Experts meeting of the Labour and Social Affairs Commission begins review of Ougadougou 2004 and seeks to define employment policies for the next ten years Windhoek, Namibia 23 April 2014- Africa is assessing progress made in the implementation of the 2004 Ouagadougou Declaration and Plan of Action on Employment Promotion and Poverty alleviation, as well as defining new policies for the next ten years, as contributions to an extra ordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union devoted to the issue of unemployment and poverty eradication, to be held in Burkina Faso in September this year. An implementation report of the 2004 Ouagadougou Declaration and Plan of Action captures some positive outcomes since then. Firstly, there have been steady efforts on the continent in producing bi-ennial progress reports by member states of the African Union. Institutional capacity of labour market infrastructure improved, in particular in the areas of placement, labour market information, employment policy formulation, political leadership and employment funding. Regional economic communities (RECs) intensified their work towards integration of their labour markets through various interventions such as harmonization and coordination of the labour and social security legal frameworks and the adoption of regional labour migration policy frameworks. Despite this progress, the continent still needs to address some weaknesses, including the weakness of labour market institutions, the absence of operational coordination mechanisms at national level, limited or inadequate funding of employment promotion programmes, lack of social protection coverage for excluded categories of workers, high levels of youth and women unemployment and underemployment. “Unemployment and under employment are still at high levels, in particular among youth and women”, noted Namibia’s Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Hon Doreen Sioka, adding that under employment currently stands at 75% in many AU member states. She was speaking at the opening session of the experts’ meeting of the Special Session of the AU Labour and Social Affairs Commission in Windhoek. “I would like to underline that the persistent level of under employment prevailing in the informal economy and rural sectors calls for high priority in our policy setting for the next ten years. Combating under employment must be at the top of the African agenda”, African Union Commission’s Director of Social Affairs Dr Olawale Maiyegun said today at the same meeting. The meeting’s theme is “Employment, Poverty Eradication and Inclusive Development”. It was chosen out of a recognition of the harsh employment challenge being faced by Africans, mainly youth and women. The LSAC is being held at an important juncture in the history of the African continent, when it is in the process of crafting the 50 year continental development framework known as Agenda 2063, and when the international community is discussing the post 2015 development agenda. “How we intend to tackle women and youth unemployment and create an inclusive society in the next ten years should feed into this ongoing international discourse”, remarked Dr Maiyegun. The experts meeting is expected to review the policy instruments for the next ten years. These are the Declaration on Employment, Poverty Eradication and Inclusive Development and its Plan of Action: as well as the follow-up mechanism. The declaration is crafted with a focused plan of action built on six key priority areas, and these have been submitted for the consideration of the experts. The focus areas are youth and women employment; social protection and inclusive growth, informal economy, social economy and rural employment; productivity, competitiveness and social dialogue; labour market governance; labour migration and regional economic integration; and partnership and funding for implementation of employment policies. The meeting will also consider other items such as the common position on the transitioning of the informal economy to formal economy, and the election of members of the ILO Governing Body for the period 2014-17. Outcomes from the experts meeting will be considered by ministers who will meet on Friday 25th May in Windhoek and their recommendations will in turn be presented for consideration and adoption by the AU Assembly that will take place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from 3 to 7 September 2014. The opening session of the experts meeting today was also addressed by Mr. Ngoni Masoka- the Chairperson of the officials’ bureau of the AU Labour and Social Affairs Commission, Mr. Tim Parkhouse representing employers and Mr Owei Lakemfa- Secretary General of the Organisation of African Trade Unions (OATU). WZM
Posted on: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 16:00:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015