ANTANANARIVO (ILO NEWS) – Six African francophone countries are meeting from 3-6 November in Antananarivo under the auspices of the International Labour Organization (ILO) to assess best methodologies and tools for labour inspection in the informal economy.

The African regional workshop, which was officially opened by Jacques Roland Rakotoarison, Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Laws of Madagascar, showcased best practices from Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia which have been able to experience inspection visits to informal production units.

"Labour regulations are poorly respected because only 3% of all dependent workers and 9 % of employees are governed by a written contract" said Jacques Roland Rakotoarison.

The objective of the workshop was to evaluate the methodological tool used for labour inspection in the countries concerned and make concrete recommendations on the way forward.

According to Mr. Christian Ntsay , Director of the ILO Country Office for Comoros, Djibouti , Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles, this methodological tool will be very useful also for Madagascar because 93% of existing jobs in Madagascar are informal employments and 98 % of these jobs are informal rural employments.

Given the absence of labour inspectors in informal production units, ILO programs and ADMITRA PAMODEC, with the collaboration of the International Centre of the ILO Training in Turin, are currently strengthening the capacity of intervention of labour administration mechanisms in the informal economy.