Employment
Creating Greater Opportunities for Women and Men to Secure
Decent Employment and Income
Many governments in the Southern African sub region are battling with
socio-economic problems, but the most pressing of these problems
is the high levels of unemployment, underemployment and the degeneration
of formal employment opportunities. Although some countries in the
sub-region experienced improved political and economic conditions
in the 1990s, the unexpected famine and drought problems, the increased
loss of jobs through privatization programmes in many of the countries
has exacerbated the unemployment problems and increased poverty
levels.
The informal economy in many countries acts as an employer of last
resorts and has become a seedbed for employment creation for many
people who cannot access formal jobs. The Micro Small and Medium
Scale (MSMEs) enterprises have in many countries taken the lead
in creating and maintaining employment for the youth, women and
those offloaded from formal employment through retrenchment and
privatisation programmes. However, although the informal economy
and the Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises sector are now
considered the largest creators of employment, these two sectors
are characterised by very low wages, poor working conditions and
do not offer any form of social security, which all translate into
precarious working environment.
The MSME sector and the informal economy are increasingly subjected
to low productivity and face survival problems as a result of unsupportive
policies, compounded by the effects and the impact of HIV/AIDS on
micro, small and medium scale businesses, with adverse -spillover
effects to the informal economy.
Policy makers are acutely aware of the urgent need to address both
the high levels of unemployment and the poor quality of jobs that
a significant propor tion of the labour force are engaged in. Their
aim is to tackle these problems through the consolidation of economic
growth and the development of innovative employment policies. If
these policies are to succeed, they must give more importance to
the promotion of the SME sector. The continued social, political,
and, ultimately, economic stability of many countries in the sub-region
depends a great deal on the extent to which the employment problem
is addressed appropriately.
The overall objectives of ILO/SRO-Harare’s activities in
the field of employment promotion is to contribute to the attainment
in Southern Africa, of the ILO’s second Strategic Objective:
- “To create greater opportunities for women and men to secure
decent employment and income”. To steer countries towards
achieving this objective, the ILO/SRO-Harare’s activities
focus on equipping the ILO constituents with capacities for analysis
of national and global employment trends and labour markets. The
ILO constituents are also assisted in building their capacities
in order to elaborate, advocate and implement effective strategies
for the promotion of decent employment for women and men in their
countries. In addition, assistance is rendered in the development
of training and skills programmes aimed at equal and improved access
to decent jobs by both women and men. ILO/SRO-Harare provides technical
and advisory services to member States aimed at designing and implementing
employment programmes through small enterprise development, labour-intensive
investment programmes and post crises programmes with a particular
focus on women and youth. To establish the centrality of employment
in economic and social policy-making, ILO/SRO assists its constituents
in the formulation of active labour market policies which constitute
an essential element of an employment strategy.
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