Employment and Decent Work in Development Cooperation Volume 1: Concepts and Foundations
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Ref. Ares(2018)1429079 - 15/03/2018 Tools and Methods Series Concept Paper No 6 Promoting employment and decent work in development cooperation Volume 1: Concepts and foundations Directorate-General forInternational Development January 2018 andCooperation Cooperation and — EuropeAidDevelopment Tools and Methods Series Concept Paper No 6 Promoting employment and decent work in development cooperation Volume 1: Concepts and foundations Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development European Commission Brussels • Luxembourg, January 2018 Disclaimer: The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the official position or opinion of the European Commission. roe irect is a service to e o nd ansers to your questions about the European Union. Freephone number*: 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 *Certain mobile telephone contractors do not allow access to 00 800 numbers, or these calls may be billed. More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://europa.eu). Print ISBN 978-92-79-76461-5 doi:10.2841/153250 MN-06-17-354-EN-C PDF ISBN 978-92-79-76460-8 doi:10.2841/335227 MN-06-17-354-EN-N emorg ications ce o te roean nion © European Union, 2018 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This document has been prepared by Kevin Hempel, Independent Consultant, under general guidance from Francoise iecam essandro atai and a ioooto e docment eneted rom contritions ristin asotter iman age ara anc a rom te etsce esesca r Internationae sammenareit I ergen Schwettman (Independent Consultant) and Janine Berg (International Labour Organization). It was developed with the support of the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO) Unit 05 and te etodoogica and noedge aring ort rogramme secica as ne and nrico rci Review meetings were held in February and August 2017 to gather inputs from a number of participants from the European Commission services and external partners. This document is the sixth concept paper in the EuropeAid Tools and Methods Series. The collection includes three sub-collections: guidelines, reference documents and concept papers. Concept papers present current thinking, pro- mote understanding on a given topic and do not include operational guidance. iv Abbreviations and acronyms ALMP Active Labour Market Policy NEET Not in Education, Employment or Training EC European Commission OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development EU European Union PLMP Passive Labour Market Policy GDP Gross Domestic Product SDG Sustainable Development Goal ILO International Labour Organization TVET Technical and Vocational Education and KILM Key Indicators of the Labour Market Training MDG Millennium Development Goal UN United Nations v Table of contents Abbreviations and acronyms iv 1 Background and introduction 1 1.1 Rationale 1 1.2 Audience 2 1.3 Objective 2 1.4 Methodology 2 1.5 Scope 3 1.6 Overview of the manual and how to use it 3 2 The role of employment and decent work in development 7 2.1 The importance of employment to development 7 2.2 Employment promotion and decent work in the development debate 12 2.3 Employment in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 14 2.4 Employment promotion in the European development agenda 18 3 Employment challenges in developing countries 23 3.1 The structure of the labour market 23 3.2 Key labour market indicators 27 3.3 Typical employment challenges in developing countries 31 egiona trends and secicities 4 Categories of employment constraints 45 4.1 Labour supply 47 4.2 Labour demand 52 4.3 Matching of labour supply and demand 55 orces o decent or decits 5 A comprehensive approach to promoting employment and decent work 63 moment romotion as a crosssectora effort 5.2 Overview of labour standards 65 5.3 Overview of labour market policies 70 5.4 The role of social dialogue 72 6 Conclusions 75 Annexes 1 ILO’s Key Indicators of the Labour Market 77 2 ILO Decent Work Agenda indicators 80 3 SDG 8 Targets and Indicators 83 References 85 1 CHAPTER 1 Background and introduction 1.1 Rationale BOX 1.1 Definition of ‘decent work’ One of the biggest challenges for developing countries ecent or is dened te Internationa aor is te creation o scient and ait emoment Organization as ‘productive work for women and Public opinion surveys globally suggest that issues men in conditions of freedom, equity, security and related to employment and jobs (or the lack thereof) human dignity’. Decent work involves opportunities (1) are among the top concerns of the population . Indeed, for work that is productive and delivers a fair income; decent work and income are central to individual and provides security in the workplace and social protec- societal well-being, contributing to improved living tion or orers and teir amiies offers rosects conditions, poverty reduction and social cohesion. The for personal development and encourages social question is what governments and development part- integration; gives people the freedom to express ners can do to facilitate the creation of productive their concerns, and to organise and to participate employment and decent work. in decisions tat affect teir ives and garantees equal opportunities and equal treatment for all. Promoting employment and decent work (see Box 1.1 Decent work consists of four inseparable, interrelated or a denition as een an imortant art o te and mutually supportive strategic objectives: employ- European Union’s (EU’s) development cooperation for a ment, fundamental principles and rights at long time, and increasingly so since the mid-2000s. The work, social protection (social security and labour 2006 ‘European Consensus on Development’ declares protection) and social dialogue. Gender equality and that ‘the EU will contribute to strengthening the social non-discrimination are cross-cutting issues. dimension of globalisation, promoting employment and decent work for all’ (EC, 2006a, p. 24). In the same year, Source: ILO, 2008a. a communication by the European Commission (EC) on ‘Promoting Decent Work for All’, called on ‘the other Finally, through the ‘New European Consensus on EU institutions, the Member States, the social partners Development’ published in 2017, the EU’s develop- and all those involved to work together to promote ment policy was aligned with the 2030 Agenda for decent work for all in the world’ (EC, 2006b, p. 10). stainae eveoment reecting a sared vision The document highlighted that the concept of ‘decent of a world where achieving sustainable development work’ very much aligns with the EU’s values and model includes addressing the education and employment of economic and social development. In 2011, the needs of society, especially for vulnerable and margin- EU’s emphasis on employment promotion was further alised groups such as women and youth (EC, 2017a). strengthened in the ‘Agenda for Change’ (EC, 2011). Indeed, ‘People’ (human development and dignity), and ‘Prosperity’ (inclusive and sustainable growth and jobs) are two of the four pillars of the new consensus (see Section 2.4.3 for more details). (1) See e.g. the Latinobarómetro public opinion survey database, http://www.latinobarometro.org/; and the United Nations’ MYWorld global survey, https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/ In practice, the EU agenda on employment and decent files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/8580.pdf. work focuses on four broad priority areas (EC, 2007): 2 CONCEPT PAPER NO 6 | PROmOTiNg EmPlOymENT AND DECENT wORk iN DEvElOPmENT COOPERATiON maximise decent job creation, supporting job-rich the EU’s partner countries, i.e. low- and middle-income growth; countries. In addition, the manual should prove useful to a wide variety of stakeholders involved in strengthen- improve the quality of existing jobs in terms of ing and mainstreaming employment and decent work, earnings and working conditions (both in the for- such as government representatives, international mal and informal economy); development partners, employer and worker organisa- tions nongovernmenta organisation staff and ensure increased access to these decent jobs, par- private sector representatives. Recognising that many ticularly of the most vulnerable in the labour mar- stakeholders do not necessarily have a professional ket, through improved employability (education and acgrond in tis ed te mana is ritten as an training and ecient aor maret oicies introduction to the topic, and readers do not require prior subject matter expertise. mainstream the employment perspective in eco- nomic policies/programmes and other sectors such as agriculture, energy or private sector development. 1.3 Objective Supporting decent job creation and employment pro- The overall objective of this manual is to enhance motion efforts cannot e ased on a onesietsa ommission staffs aiit to diagnose a contrs approach and needs policy coherence. Indeed, it is employment challenges, engage in technical dialogue highly complex and typically contingent on the interplay with counterparts, and promote employment and of multiple policy domains, such as economic policies, decent work as part of the EU’s international develop- trade and investment policies, education policies, and ment efforts ecica labour and social protection policies. It is no surprise that policy debates and political discourses are dom- volume 1 of the manual (this document) seeks inated by questions around job creation all over the to sensitise the reader about the importance of world, in both developed and developing countries. employment and decent work for development and facilitate understanding of key concepts, potential The multidimensional nature of employment inter- barriers to employment and the range of relevant ventions is aso reected in te act tat tere is no policy instruments. single or natural entry point for employment promo- tion efforts in artner contries imiar internationa volume 2 seeks to support policy dialogue and development partners such as the EU work in mul- facilitate the design of employment promotion tie oic areas to sort different asects o te interventions as well as the mainstreaming and employment agenda (e.g.