of what is and is not working with respect to SSN and LMS policies. The four project objectives will be completed by September The conclusions of the study will presented during the Human Resources Ministerial to be held in China in Estimated completion dates for each activity are noted below. Work o some objectives will begin prior to the office project start date so all projects will be completed prior to the 2010 Human Resources

3 Ministerial. Any activities that take place before the official start date will not be paid for with APEC project funds. In summary, this project will produce the following, which will each be presented at or before the 2010 HRD Ministerial meeting in China: A cross-cutting analytic framework; Key human resource indicators and policy response descriptions for SSN and LMS. Capacity-building projects for strengthening APEC member systems for developing performance indicators to monitor the effectiveness of SSN AND LMS; and The results of longer term case studies for identifying and documenting what works in addressing the human resource dimension of the current economic crisis. Status/Progress and Problems: The project was selected for funding during the first funding cycle and has been operational for about one month. There is a research director and a project overseer, as well as a team of research assistants undertaking a literature review. The analytic framework has been borrowed from work underway at OECD and is attached for review. Current status of project: On schedule (Yes) Within budget (Yes) Objectives How do results of the project thus far (if any) compare with its expected results? Include your results thus far (if any) relative to quantitative measures you proposed in paragraph 1 (and 25) of the project design proposal. The project team has begun a literature review and is finding more information from other data sources (e.g., World Bank, OECD, ADB) than originally anticipated. A yet-to-be published report by OECD reflects the findings presented at a March 2009 meeting. It also presents a framework that will be adopted by the project since it is robust and well thought through for our purposes. Several of the APEC Economies were included in the data found in the report. A draft framework for the project survey has been developed and will be presented at the working group s annual business meeting. Linkages, Methodology, Budget Describe any problems which have arisen and how they were resolved, including changes in schedule or revised dates, budget changes, changes in participation, or additions or deletions of activities. Right now, the project overseer believes the project is on track in terms of the schedule of activities and uses of the budget. In addition, there are cost-effective procedures in place as the project is divided among several different entities: the research director in New Zealand, the project director in the USA, and the APEC Policy Support Unit. Also, by adopting the OECD framework and using some of their Economy data, there is a value-added for APEC and OECD. It also represents a good collaboration between two multi-lateral organizations. Gender Considerations Provide a brief description of the impact of the project on women to date. Provide details to show how women have been consulted on the delivery of the project. What kind of sex-disaggregated data has been collected and used for the project? The research team is specifically looking for patterns of how the financial crisis might disproportionately affect women in such areas as a disproportionate percentage of job losses in comparison to me, more of a need to terminate their education, etc.

4 Progress since last report: This is the first progress report for this project. Notes: - All Committee and Working Group projects, irrespective of their source of funding, should be reported to BMC. - Please mark N.A. if any item is not applicable. Project Overseer: Name, Title and Organization Brian Fu, Program Analyst, Policy and Technical Analysis Support (M) Policy and Program Studies Service, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development U.S. Department of Education Postal address: 400 Maryland Ave., SW Washington, DC Signature of Project Overseers: Tel: Fax: brian.fu@ed.gov (Separate written confirmation acceptable for submission) Date: Signature of Committee Chair/WG Lead Shepherd:(Not applicable to Progress Report and Evaluation Report) (Separate written confirmation acceptable for submission) Date:

5 Presentation to APEC HRD Woking Group, Chicago June, /27/ Overwhelming impact of current crisis Concern across APEC economies Opportunity for HRD WG: Previous activities ( ) Economic Committee, SOM I, Singapore, 2009 Coming HRD Ministerial (China 2010) 8/27/2009 2

6 To develop a cross cutting analytic framework to assess the human resource impacts of the economic crisis and the effectiveness of Social Safety Net (SSN) and Labour Market Systems (LMS) (including active labour market interventions) To assess the human resource impact of the current global economic crisis and document Economy SSN and LMS responses To build the capacity of APEC member economies to effectively use SSN and LMS responses when dealing with the current fiscal crisis To evaluate the effectiveness of the SSN AND LMS responses of APEC member economies to evaluate what is working and what is not working. This will include a particular focus on the gender dimensions of these responses 8/27/2009 3