ILO Advancing the Decent Work Agenda in northern Africa - 2018-2023

Förväntade resultat

Development problem Countries in the North Africa have ratified all the fundamental conventions of ILO - the problem is that they are unable to implement the content of the conventions. Consequently, there are substantial imbalance in the labour market; high unemployment rates (among the highest in the world) and low level of economic activity. These problems persist despite the fact that the region has generally had a relatively high economic growth, but poverty and inequality are not showing clear signs of decreasing. It has had limited effects on poverty reduction and job creation. In Egypt, by large the biggest country of the region, the national poverty rate increased from 17 percent in 2000 to 28 percent in 2015, largely unaffected in years of stronger economic performance. The situation is mirrored in the labour market, with unemployment and precarious employment remaining stubbornly high, particularly challenging for the youth. This evidence suggests that North Africa does not need higher growth levels, but a different form of growth, one that allows to invert rising poverty and marginalization by creating more and better jobs for a youthful and growing population. Achieving this requires reform in the labour market and real implementation of the international conventions. The aim of the interventionThe project strategy builds on an analysis of the key stakeholders and the change agents that need to be effectively engaged with, to achieve the expected results. Decent work is a multidimensional reality that requires the active involvement of a range of actors. It is an economic as much as a social and a rights-based challenge; it needs to involve a range of public authorities, social partners and NGOs. The project will accompany the Governments and the social and economic actors in North Africa in their path towards the implementation of the Decent Work Agenda, It will also support the Governments in fulfilling their obligations towards the realization of the SGDs (in particular the SDG 8), the objectives of their national development strategies and the sectoral strategies.The project will intervene both at regional and at national levels. The countries have been selected because they present a mix of key challenges requiring support, but also of real opportunities for development cooperation. The demand for technical assistance and development cooperation from national stakeholders and the importance given to decent work and employment in national development frameworks have been considered when developing the proposal. This gives opportunities in making sure that the reforms are real and broad. Overall objective of the intervention: Decent work deficits are effectively addressed in North Africa through the following outcomes: Outcome 1: Policy stances in North Africa steer job-rich growth 1.1 Key Decision makers’ and stakeholders’ capacities are built to promote quality jobs and sustainable economic growth. Based on the methodological and consultative work accomplished in the inception phase, the project will facilitate the formation of a regional network of experts on the nexus between job creation and economic growth and put in place an online community of practice (CoP) to exchange information. The CoP will provide a collaborative workspace for experts and all those with a specialist interest on the nexus between economic growth and employment in the region and will contribute to the development and sharing of practitioner-oriented knowledge and operational tools on the themes of employment promotion and social protection. The project will also produce a Regional Jobs and Growth Report on a yearly basis for wide dissemination. Such a report will act as a flagship product to raise awareness and be a key reference to policy makers and stakeholders at the national and regional level. The project will also convene annual conferences, to present the results of the report and plan for the following issues, and to raise awareness and exchange views at the policy and strategic levels. 1.2 A close monitoring of the real economy is paramount for Governments to be able to steer their economies as close as possible to their productive potential. To balance the objectives of financial stability and of growth and jobs, policy action in the social domain and in favour of the real economy needs to be as appropriately informed as policy action on the financial and monetary levels. The project will support strengthening national macroeconomic accounting and analysis systems. This will involve improving technical computation and interpretation methods, technical capacities or collaboration among the different stakeholders, data user-producer dialogue to improve the relevance and usage of the data, etc. The project will support the creation of “real economy monitor” facilities/tools that produce and track key economic and social indicators and parameters. The project will collaborate with a leading national institution in each of the target countries to host and manage the monitor or similar data platforms. With an enhanced “birds-eye view” of how the real economy is faring, focused diagnostics and technical assistance can be made use of to address weaknesses and opportunities. The project will act as a “technical assistance facility” to fulfil government needs in revising policies and programmes and recommending innovations and best practices. In doing so, the project will as much as possible build local capacities in a learning-by-doing approach that will associate local public officials and experts in the technical work. Diagnostics yielding concrete policy options will be implemented with respect to fiscal incentives, investment regimes, public investment policies, active labour market measures, and social protection programmes. Policy scan tools, such as the “Assessment Based National Dialogue on Social Protection” (ABND) will be used. 1.3 The Ministry of Employment/Labour have enhanced capacity to fulfill more effectively their roles The capacities of the Ministries in charge of employment in the different countries of the region are not adequate to enable them effectively coordinate development cooperation among multiple actors, to effectively learn from practice and ensure that best practices are scaled up. In Egypt, for example, the ILO has mapped over 250 projects that were active over the course of 5 years with pertinence to youth employment. However, no system was in place to ensure they knew about each other; some conflicting approaches were being pursued; and the Ministry hasn’t learned out of all this work what should be prioritized for expansion and further work. Similarly, in Tunisia, a mapping exercise completed in 2018 by the Ministry of Professional Training and Employment with the support of UNDP highlighted the lack of knowledge exchange between the different international cooperation projects focusing on employment and professional training and their poor alignment with the Ministry’s strategic axes.  An effective Information Management System is an essential instrument for the Ministries to avoid the scattering of efforts and capacities. The project will work with Ministries on enhancing their internal management systems. Access in real-time to critical information - both financial and substantive - about all of development cooperation projects will be ensured. Best practices for development cooperation coordination will be facilitated, including the preparation of development partner inventories (who does what) in the fields of employment promotion and social protection. Thirdly, evaluation policies and practices of the Ministry will be enhanced, including the linkage between evaluation findings and management decisions. Outcome 2. Decision makers and influencers make better use of policy evidence to promote social and labour rights 2.1 National Parliaments and Governments in focus countries are better informed of ILS and of other key developments on the social and rights front. The project will work under this outcome in close consultation with ILO labour standards specialists in Cairo and in Geneva. It will first strengthen the systems and tools that inform national Parliaments, with a focus on social and labour rights issues. The project will conduct a needs assessment to identify the current resources and needs of Members of Parliaments with regard to their access to information on social issues and explore possible alternatives information and knowledge brokering and management tools (such as through newsletters, online portals) that the project can support to ensure a stronger access to key resources.  The project will also facilitate the composition of a network of experts from Ministries, academia and think tanks who will feed information and analysis to the Parliament. These experts need to be able to analyse, interpret relevant information, and distil it in a way that it is intelligible to the non-specialist in the Parliament. The availability of such information would allow the Parliament to keep the pulse on what matters and steer change within the government afterward. With respect to ILS, labour lawyers willing to be contributors will be trained on the findings and recommendations of the Committee of Experts (CoE) and prepare reader-friendly notes for the information of the parliament and the media. National expert networks (labour law, sector specialists as required) will further be supported to appraise the alignment of national law and practice with selected conventions (to be defined at national level, and including fundamental conventions). It will build on the findings of ILO global supervisory bodies, and address priority domains at country level. The text of the law and actuating decrees, but also actual practices, structures and capacities will be reviewed. Concrete recommendations on laws drafts, but also decrees and government structures and capacities, will be drawn. Trainings for Governments to better report on the observation of ILS will be a corollary activity. 2.2 International Labour Standards are better reflected in the national jurisprudence of focus countries. The ILO Committee of Experts has consistently emphasized the importance of the role of courts in enforcing ILS at the national level. It has also stressed the importance of taking measures to draw to the attention of judges as to the standards laid down in International Labour Conventions. Building on the pilot work done in Egypt, the project will collaborate with judicial authorities (Cassation Courts or equivalents, national centers for judicial studies or training center,) to train a pool of judges on ILS and their applicability to their national contexts. These judges will be supported in producing a manual and then rollout training to their peers, with a view to expanding the reference to ILS in the national jurisprudence. 2.3 The media and civil society are more knowledgeable of ILS and decent work and enrich the national discourse. The importance of the media, including social media, in advancing labour and social rights is well recognized. Much can be gained from a better informed national discourse as relates to sensitive, complex topics such as freedom of association and protection of unionists, for instance. Therefore, the project will enhance the knowledge of journalists and media professionals on key decent work issues and on how and where to get key information. This will allow journalists to better understand the options and the stakes, and contribute in a constructive manner to the national discourse around ILS and related topics. Collective agreements on conditions at national, local or sectoral level between employers and workers to find common interest areas in terms of wages and working conditions will also be promoted along this line of work. 2.4 Enhanced labour standards and good practices are promoted in different economic sectors through the cooperation with the private sector. Under this output the project will work with the private sector to enhance labour standards and promote the adoption of best practices in favour of better working conditions. The cooperation with the private sector is gaining importance in many dimension of the ILO work, playing an increasing role in advancing towards the realization of the ‘Decent Work’ agenda, and occupies an important place in the ‘Decent Work’ component of the Swedish MENA strategy 2016-20 within the economic sector. To achieve the expected results, the ILO will collaborate primarily with international corporations operating in North Africa, which are already implementing and are aiming to enhance labour standards among their staff or the suppliers. The starting point will be with Swedish corporations, including Volvo and Ericsson: the models offered by these Corporations - for the example in the area of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) - will be proposed for a generalization in the relevant economic sector and for influencing the standard setting processes. The work on this output will contribute to produce training material, new procedures, new standards, and also pilot the implementation of these new tools. Overall, the partnership with the international corporations will aim to expand good labour practices to different economic sectors, influencing the standards and contribute to create the capacity to implement the standards, in a perspective of sustainability and national appropriation. Documentation and knowledge sharing will be an essential part of the action. Conclusion: Sida assesses that these reforms are necessary for the region to be able to create jobs. Sida's assessment is that the outcomes/outputs are ambitions, but ILO has necessary knowledge, routines and leverage to make sure that they are achieved.