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The challenge of creating decent employment remains real and daunting for many countries in Africa. The unfolding global economic crisis, whose impact is increasingly now being felt on the continent, will worsen the situation. In most countries, the emphasis has generally been on creating adequate, quality employment opportunities, especially for women and the youths. In response to this, the ILO continues to work with governments and social partners to make its contribution towards employment creation through a number of projects and interventions. These generally involve supporting cooperatives, micro, small and medium enterprises, in particular support to women entrepreneurship and youth employment. This work is guided by promotion of the concept of sustainable enterprises – enterprises that strive to balance their business and financial goals with other equally important goals related to social equity (especially in regards to employees welfare) and environmental concerns for the general well being of our environment.
The ILO is implementing programmes in several countries in support of the Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) priorities including a sub-regional programme on Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality (WEDGE) - [pdf, 43 KB] in East Africa and a regional programme in support of cooperatives in Africa. In four countries in West Africa, including Liberia and Sierra Leone, a sub-regional programme on youth employment in the Mano River Union countries is being implemented in partnership with UNIDO. Other on-going projects include support to growth oriented women entrepreneurs through the ILO Expand Your Business (EYB) programme in Kenya, support to women cooperatives through training, access to finance and other interventions including HIV/AIDS training in Ethiopia.
Interventions at the macro level involve providing technical assistance to governments to develop and implement Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) policies and support towards improving the business environment for the growth of small and medium enterprises, including informal economy operators so that they can grow and eventually graduate into formal businesses. Local economic development and value chain analysis and upgrading are some of the main approaches to support SMEs and cooperatives.
In all the programmes, the ILO's flagship packages – the Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB), Know About Business (KAB), Expand Your Business (EYB) and Women's Entrepreneurship Development (WED) tools are being used as the main tools for business development and training.
Women's Entrepreneurship Development is a targeted programme for women entrepreneurs. The programme provides training and capacity building to Business Development Services (BDS) providers, women entrepreneur associations and other service providers, including financial institutions to enable them better provide their services to women entrepreneurs. Capacity building is provided to improve and tailor make services to suit the needs of women entrepreneurs, given the various constraints faced. In East Africa, the programme is very active in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
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