Mandate

• To build the knowledge base on the interfaces of skills development, employment, gender equality and decent work in the informal sector.


• To develop analytical tools for assessing the effectiveness of training systems in responding to the requirements of different segments of the very heterogenous informal economy.


• To develop strategies for improved skills delivery and acquisition outside the formal labour market. Such strategies include:

-  mainstreaming the issues relating to the informal sector into training policy frameworks and systems;

- promoting training investments for informal sector workers;

- capacity-building of policy makers, training providers and leaders and managers of informal sector organisations;

- developing tools to improve the delivery of skills to workers outside the formal labour market and to link skills training to other support facilities that could enable these workers to break out of the low-income trap.