INTRA AFRICAN TECHNICAL COOPERATION PLATFORM (IATCP) Improving Labour Market Governance in Africa

Transcription

1 AFRICAN UNION UNION AFRICAINE LABOUR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS COMMISSION OF THE AFRICAN UNION Ninth Ordinary Session 8-12 April 2013 Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA UNIÃO AFRICANA Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA P. O. Box 3243 Telephone: (251 11) Fax : (251 11) website : www. africa-union.org Original : English THEME: Enhancing the Capacity of the Labour Market Institutions in Africa to meet the Current and Future Challenges INTRA AFRICAN TECHNICAL COOPERATION PLATFORM (IATCP) Improving Labour Market Governance in Africa

2 Page 1 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 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 is based 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 1 st 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 cooperation and solidarity among African countries. It is meant for senior cadres with university degrees or equivalent qualifications, and professional experience, and Semi-specialized staff. On the other hand, the AOU Labour and Social Affairs Commission s Rules of Procedures (Rule 3, a) charged the Commission with the task of Bringing about and developing cooperation among African countries in the fields of labour and social affairs. to the 4. More than fifty years after their access to national sovereignty, the majority of AU member States have accumulated 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 (IATAP) 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 service delivery for job seekers as well as to private sector development. This state of play contributes to the high level of unemployment and underemployment, and to the limited governance of labour market institutions, in particular public employment services and the labour administrations. Other critical weaknesses are related to weak labour market information systems and limited capacity of African countries in labour and employment policy planning, in particular in terms of policy and programmes

3 Page 2 monitoring and evaluation, as it is indicated in a survey on the funding of employment policies in Africa (AUC, 2010). 6. Regarding Post-Conflict countries, the 19 th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly adopted a Decision on the 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 this context and determined to address this challenge, the 8 th Ordinary Session of the AU 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 assistance would be coordinated 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 proposed strategies 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. There is need to develop the capacity of the labour market institutions, in peculiar the Public Employment Services and Labour Administrations, to provide valuable technical and professional support to the SMEs and Micro enterprises, with the aim to unleash their potential in creating more and better jobs for the youth and women. This will put these institutions in the position to respond to the expectations of the private sector. 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 (PES) 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) 1 th AU, Report of the 8 Ordinary Session of the Labour and Social Affairs Commission, Yaoundé, April 2011 (LSAC/MIN/REPORT (VIII): Capacity Enhancement and Modernization of the Public Employment Services and Labour Administration

4 Page 3 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 with 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 for filling 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 of development from 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. Little technical cooperation exists such as between the Tunisian National Employment and Self- Employment s Agency and Djibouti with support of the Government of Switzerland. This situation prevails despite African countries having developed strong technical expertise in various areas of labour market governance, more than fifty (50) after their access to international sovereignty. Hence there is the opportunity to recognize and leverage on African labour market institutions, and facilitate technical cooperation among African countries.

5 Page It should be mentioned that several AU Member States have technical cooperation policy which are implemented by well-functioning Cooperation Agencies. This is the case of, among others, Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria and Egypt. 15. 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. III. African Training Capacity in Labour and Employment 16. The training capacity in labour and employment areas is offered by two main institutions: African Regional Labour Administrations Centers (ARLAC) 2-20 Member Countries) in Harare and Centre Regional Africain de l Administration du Travail (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. The mentioned African training institutions also contribute 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. In addition, 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 2 Botswana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe 3 Bénin, Burkina - Faso, Burundi, Cameroun, Republic of Central Africa, Côte-d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Sénégal, Chad and Togo.

6 Page 5 and programmes in the area of social affairs, in particular in labour, employment, migration, and social welfare. IV. Thrust, Outcome and Outputs: IV.1. The Thrust: 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. IV.2. The 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: 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: i. 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

7 Page 6 in building and/or enhancing the capacity of their labour market institutions in areas of concern for them. ii. Creation of an Experts Roster 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. iii. Identification and assessment of labour market institutions with capacity to participate in the Platform 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 offer 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. iv. Establishment of an Electronic Platform grouping PES, Labour Inspectorates, Employment Observatories and Training Development Fund, Social security agencies Networking Website: The Network will support and speed up experience exchange between AU Member States and link up with other relevant websites, as partners of the platform. The members are the websites of AU member States PES, Labour Inspectorates, Social security organizations, etc. v. Distance Learning Platform with international partners The Platform will be using the e-learning tools to expand its outreach at competitive cost with high quality service. To this effect, the distance learning facilities available for the Platform will be identified to form a network, with its rules. Key partners for this activity are the ILO, the World Bank, the UNDP, in addition to Member States and RECs. Support will be sought from the AU Norway supported programme on the ICT. vi. Twinning between African and EU Organisms The purpose is to build bi lateral technical cooperation with the EU Member State Public Employment Services, within the framework of the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership. The twinning will provide mid to long term cooperation to AU member States PES and other labour market institutions.

8 Page 7 Output 2. Public Employment Services and Labour Administrations technical capacity and expertise Enhanced and Modernized i. The purpose is to strengthen the expertise and organizational capacity of the labour market institutions, in order to enable them to participate effectively to the Platform either as technical assistance provider either as beneficiary. There is need to develop and enhance African expertise and know-how on the priority areas identified for support to the Micro Enterprises and the SMES, according to the results of the above mentioned survey undertaken in collaboration with the Pan African Employer s Confederation. ii. iii. iv. The activity will build on active cooperation at bilateral level, with Labour Market Institutions in developed countries (France, USA, Belgium, Sweden, Italia, UK, etc) and with the international organizations (ILO, World Bank, WAPES, etc). The WAPES is supporting its African member countries though its cooperation Fund. Furthermore, South-South Cooperation must be explored, in particular with China, Brazil, etc. The AUC will facilitate technical cooperation for a group of member States, either through the African training institutions (ARLAC, CRADAT, etc), and in collaboration with the RECs for Member States. The output will be achieved through the following activities: 1. Development of a Professional Capacity Building Programme on Labour, Employment and Migration, focused on identified priority expertise and know-how targeting services to Jobseekers, SMMEs, the TVET and Local Authorities. 2. Implementation of the Professional Capacity Building Programme Output 3. Technical Cooperation between the Labour and Employment Units of the Regional Economic Communities Enhanced i. The RECs have developed organizational and technical expertise in different areas as basis of competitive advantage. This diversity of technical know-how at regional level allows for the promotion of fruitful inter regional cooperation for capacity development. A questionnaire will be used to assess the technical and organizational competitive advantages of the RECs, and identify areas for cross learning and improving effectiveness and efficiency of the RECs in discharging their roles and responsibilities as building blocks of the regional labour market integration. ii. iii. iv. The Commission will facilitate thematic Inter-RECs meetings. The RECs will increase their cooperation through their secretariat s activities and the ministerial fora. The output will be achieved through the following activities: Create a database of RECs technical expertise and know-how

9 Page 8 v. Support technical assistance between RECs through Experts missions, tour visits, capacity building and experience sharing workshops, publication on god practices, and intra RECs meetings at experts and ministerial level. VI. Delivery system: Technical assistance delivery process: i. The technical assistance is provided at the request of Member States. The requests are received and registered by the AUC, as per the provisions of the Ouagadougou 2004 Follow-up Mechanism. The technical assistance could be delivered through Experts missions, benchmarking and cross fertilizing, group training, twinning, tour visits, distance learning, on line support services/counsels, publication/best practices, peer to peer review, and community of practices through a Website. ii. Member States or RECs can support the platform through seconding experts, financial or in-kind contributions. The beneficiary country or organization could indicate the kinds of contribution it is willing to bring to the cooperation project. iii. A set of forms is available and will be used in support to the technical cooperation services delivery process. VII. Code of Conduct i. The Code of Conduct lays down ethical rules aiming at guaranteeing quality of the technical assistance services provided to beneficiary member states, the credibility and performance of the Platform. It will also build reliability and creditworthiness for the experts and the expertise provider organizations. The Code of Conduct ensures value added for the receiving country/organization, and sustainability of the results produced through active follow-up by the expertise provider. ii. The Platform will have its own labialization scheme/plan/approach recognizing the achievements and progress made by the beneficiary country/organization, and the technical assistance provider (electronic Rating Form + on-line rating/evaluation team) iii. The requesting country/organization must engage to follow-up, perform reporting, provide logistics, HR, and to share its experience by participating in the Community of Practices. VIII. Monitoring and Evaluation i. The Platform will use a set of evaluation forms to assess the value of the technical cooperation services delivered to the beneficiary organizations. The evaluation will be performed by the AUC, independent expert and the beneficiary organization as well. ii. The Expert will provide a mission report stating the probability for the intervention to be fully and harmoniously integrated into the processes of the beneficiary organization.

10 Page 9 iii. A Peer to Peer evaluation mechanism will also be used. iv. The AUC will assess the processes used for the implementation of the Platform. IX. Institutional and Financial Arrangements i. The Platform is under the responsibility of the AUC/Department of Social Affairs. ii. The Bureau of the Labour and Social affairs Commission will oversee the implementation of the Platform, and will hold at least one meeting before its ordinary session. It provides orientation and guidelines.