Programme Summary

The overall objective of the programme initiative is to contribute to the creation of more and better jobs in the local businesses feeding into the rapidly expanding extractive industries in the Cabo Delgado and Nampula Provinces.

The programme responds to the request of the national and local Governments to support initiatives to maximize local job creation and inclusion. While the investments, in particular Gas and Coal extractions, are massive for an economy like Mozambique, the creation of local jobs, directly or indirectly, will be limited if there is no local capacity. Business and work force needs strengthening to be able to respond to the industries’ demands. This programme intends to provide such capacity development assistance to harness local opportunities.

The initiative is the result of collaboration between Ministries of Labour, Mineral Resources and Planning & Development UN agencies, the Ministry of Labour and UN agencies. The UN agencies are comprised of International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Women (UNW).

The programme is supported by the Government of Spain, through a global trust fund called Sustainable Development Goals fund (SDG-f) and UN agency funds. It is implemented in partnership with above-mentioned ministries at the national level and with the provincial governments in Cabo Delgado and Nampula provinces. The private sector and civil society organizations including the multinational enterprises are key partners. The programme will initially run for two years (2015-16) with an overall budget of $3 million.

Expected Results

The programme seeks to achieve three broad results:

1. National Vocational and technical education system produces graduates with skills demanded by the extractive industry;
2. Enhanced business linkages between EI firms and local SMEs through sub-contracting and partnership exchange programs;
3. An enabling policy, legal and regulatory framework to maximize job creation potential in the extractive industries and local value chains.

As a first step, the programme will do a skills’ gaps analysis jointly undertaken by the government, the extractive industry and local companies. This will include assessing available and potential capacities and define future demands. This information will be the basis for capacity development and curriculum of government training institutions in the two provinces. In parallel, the programme will run a small enterprise development needs analysis in selected value chains including a gender awareness analysis.

Following the analysis and conclusions, the programme will develop institutional capacity of district based business development service providers and vocational training and technical education institutions. These activities will rely on a combination of trainer development, new product development and management of advisory services. Along the way, the programme will closely collaborate with the existing network of local facilitators of business development services and vocational/technical skills training and other employment promotion services. These will include local economic development agencies, employment promotion bureaus, and small business development services centers. Where applicable, the programme will support the extension of this institutional network in the target provinces.