labour and social affairs commission of the african … · 2016-04-12 · poverty. 10. women’s...

LABOUR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS COMMISSION OF THE AFRICAN UNION Ninth Ordinary Session 8-12 April 2013 Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA

LSC/EXP/6(IX) Original : English

THEME: “Enhancing the Capacity of the Labour Market Institutions in Africa to meet the Current and Future Challenges”

DRAFT AU YOUTH & WOMEN EMPLOYMENT PACT FOR AFRICA (YWEP-A)

AFRICAN UNION

UNION AFRICAINE

UNIÃO AFRICANA

Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA P. O. Box 3243 Tele: +251-115 517 700 Fax: +251-11-5 517844

Website: www.africa-union.org

LSC/EXP/6(IX) Page 1

KEY FIGURES ON YOUTH AND WOMEN EMPLOYMENT IN AFRICA

Youth made up 43.7% of the total unemployed people in the world despite accounting for only 25% of the working population. a. 200 million people at the ages of 15 to 24 years comprising more than 20% of the population (Africa Youth Report 2011) b. The ratio of the youth-to-adult unemployment rate equals three The share of unemployed youth among the total unemployed can be as high as 83% in Uganda, 68% in Zimbabwe, and 56% in Burkina c. 3 in 5 of the total unemployed are youth and on average 72% of the youth population live with less than $2 a day d. 70% of the African youth population is still in rural areas e. The youth employment elasticity to GDP growth is low f. Unemployment among those with secondary education or above is three times higher than among those with no education attainment, g. Youth are more likely than adults to be in the informal sector and in agriculture with bad working conditions, low productivity, and meager earnings and without social protection. h. Young people are more likely to work longer hours under intermittent and insecure work i. Women work more hours than males and are more likely to engage in non-market activities. j. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest primary education completion rate of any region (60% compared to 91% in MENA, 98% in EAP, 99% in LAC, and 86% in all regions in 2005). More than a third of the youth population in the region was still illiterate in 2002. k. Children and young people start to work early—a quarter of children ages 5–14 are working, and among children ages 10–14, 31% are estimated to be working. These stylized facts suggest that the youth at large comprise a vulnerable group facing challenges in labor markets, but also indicate that youth attached to agriculture and informal economy, and female youth face particularly much stronger challenges.


Introduction/Background Youth and Women Employment in the AU Policy Agenda 1. African youth are an invaluable asset and key to sustaining the continent’s gains in development, not only because of the large size of the youth population, but also because of their creativity, their drive, and their aspirations. They not only constitute a large share of the population, but are also at the centre of societal transformations and their skills and know-how portfolio shape the future of Africa in the global world. The AU Youth Charter has entered into force since 2009. The AU Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. (Maputo, 11 July 2003) recognizes the Economic and Social Welfare Rights for Women through improving their status in the job market. Other relevant policy instruments relate to the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA), Dakar, Beijing and AU Assembly Decisions on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE), African Women’s Decade.These are translated into the Key Priority Area 5 of the Ouagadougou 2004 Plan of Action on Employment Promotion and Poverty Alleviation, which aims at the “Empowerment of women/youth by integrating them in the labour markets and to enable them to participate effectively in the development of poverty reduction strategies, policies and programmes‖. 2. The global economic and financial crisis has aggravated the unemployment and underemployment in Africa, despite a sustainable growth rate during the last decade. The Ouagadougou 2004 shows the concern of the AU Heads of States with regards to these persistent challenges which fuelled a high level of poverty and political instability in the continent. Responding to this context, Ministers of labour and employment placed their 8th session under the theme “Promoting Employment for Social Cohesion and Inclusive Growth”. 3. They had ministerial high level panel discussion on the theme “Promoting Youth Employment for Social Cohesion and Inclusive Growth”. The 17th AU Assembly Summit (Malabo, June 2011) on the theme “Accelerating Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development” adopted a Declaration on Creating Employment for Accelerating Youth Development and Empowerment and committed to ―REDUCE Youth and Women unemployment by at least two percent annually over the next five years as contained in the Youth Decade Plan of Action 2009-2018”. To this effect, the AU Assembly requested “the Commission to work with the African Development Bank (AfDB), the RECs and international partners, on a comprehensive youth employment pact, with mechanisms that will ensure its implementability at national level through strong ownership by the key Line Ministries, Employers and Trade union organizations, women and youth organizations and the Private Sector, with clear Monitoring and Evaluation system”. The Comprehensive Employment Pact takes into consideration the Assembly Decision on the theme “Accelerating Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development”, Assembly/AU/Dec.363 (XVII). The


Decision “calls on all partners and stakeholders to align all youth-related development programs with the Youth Decade Plan of Action (2009-2018)‖. Jobless Growth 4. Employment is often described as the most important link between economic growth and poverty reduction. Providing income earning opportunities through wage employment or self employment is crucial to raising incomes and overcome poverty. 5. Clearly, the limited labour demands in many African countries are an indication that the recent economic growth in the continent, while impressive, has been jobless growth. More meaningful economic growth that includes a strong social content is still needed. The challenge is herculean. There are ten (10) million entrants to the labor force per year in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 2012). Two factors were identified as influencing the nature of the growth engines in most African countries and lessened the ability of growth to translate into significant employment creation and poverty reduction: the capital intensive nature of African economies, and the tax systems in place1. 6. Combining growth, social protection and employment creation can be essential for poverty reduction strategy; with focus on rural employment given that poverty is most rampant in Africa’s rural areas as well as in the informal economy. Macroeconomic stability, enabling business environment, rules of law and productive human capital are key to achieving inclusive and pro jobs growth. 7. Another factor that affects the employment intensity of growth is the terms and conditions of trade. High Youth and Women underemployment level 8. While unemployment is relatively high in Africa, at approximately 20%, the level of underemployment among the working poor is even greater, being estimated at around 75%. This high score is a clear and strong indication that underemployment is the real challenge in African labour markets and that employment policies should focus on measures addressing this phenomenon. 9. High unemployment rates among the African youth, irrespective of the levels of education, indicate that youth are either poorly prepared for the labour market, or the labour market is inadequate to receive large numbers of youth that are seeking

1 Report of Committee of Experts, 3rd

Joint Annual Meetings of the AU Conference of Ministers of the Economy

and Finance and ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development,

Lilongwe, March 2010.


employment. In Egypt 70% of Egypt’s unemployed are between 15 and 29 years old, and of these 70%, around 60% do have a university degree, meaning that there is a very high level of ―educated unemployment‖ in this country. The category of young people Not in Employment, Education and Training (NEETs) constitute a growing group of unemployed and represent a threat to social cohesion and political stability, when the key challenges are the lack of job creation, social inequalities, unemployment and wide poverty. 10. Women’s informal employment, in both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, contributes significantly to number of national economies in the Africa. For example, in Ghana, women working in the informal sector contribute up to 46 percent of the agricultural GDP. Similarly in Benin, Chad, Kenya, and Mali, women’s informal work accounts for over 50 percent of GDP. 11. The 6th African Development Forum (Nov 2008) acknowledged that ensuring that women have access to education and training, productive assets including land, credit and time-saving technology is a sine qua non to the achievement of the 7 per cent annual growth rate needed to achieve the MDGs in Africa. Agricultural productivity increases dramatically when women have equal access to productive inputs. When women obtain the same levels of education, experience, and farm inputs that currently benefit the average male farmer, they increase their yields for maize, beans, and cowpeas by 22%. 12. The pursuit of gender equality in Africa can potentially generate huge human and economic benefits. The AU Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. (Maputo, 11 July 2003) sets the stage for promoting women employment in Africa, with facilitating their access to appropriate social protection and social insurance measures. Labour Demand and Supply Mismatches 13. The lack of an efficient matching process where employers are not of aware where to find people or where young people are not informed of where the jobs are, leads to ineffective matching procedures based on personal relationships rather than professional competencies. Both require response through policy and investment changes that increase the skills of labour market entrants, through improved quality and appropriateness of education, and increase investment that generates employment. As a result, millions of young people work in informal jobs with no social security or prospects for improvement. This situation leads obviously to emigration as an attractive alternative. 14. The labour market systems fail to recognize the knowledge and skills acquired by young people and women in the non-formal and informal workplaces and in civil society. The identification and validation of non-formal and informal learning will help to address


this inequity, by enabling the acceptance and transfer of all learning outcomes across different settings.

Youth work attitudes and behaviour 15. Analysing youth employment issues often follows a demand and supply analysis of the labour market, which over-looks the social issues beyond education and skills training. Historical, psychological, social and political dimensions are seldom taken into consideration when addressing youth employment. These aspects have been said to affect young peoples’ initiative, ability to be innovative and have promoted passivity and a pessimistic culture that discourages risk taking and harbours mistrust which affects the attitude to work in general. The Objective 16. The African Youth Charter defines youth or young people as every person between the ages of 15 and 35 years. Every young person shall have the right to gainful employment2. The AU headline target, on the basis of which Member States will set their national targets, is to “reduce the youth and women unemployment rate by 2% per year over the five coming years”3. The Approach 17. However, addressing the challenges associated with youth and women employment is not obvious and requires a multi-pronged approach depending on national and sub-regional circumstances. This will lead to interventions that can be carried out in the short, medium and long term, with appropriate and strong policies at national, regional and continental levels. 18. In accordance with the Follow-Up Mechanism of the AU 2004 Plan of Action on Employment Promotion and Poverty Alleviation, the Y.W.E.P -A is developed as ―guidelines to assist member states to formulate plans of actions‖4 for the achievement of the Malabo commitment on reducing youth and women unemployment by 2% per year over the five coming years. As a way forward, Member States should develop “detailed plan of action with clear objectives, milestones, roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders and development partners and indicators. The plan of action must also indicate how resources will be mobilized‖5. The Guidelines are also 2 AU Youth Charter, Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA)

3 AU African Youth Decade 2009-2018, Accelerating Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development, May 2011

4 Follow-Up Mechanism for Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation, Extraordinary Summit of Heads of States

and Government, Ouagadougou 2004

5 Ibid


meant to ensure that the Youth and Women Employment Pact is implemented by the international partners according to the 2005 Paris Declaration and 2008 Accra Agenda engagements on the principles of ownership, alignment and mutual responsibility. 19. The Guidelines are based on the following strategic directions: (i) Pursuing sustainable and inclusive growth, (ii) Enhanced, Stronger Political Leadership, (iii) Promote well-functioning Labour Market: Labour Market Governance; (iv) Preparation of the youth to enter the job market, (v) Public-Private Partnerships,(vi) Promotion of regional and sub-regional labour mobility, (vii) Communication, Resource Mobilization, Monitoring and Evaluation Guideline 1: Pursuing sustainable and inclusive growth 20. Absorbing the large youth and women cohorts entering the labour markets requires enabling macro-economic environments that will promote growth, private sector development, and access to financing and investment from both local and international stakeholders. While a set of AU Member states have experienced steady annual growth rate over 5% during the last decade, six of the 10 fastest-growing economies over the last decade are located in the Africa. 21. It is recognized that a holistic approach to the employment-growth-poverty reduction nexus is needed to ensure a linkage between growth and employment and between these and the policies for poverty eradication, in particular social protection for the poor. Also a consensus was reached on key elements of an effective strategy for achieving employment-creating growth and poverty reduction. More specifically, the Malabo Summit (June 2011) called to “ACCELERATE appropriate social protection coverage expansion for the youth, women, informal economy and rural workers and members of their families, in order to reduce poverty and vulnerability”. 22. The way forward for Africa hinges on commitments by all stakeholders to implement a common and shared vision for high-level sustainable and employment-intensive growth to reduce poverty. Country-specific growth and employment strategies should be inclusive and particularly sensitive to the needs of vulnerable groups - women, the youth, the elderly, the disabled and the rural poor6. This is the aim of this Guideline. The primary responsibility for this Guideline rests on the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Economic Development.

Member States to:

6 Ministerial Report of the 3rd

Joint Annual Meetings of the AU Conference of Ministers of the Economy and

Finance and ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Lilongwe,

1st June 2010, E/ECA/CM/43/5 AU/CAMEF/MIN/Rpt(V)

.


a. Pursue fiscal policies that promote labour-intensive investment in infrastructure and other labour intensive sectors. Meanwhile, monetary policies should pay attention to growth and employment while pursuing price stability;

b. Develop and enhance their capacity in promoting good political, economic, corporate and social governance as a way to ensure that macroeconomic policies delivered pro-poor, and employment-friendly growth.

c. Provide appropriate fiscal and social incentives to support job creation for youth and women in the Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, Agriculture, Informal Economy, Cultural Industries, and the Services, in particular ICT based services;

d. Explore the feasibility of expanding and/or enhancing the investment of National Pension Institutions and Social Security Agencies in Jobs creation

e. Explore alternative sources of funding, such as Zakat institutions The AUC/NEPAD to:

a. Develop a mechanism to mainstream youth and women employment in the NEPAD, CAADP, PIDA and other relevant AU Programmes; AUC will devise ways and means to promote Youth and Women Rural Employment;

b. Enhance the Policy Dialogue space within its policy organs to support common vision and sustained engagement on employment promotion in a multi-stakeholders approach;

c. Identify economic sectors providing high industrial development opportunities and job creation potential through development of required skilled labour force (diamond, gold, wood, leather, etc) and promote integrated development initiatives

Regional Economic Communities to:

a. Exert coordinated efforts with the AUCs to ensure coherence in development policy, particularly in the areas of trade, infrastructure development aid and foreign direct investment

b. Identify labour intensive regional economic and social sectors, and develop labour intensive framework in order to unleash the job creation potential of the identified sectors

c. Facilitate policy dialogue on labour, employment and social protection in connection with growth strategies

Guideline 2: Enhanced, Stronger Political Leadership 23. The Guideline seeks to leverage on the Key Priority Area 1 of the AU Plan of Action on Employment Promotion and Poverty Alleviation (Ouagadougou 2004). The KPA aims at “ensuring political leadership and commitment to create an enabling environment of good governance for investment, development and poverty alleviation in the context of NEPAD and the attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)”.


24. The lack of or weak political leadership has always jeopardized the implementation of the comprehensive and active employment policies by the AU Member States. There is a need for a strong political commitment to address the issue of unemployment on a permanent and long-term basis, and through establishment of intersectoral policy space to account for the multi sectoral nature of the job market challenges. The Ministries in charge of employment and youth policies are described as being among the weakest bodies of the government apparel in Africa. 25. Political leadership is about building and enhancing the capacity of the labour market institutions, while empowering the local authorities in labour market functioning at local level. The Political leadership will encourage the Public-Private Partnership as an essential path to improved and smooth integration of youth and women in the job market. Member States should develop legislative frameworks to promote legal environments and funding for youth employment; 26. There is a need for the AU Leaders, in line with the NEPAD, the CAADP and other relevant AU sectoral development policies, to strongly engage in the green economy and develop green jobs for youth and women. 27. Youth and women participation is crucial to the success of the Y.E.W.P-A Youth need to be capacitated through building and fostering youth organizations at all levels. Member States should:

a. Integrate/translate employment policies into legal frameworks for an effective Rights-Based floor to employment policies;

b. Support Youth and Women participation in the policy dialogue on employment and other related policies

c. Promote internal policy coordination by establishing and enhancing the national inter sectoral follow-up institution for the follow-up of the Ouagadougou 2004 Plan of Action on Employment Promotion and Poverty Reduction

d. Ministers of Labour to consider the Resolution L-6 on Promoting High Level

Sustainable Growth to reduce Unemployment in Africa7 and coordinate its implementation with Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development at the national, sub regional and continental level;

7 Ministerial Report of the 3

rd Joint Annual Meetings of the AU Conference of Ministers of the Economy and

Finance and ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Lilongwe, 1st

June 2010, E/ECA/CM/43/5 AU/CAMEF/MIN/Rpt(V)


e. Gradually and substantially increase their budget allocation to employment promotion, including through elaboration of Mid-Term Expenditure Frameworks specific to employment policy implementation, monitoring to ensure the sustainability of domestic budgeting of employment policies and programmes;

f. Leverage on Social Dialogue to facilitate legal and institutional reforms needed in the labour market towards improving their functioning, for greater flexibility that ensure the creation of more and better jobs while securing the existing jobs

The AUC should:

a. Engage with the Pan African Employers Confederation to mobilize the private sector through a Public-Private Partnership on Youth and Women employment, while leveraging on Corporate Social Responsibility

b. Develop and implement an Africa Green Jobs Platform

RECs to:

a. Promote social dialogue mechanisms in their region and negotiate regional pact on growth and social cohesion (employment, growth and social protection);

b. Design and implement regional Youth and Women Employment Plans

Guideline 3: Preparation of the youth and women to enter the job market,

28. The Vocational Educational Training is not playing an inclusion function in Africa, by providing some protection against unemployment. It is a key structural component of education and employment policies, and facilitates the transition to the labour market. Skills mismatches are particularly identified as a constraint to business development in Egypt (50 percent of all firms interviewed), Algeria (37 percent), World Bank Enterprise Survey 2008. 29. The AU Youth Charter acknowledges the value of multiple forms of education, including formal, non-formal, informal, distance learning and life-long learning, to meet the diverse needs of young people. In a new view, beyond the basic skills, youth need to be equipped with transversal soft competences in entrepreneurship, innovativess, creativity, citizenship, communication to successfully enter the labour market.

30. The AU Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa recognize and protect their ―Economic and Social Welfare Rights‖. It calls States Parties to “adopt and enforce legislative and other measures to guarantee women equal opportunities in work and career advancement and other economic opportunities‖ ( Article 13). It went on stipulating measures such as (i) equality of access to employment; (ii) right to equal remuneration for jobs of equal


value for women and men; (iii) protection and social insurance for women working in the informal; (iv) recognition of the economic value of the work of women in the home; (v) equal application of taxation laws to women and men. 31. In most African countries the jobs held by young and female workers are less secure, simpler and physically more demanding. The AU Youth Charter also recognizes the right of every young person to benefit from social security, including social insurance. This includes their right to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing work that is likely to be hazardous to or interfere with the young person’s education, or to be harmful to the young person’s health. Occupational health and safety should be integrated into youth employment policy, youth accident prevention and education. This is in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board’s Resolution 128/15 Child Injury Prevention, 24 January 2011, risks at work faced by young people under 18. More generally, youth friendly health services could contribute to improve youth and women integration in the labour market, through information guidance and counselling. Female workforce experiences various forms of discrimination at workplace, and in the skills development upstream side of the labour market. This reduces their chance to access to the most remunerative and protective jobs. 32. Major obstacles to youth access to labour market feature on the weak capacity of the Member States in identifying skills needs and analysing skills mismatch, the limited access to career counselling and career guidance services, if they exist, The capacity for the identification of skills, and more extensive forecasting of skills to better match the requirements of the labour market, have to be strengthened. 33. Self-employment and Entrepreneurship are essential for jobs creation for youth and women, and fighting against their social exclusion. Entrepreneurship education in schools could create awareness of enterprise and self-employment as a career option for young men and women, and to provide knowledge of the desirable attitudes for and challenges in starting and operating a successful enterprise. 34. Special attention must be paid to the young people at disadvantage, such as the disabled people, being particularly hit by the unemployment and other bad conditions in the labour market. Y.E.W.P-A will provide opportunity to foster implementation of the AU PoA on Disabled People and of the AU Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child with regards to their provisions on employment access for these target groups. Another important target group is the Youth in Post-Conflict countries. The AUC has elaborated a Project on Youth Employment Promotion in Post-Conflict Countries. Member States should:

a. Take urgent steps to improve and increase responsiveness of the education and training systems to current and future labour market needs in order to address the pervasive and structural skills mismatch;


b. Urgently conduct skills needs identification and forecast for effective matching of skills demand and supply in their economy;

c. Establish and enhance career guidance and career counseling systems within the public employment services and the TVET systems; ICT-based career guidance tool could be developed as a useful complement to career guidance services;

d. Define a Youth and Women Social Protection Pack encompassing Health, reproductive health and Nutrition measures, as well as safety at work for the young; integrate education and culture on Occupational safety and health in the youth employment policies;

e. Support Youth and Women self-employment and entrepreneurship, through better training in basic business skills and a business environment that is sensitive to the youth and women needs and expectations;

f. Support institutions which can assist young new entrants into the labour market; g. Recognize the non-formal and informal skills acquisition schemes

The AUC to:

a. Accelerate the implementation of the AU Volunteers Programme, and of the Project on Youth Employment Promotion in Post-Conflict Countries

b. Promote a “Safe Youth and Women Work Campaign”, advocating for safer

and secure working conditions for youth and women, in connection with SPIREWORK

c. Conduct a series of survey on skills mismatch in collaboration with the Pan African Employers’ Confederation (PEC)

d. Develop an Entrepreneurship Project to fuel and foster entrepreurship,

creativity and innovativeness mindsets’ among young people and women, and exploit their entrepreneurial potential, including in social sectors;

e. Work with the Pan African Employers’ Confederation to combat all forms of discrimination against women in the labour markets

f. Accelerate the implementation of Economic and Social Welfare Rights as provided for in the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa,

RECs to:

g. Joint the AUC in the Conduct of a series of survey on skills mismatch in collaboration with the Pan African Employers’ Confederation (PEC)

Guideline 4: Promote well-functioning Labour Market: Labour Market Governance


35. The Malabo Summit (June 2011) called for a Youth Employment Pact with mechanisms that will ensure its implementability at national level through strong ownership by the key Line Ministries, Employers and Trade union organizations, women and youth organizations and the Private Sector, with clear Monitoring and Evaluation system”. 36. Labour market transparency and effectiveness are keys to the success of the Youth Employment Pact. In a broad concept, it involves the labour market institutions as well as the nongovernmental organizations and civil society organizations, in particular the youth and women organizations, and the local governments. The Public Employment Services need to be in a position to achieve effective synergy between labour demand and supply, oriented towards the employers’ requirements by offering quality professional services to the private sector, the job seekers and the vocational education/training system. As a policy orientation, Public Employment Services as well as the Labour Administrations must focus their interventions to the Micro Enterprises and the SMEs which possess a huge potential of job creation but lack the capacity to take advantage of the available youth skilled labour force. 37. Other challenges relate to the weak capacity in employment policy monitoring and evaluation, the lack of reliable and regular labour market information, etc. Some Member States have set up TVET Development Funds and National Employment and Training Observatories which prove useful in connecting the needs of the labour market with the outputs of the education systems. 38. The local governments and communities should be capacitated to participate in implementing employment policies while promoting local development in the same move, through social dialogue and supportive active labour market policies. The importance of availability of labour market information and data cannot be overemphasized, in the context of African countries. A legal framework could facilitate useful provision of ALMPs by the private sector, and private intermediation. 39. As evidenced through the survey on the funding of Employment Policies in African countries, the lack of transparency and visibility in the delivery processes of employment programmes has negatively affected the attitude of the international partners with regards to efficiency and effectiveness of investment in this sector. This by large due to the weak capacity demonstrated in monitoring and evaluation of employment policies, the weak accountability. Member States to:

a. Undertake initiatives for enhancing and modernizing the public employment services and labour administrations, targeting the micro enterprises and the SMEs for more and better jobs and providing quality services to the young job seekers; PES should be more professionalized through building capacity in enhancing job search efficiency, such as providing information on job vacancies,


assisting in matching workers to jobs, career counseling, and assessment and testing to determine job readiness.

b. Enhance their capacity in the labour market information in accordance with the

AU Labour Market Information Systems Harmonization and Coordination Framework

c. Provide Local Authorities with employment policy planning capacities d. Facilitate the participation of young people and women’ organizations in the

design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of employment policies and programmes.

The AUC, in collaboration with the RECs, to:

a. Implement the Labour Market Information Systems Harmonization and Coordination Framework

b. Support Knowledge development and best practices, networking on youth and women employment

c. Put in place and operational Intra-African Technical Cooperation Platform on employment and labour domains, supporting MS in their efforts to modernize and enhance their labour market institutions, including through ICT based professional intermediation services

d. Facilitate cross-learning mechanisms among member states for experience sharing and capacity building in labour market governance

Guideline 5: Public-Private Partnership 40. The principle of tripartism is an operational basis for setting up a Public-Private Partnership on labour, employment and social protection. This applies to strategies for youth and women employment. In addition, the principle of Corporate Social Responsibility lays ground to engaging the private sector in youth and women employment, as a way of contributing to ensuring social cohesion and political stability that are needed for conductive business environment. It is possible to leverage on the existence of the Pan African Employers’ Confederation (PEC) in order to define, implement and follow-up a Public-Private partnership with the African Union Commission. 41. To this effect, the AUC and PEC should frame a PPP that define roles and responsibilities at continental, regional and national level, as the PEP has members organizations at all level that can ensure the implementation of a continental arrangement. Member States to:


a. Engage in active Public-Private Partnership to create employment and eradicate poverty

AUC in collaboration with RECs and the PEC, to:

a. Develop and implement a regional Public-Private Partnership on promoting Youth and Women Employment covering, inter alia, (i) business environment and investment climate improvement, (ii) school to work transitions schemes, (iii) rationalization of youth and women’ entrepreneurship programmes with closer link to the private sector’s organizations, (iv) active involvement and collaboration of the private sector in design and implementation of Active Labour Market Policies, (v) engagement of the private sector on labour market information system, for example through effective use of Enterprise Survey Module of the AU Labour Market Information Systems Harmonization and Coordination Framework, and funding of research/study programmes, (vii) engagement of Public Employment Services and Labour Inspectorates in providing value added professional services to SMMEs, (viii)involvement of private sector in de development of education and TVET Curricula, etc.

Guideline 6: Promotion of regional and sub-regional labour mobility 42. Youth employment is also of fundamental importance in a global and regional context. There is a need to encourage mobility of young people in the continent and overseas. New jobs opportunities can be opened through Labor Movement and Regional Economic Integration. Young workers and women are involved in important migration flows inside the continent, working both in the formal and the informal economic sectors, responding to the supply and demand needs of domestic and foreign labor markets. Women are particularly engaged in cross-borders trade without protection. On-going processes of regional economic integration in Africa are increasingly taking account of managed cross border labor movements that lead to better labor allocation within larger labor markets. RECs constitute a key factor for facilitating co-operation in the area of labor mobility at the regional level and for promoting economic development. This movement helps to fill skills gaps in the countries and to activate a more ―informal‖ regional labour migration and job market. The benefits can be increased through bilateral and multilateral efforts at strengthening co-operation on labor migration. The East African Community has gained a large experience in regional labour migration policy and operational systems. 43. Other challenges pertain to recognition and transparency of qualification and competencies, portability/transferability of social security and pension rights. The Public Employment Services can provide information on job vacancies, occupations, skills development/training programmes, market characteristics. They have created the African Association of Public Employment Services which is also an active member of the World Association of Public Employment Services (AMSEP). This platform can be leveraged to support regional labour migration strategies.


AUC to, in collaboration with the RECs:

a. Develop an AU and RECs Labour Migration Plan comprised of the following: Harmonization and coordination of labour, employment and social

protection policies and legal frameworks Qualification Framework Harmonization and Skills recognition AU Jobs Matching and Mobility Platform: Public Employment Services

(PES) Network and cooperation; Electronic Regional Labour Exchange, Biennial Employment Week to coincide with the LSAC Sessions,

b. Study and medium-term forecasts of skills supply and demand at national, regional and continental levels, in collaboration with the RECs, and build up regional Skills Panorama/Maps

Guideline 7: Communication, Resource Mobilization, Monitoring and Evaluation 44. The AUC will develop a communication and resource mobilization strategy for the implementation of the Youth Employment Pact in Africa. The Communication strategy will consider the organization of an African Employment Week as job fairs event and scientific forum. African Economic Forum to discuss on themes related to youth employment. 45. The monitoring and evaluation of the youth employment pact will be integrated in the reporting process of the Follow-up Mechanism for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Ouagadougou 2004 Plan of Action on Employment promotion and Poverty Alleviation. As such, a special biennial Follow-up report will be established by the AU member states and sent to the AUC for their analysis and elaboration of a continental follow-up report. The AUC report will be submitted to the LSAC ordinary sessions and the summits for consideration. 46. The Follow-up mechanism will be extended to engage other AU policy organs of key sectoral development. In this respect, the follow-up report will be submitted to the AU Conference of Ministers in charge of economy and finance, education and vocational training, agriculture, and youth. 47. The AU Resource Mobilization Strategy for the implementation of the Ouagadougou 2004 Plan of Action will respond to the specific needs of funding the Youth Employment Pact, involving mobilizing resources from commitments made by the G20. 48. The AUC will develop the South-South Cooperation through its MoU with countries such as Brazil, China, India, etc. The Africa-EU Strategic Partnership provides opportunities for effective cooperation and resource mobilization. Circular migration for the youth engagement between the AUC and EU should be explored.


The AUC in collaboration with the RECs, to:

a. Develop a Communication Strategy for the Y.E.W.P-A b. Implement the Strategic Document of Resource Mobilization for the

implementation of the Ouagadougou 2004 Plan of Action on Employment Promotion and Poverty Alleviation

c. Conduct feasibility study for the establishment of Employment and Social Cohesion Fund, in close collaboration with the African Development Bank

1. Institutional and financial arrangements:

49. The institutional setting for the provision and financing of ALMPs varies from country to country. National labour market institutions, in particular the Public Employment Services should be enhanced to play a central role in revilatizing the labour market. The institutional follow-up institutions should be established at all level, in accordance with the requirements of the Follow-Up Mechanism on the implementation of the Ouagadougou 2004 Plan of action. 50. Public financing of ALMPs could come directly from treasury transfers, through employment funds (often financed by employers through labor taxes), and through programs financed by the ministries of education, youth, and labor, among others. Private financing could come from NGOs, donors, international organizations, and/or could de directly paid for by the private sector. The AUC should conduct feasibility study for the establishment of Employment and Social Cohesion Fund, in close collaboration with the African Development Bank.

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