Employment Policy in a Changing World Staff Retreat Programme

The aim of the retreat hosted by the Employment Policy Department was to create a common platform of vision, knowledge and action on employment policy development. The event was attended by employment specialists from the field, HQ staff and external resource persons.

Programme

The retreat’s main objectives were to provide participants with an overview of state-of-the-art knowledge of key issues in the design of national employment policies, develop a shared vision among both HQ and field colleagues on the delivery of policy advisory services to member states in line with the 2010 International Labour Conference Recurrent discussion on employment and taking into account diversity of regional contexts, needs and levels of development, provide tangible lessons and guidelines that will enable colleagues working in the field of employment policy to enhance their capacity to serve and support constituents more effectively, and assessing the new employment agenda in the context of Decent Work Agenda and Global Jobs Pact demands, and assess our frameworks and tools for action and discuss the new focus for research and capacity building.

Day 1: Tuesday, September 14, 2010

9.00 – 9.30

Introduction to the Retreat: objectives, issues and methods

9.30 – 12.30

(coffee break)

Employment policies in the context of growth, development, poverty reduction and globalization strategies: An overview of issues and challenges

  • Trends and performances: on quantity and quality of employment
  • Elements of employment policies: linkages to growth, poverty, articulation with national development frameworks, targets, macro-economic frameworks, sectoral strategies, labour market reforms, equality of opportunity and target groups, interactions with other policy areas
  • Employment policy process and planning cycles: role of public policy, lead government agency and policy coordination, and private sector engagement and tripartism
  • Challenges of data
  • The challenge of policy coherence: global and national
  • Regional and country diversity

12.30 - 13.30

Lunch

13.30 – 14.30

Employment Targeting and Economic Strategies

  • External resource person: James Heintz

14.30 – 17.30

(coffee break)

Employment policy: ILO support strategies, evolutions/innovations in analytic frameworks, diagnostics tools, and impact assessment methodologies

  • Analytic and diagnostic frameworks
  • Methodologies for sectoral assessment and employment impact assessment methodologies
  • Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs) from an employment perspective
  • Youth Employment

Day 2: Wednesday, September 15, 2010

9.00 – 10.30

(coffee break)

Pro-Employment Macro-economic policies and Fiscal Space

10.30 - 12.30

Quality of employment, informality, and employment policy (Part 1):

  • Policy issues and trends: quality of employment, precarious employment, transition to formality
  • Mainstreaming the IE in national employment policies and development strategies: the ILO framework, challenges and innovations
  • Measurement issues and advances: Update on a new ILO initiative
  • Wage policy, quality of employment and informality

12.30 - 13.30

Lunch

13.30 - 15.30

(coffee break)

Quality of employment, informality, and employment policy (Part 2):

15.30 - 17.30

Taking forward the 2010 ILC RIE Conclusions (Part 1):

Day 3: Thursday, September 16, 2010

9.00 - 11.00

(coffee break)

The Global Jobs Pact, recovery from the crisis, and employment policy

  • The GJP implementation: overview and update
  • The G20 process and international policy coherence
  • Regional and country-level policy experiences: impact, policy responses, fiscal space and other issues

11.30 - 12.30

Employer of last resort: Innovations in Public Employment Programmes (Part 1)

12.30 – 13.30

Lunch

13:30 – 14:30

Employer of last resort: Innovations in Public Employment Programmes (Part 2)

  • Policy issues (fiscal space, capacity, interaction with social transfer strategies)
  • ILO Training programme

14.30 - 17.30

(coffee break)

Taking forward the 2010 ILC RIE Conclusions (Part 2):

Contains

  1. Employment Policies: an overview of issues and challenges - Eastern Europe and Central Asia - Employment Policy Retreat
  2. Employment Policies in a changing world - Asia's experience and challenges - Employment Policy Retreat
  3. Why and How to Engage in Pro- employment Budgeting? - Employment Policy Retreat
  4. Sectoral engines of job-rich growth: Some lessons from ILO sectoral country studies - Employment Policy Retreat
  5. Employment Diagnostic Analysis: Concept and methods - Employment Policy Retreat
  6. Decent Work Strategies for the Informal Economy - Employment Policy Retreat
  7. Policy developments and ILO activities in Argentina - Employment Policy Retreat
  8. Giving effect to the Global Jobs Pact: Assignment 1 - Employment Policy Retreat
  9. Mitigating a Jobs Crisis: Innovations in Public Employment Programmes Feedback and Overview - Employment Policy Retreat
  10. Employment Impact Assessment Methodologies: From Input – Output to DySAM - Employment Policy Retreat