Angola’s top priority is to create decent jobs (ILO)

LUANDA (ILO News) – The International Labour Organization (ILO) is ready to support Angola’s national development plan which identifies the creation of decent jobs as a top priority, said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder during his first official visit in Luanda.

Mr Ryder’s visit to Angola took place from 6-8 May 2015 upon invitation by local authorities including Antonios NETO, Minister of Public Administration, Labour and Social Security of Angola who discussed key priority areas of the National Development Plan of Angola for 2013-2017.

The ILO Director-General then met with workers’ and employers’ organization who exchanged views on the practice of social dialogue in the country before visiting the Parliament for direct interaction with MPs on their role in providing the enabling legislative environment for the promotion of Decent Work and Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in Angola.

On the ground, Guy Ryder was able to visit several Employment and Vocational training centres and a diamond production company in the Province of Lunda Sul to get first-hand information on the mining process.

On 8 May, the ILO DG met Vice-President Manuel Domingos Vicente of Angola to discuss the role of ILO in assisting the country’s long term diversification plan focussed on skills development and agriculture. Angola is a member of the UN Security Council and the country is chairing the ILO Governing Body.

Economic growth and Social development

The global economy is growing more slowly than it did before the crisis, and this seems to be a global trend, reiterated Guy Ryder during a public lecture at the National Administration School ENAD in Luanda.

“The first thing we need to do is to re-stimulate global growth and extract from that growth the maximum number of good jobs”, Ryder said discussing current challenges and opportunities of the global economy and their impact on industrial relations.

“Africa’s economy has been marked by solid economic growth which has not been reflected in social development”, emphasized the ILO Chief in front of senior government officials, CEOs, diplomats, UN representatives, and Directors.

But “we all believe now that we have to re instate the rural economy as a very important part of the search for decent jobs, and the ILO has decided to make the rural economy one of its priority”, announced the Director-General.

In the ILO, (…) “the right approach to informality is formalization. That is the way you get decent jobs, to taxation and to social security”, Ryder underscored.

During the debate, the place of women in the world of work and labour migration were also raised as key policy areas for intervention.

The ILO DG called for a mobilization of the world of work before three key agendas: July 2015 and Financing for Development meeting in Addis Ababa; September 2015 and the UN General Assembly on the post 2015 Development and; the Conference on Climate Change in Paris in December 2015.

“The ILO works hard to make sure that Decent Work Agenda figures as an explicit goal for the post 2015 Development Agenda”, concluded Guy Ryder.

Decent Work Country Program for Angola

During his visit, the ILO DG witnessed the signing of a new Decent Work Country Program for Angola (2015-2018). The official document was signed in the presence of the social partners by the Director of Planning of the Ministry of Public Administration, Labour and Social Security and Tomas Da Vera Cruz, Acting Director of ILO DWT Yaoundé.

The Angola DWCP focuses on the promotion of decent work, particularly for the youth and vulnerable groups, extending the coverage of social protection and strengthening social dialogue.