Decent Work Country Programme Training Workshop, Cairo, 3-4 September 2007

The first Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) training workshop in Africa was held in Cairo to introduce the concept of DWCPs to local tripartite constituents and to begin identifying the priorities, outcomes and outputs of the DWCP for Egypt. This workshop, organized by SRO-Cairo, was facilitated by two officials from the ILO Bureau of programming and Management in Geneva and was supported by officials from the Regional Office for the Arab States (Beirut), the Regional Office for Africa in (Addis Ababa). More than 30 participants from key national institutions* attended this workshop.

This two-day workshop addressed:

• The concept of Decent Work and the Decent Work Agenda

• Results-Based Management (RBM)

• The components and lifecycle of a DWCP

• Preparation guidelines for a DWCP, using country case studies from Jordan and Lesotho and lessons learned

• Links between DWCPs and the United National Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF)

• New opportunities and roles to be played by local constituents

The workshop also involved extensive discussion, groupwork and practical exercises to aid learning and ensure active participation. It ended with a clear follow-up plan of action for the coming months:

• Individual meetings by SRO-Cairo with tripartite constituents to identify DWCP priorities, outcomes and outputs (mid-September to mid-October)

• A first draft of Egypt’s DWCP (mid-October)

• A second workshop for constituents to refine the first draft (mid-November)

• A final draft of Egypt’s DWCP  (December 2007)

*Participants included the Ministries of Finance, Housing, Higher Education, Investment and Manpower and Migration, and the Egyptian Trade Union Federation, the Federation of Egyptian Development Associations, the Industrial Modernization Center, the Industrial Training Council, the National Council for Women, the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood and the Social Fund for Development.