Guinea validates national strategy to promote labour-intensive infrastructure development
Developed with ILO technical support, the initiative aims to scale up labour-based infrastructure works as a driver of decent job creation and inclusive growth.
15 September 2025
Conakry, Guinea – The Government of Guinea, with technical support from the International Labour Organization (ILO), is developing a National Strategy to promote Employment Intensive Investment (EII) approaches aimed at scaling up job creation through infrastructure development.
The strategy was launched on 26 November 2024 during a high-level ceremony attended by ministries in charge of employment and youth, employers' and workers' organizations, as well as several other stakeholders. This initiative reflects Guinea’s ambition to harness infrastructure investments as a means to address unemployment, particularly among youth and vulnerable groups. It is being developed through a participatory and evidence-based process, guided by national expertise and supported by the ILO’s Employment-Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP).
The initiative is structured around four strategic axes: (1) Strengthening regulatory and institutional frameworks to promote the EII approach; (2) Enhancing the technical and managerial capacities of the actors involved in the implementation of EII approaches; (3) Promoting decent, gender-sensitive and environmentally-sustainable work within the implementation of EII approaches; (4) Mobilizing resources and fostering partnerships for the design and implementation of EII projects.
A crucial milestone was reached on 24 February 2025, when a national validation workshop was convened in Conakry. The session brought together representatives from key government ministries, workers’ and employers’ organizations, and civil society to review and validate the diagnostic report prepared after field surveys and consultations, which forms the basis of the strategy. The report highlighted key challenges to the EII approach: lack of institutional anchoring, weak coordination, issues with skills and remuneration, non-compliance with decent work standards, and insufficient data. Discussions during the workshop helped clarify the vision, strategic axes, and institutional mechanisms that will underpin the strategy’s implementation.
By anchoring the strategy in a broad national consensus and aligning it with existing policies, Guinea aims to institutionalize EII approaches as a central pillar of its employment and infrastructure agenda. The strategy envisions integrating EII methods into public works programmes, thereby increasing their capacity to deliver decent work, support local economies, and foster community ownership. Implementation will be coordinated through national institutions such as the Agence Guinéenne d’Exécution des Travaux d’Intérêt Public pour l’Emploi (AGETIPE).
With continued technical support from the ILO’s EIIP, rooted in international best practices and tailored to local needs and realities, the strategy was validated on 29 August 2025 by the Government in Conakry, in the presence of the ministries in charge of employment and youth, the Resident Representative of the United Nations system, employers' and workers' organizations, as well as several other stakeholders.
By embedding Employment Intensive Investment approaches at the core of its development vision, Guinea is charting a path toward 2030 that places decent job creation and sustainable, inclusive growth at the heart of national progress.
Related content
Topic portal
Employment-intensive investment
Creating decent jobs through infrastructure: EIIP’s impact in Francophone West Africa