INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION
	" Poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere "

Jobs for Africa
 

Within the framework of a UNDP financed programme entitled "Programme on Employment Generation for Poverty Reduction" (better known as "Jobs for Africa") the ILO has launched an initiative to address the problems of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of "Jobs for Africa" is to identify a set of mutually enforcing policies for job creation and poverty reduction. This will be done through:

1. developing a conceptual framework for comprehensive and sectoral policies on employment creation for poverty reduction;
2. identifying policy tools and operational systems to implement employment creation for poverty reduction; and
3. designing a comprehensive regional programme to support country level employment promotion programmes.

In a very summarised manner, the report emphasizes that Africa has no alternative but to embark on a process of sustained growth if it is to avoid continued marginalization. The process of reform has to be deepened by going beyond stabilization and structural adjustment programmes, and by launching investment-led growth strategies that maximize employment and reduce poverty. This can only be achieved if the social partners, member States and the international community join efforts to adopt a more coherent, high-quality employment-led development strategy which takes full advantage of the opportunities for economic growth through increased exports and foreign investment offered by the process of globalization. This programme was the focus of discussions at the Fifth Meeting of African Employment Planners, held in Pretoria in January 1997, which was followed by a process of broad consultation, including policy advisory missions to Cameroon, Mauritius, Senegal, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Focusing on policy-making and planning for employment creation, the programme will be launched in 1998 at the national level in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

It represents a contribution to the United Nations System-Wide Special Initiative on Africa as well as to the follow-up to the Social Summit.

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See the complete paper on the Development Policies Department's (POLDEV) site
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For further information, please contact the Development Policies Department (POLDEV)
at Tel: +41.22.799.6436, Fax: +41.22.799.6867, or E-Mail: poldev@ilo.org