ISLAMABAD (ILO News) - A new approach involving private sector to overcome economic challenges in post-conflict situation has been introduced to donors and practitioners from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. This approach has been jointly introduced by the ILO and GIZ (German technical agency) in a three day international training course (4-6 Sept 2012) in Islamabad on “Practicing Private Sector Development in fragile and Conflict-affected Situations”.
At the opening ceremony of training course, Mr Francesco d’Ovidio, Country Director ILO welcomed the foreign guests including trainers and participants. He highlighted the context of this region which is facing a multitude of economic challenges due to various crises. He also mentioned different efforts by Government, employers’ and workers’ organization and other stakeholders to overcome these challenges and to reduce the effect of such crises on poor people. He termed this training a timely effort to support the organizations in realigning their efforts and resources towards Private Sector Development for enhanced benefits. He emphasized on effective utilization of this knowledge for the benefit of the host countries in this Region.
Ms Götze-Pfeiffer, Portfolio Manager at GIZ also spoke on the opening ceremony highlighting global situation of high youth unemployment which is giving rise to rebellion trends among them. While referring to World Development Report 2011, she mentioned that low per capita income and unemployment are major drivers of conflicts and concluded that the path to longer-term development and peace "is dependent on a healthy private sector".
The training course was facilitated by two international Resource Persons, Mr Martin Gasser from the International Training Centre of the ILO, Turin (Italy) and Mr O.J. Krück from Private Sector, on behalf of GIZ, Germany. The participants of the course had come from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
The resource persons indicated that sustenance of Private Sector during fragile and conflict-affected situations could help in reducing a number of vulnerabilities of affected communities. By providing the poor with the capacity to find jobs and improve their incomes, Private Sector Development (PSD) lays the foundation for their exit from charity. In addition, a growing private sector will ultimately enable governments in developing countries to generate the tax revenues needed to emulate government provision in more wealthy countries - of health care, education etc.
The three day course looked into the concepts of fragile and conflict-affected situations and the genesis and role of Private Sector in developing societies. The course also elaborated different tools for conflict analysis with a special focus on private sector – covering its different dimensions. The participants were exposed to a range of PSD interventions contributing to jobs-creation, stability in society and trust-building amongst different levels of Actors. It was emphasized to promote PSD through an inclusive and participatory method and to closely monitor PSD interventions through a comprehensive set of indicators.
This interagency course on “Private Sector Development in fragile and Conflict-affected Situations” has been recently initiated under the auspices of the ‘Donors Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED)’ to be implemented for the very first time in Pakistan by the ILO International Training Centre (ITC-ILO) and GIZ Academy. The course will become a permanent part of both training arms of GIZ and ILO to be held once a year in Italy and in Germany.
Course participants termed the training course rich in content, timely and relevant to the prevailing situation in their countries. The course indicates towards a range of interventions to support Public Sector and enhance its resilience in conflict-situations to continue its business on one hand and to ensure employment opportunities for workers on a sustained basis on the other hand.
For further information please contact:
Mr M.Saifullah Chaudhry
Senior Programme Officer and Media Focal Person
ILO Country Office for Pakistan
Email
Tel.: +92 51 2276456-8
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