Focus on job-rich growth for Africa's Development Strategy, says A. Chuma

WINDHOEK/ADDIS ABABA (ILO News) – High levels of youth unemployment and labour market transformation challenges call for more pro-employment policies to promote a job-rich growth in Africa’s development strategy, ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Africa, Aeneas C. Chuma stated at the Special Session of the AU Labour and Social Affairs' Commission in Windhoek, Namibia.

With 10 to 12 million young women and men looking for jobs each year, youth account today for 60% of all unemployed Africans. Only a quarter of the labour force has stable, wage-paying jobs.

“The primary cause for pervasive unemployment remains that the economic growth of the last decade has not resulted in significant and transformative job-creation. It is necessary to understand this distinction and phenomenon in order to ensure that our development strategies do focus on job-creation and growth as integral parts in the design of the development strategies rather than as an after-thought”, Mr Chuma said at the opening session held under the theme: “Employment, Poverty Eradication and Inclusive Development”.



African Member States, representatives of workers’ and employers’ organisations, international development partners are in Namibia to assess progress made in the implementation of the 2004 Ouagadougou Declaration and Plan of Action on Employment Promotion and Poverty alleviation. The Special Session of the African Union Labour and Social Affairs Commission, hosted by the government of Namibia is organized by the African Union Commission in partnership with the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

“Clearly, the creation of employment and decent work that pays decent wages remains a key priority in all our development efforts and in fact, one could argue, underpins all other development priorities”, Aeneas Chuma underscored. Ten years ago, African Heads of State and Government convened in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and agreed to put employment at the centre of their development priorities.

According to the ILO Global Employment Trends 2014, employment growth remains weak, unemployment continues to rise, especially among young people, and large numbers of discouraged potential workers are still outside the labour market.

Critical issues of our time

In his keynote address, the ILO head for Africa highlighted that employment opportunities for Africa’s youth, social protection, inclusive social dialogue and labour migration were key priority areas for the continent marked by an “economic growth without economic transformation and a jobless growth that was really not inclusive or widely shared”.

Limited access to social protection mechanisms remains one of the main policy challenges in achieving sustainable growth, productive employment and Decent Work in Africa. “I believe that investing in people’s social protection will help African countries develop their full productive potential, contribute to the formalization of employment, support economic and social change, foster sustainable and equitable growth, reduce vulnerability and boost economic and social development”, Chuma underlined.

Establishing effective labour migration governance arrangements which are translated into explicit legislation, policy and administrative measures would be the way forward at a time when between 8 and 9 million Africans are living and working outside their countries of birth, mostly in Africa but many in Europe, the Gulf States and other continents.

The ILO has entered into a partnership with the African Union Commission, the International Organisation of Migration and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to develop a programme on Labour Migration Governance for Development and Integration in Africa.

Concrete, time-bound and results-oriented action

The meeting is expected to adopt a revised policy framework for the next decade on labour, employment and social protection. But if Ouagadougou 2004 was a political milestone, for Ouagadougou+10, to succeed, the ILO believes that concrete, time-bound and results-oriented action will be required in follow-up. “The Ouagadougou+10 aftermath must be systematically monitored, reviewed and adjusted” in implementation of the agreed strategic priorities: employment creation, social protection, inclusive social dialogue, and labour migration”, Aeneas Chuma said.

The ILO looks forward to supporting the implementation of policy outcomes from Ouagadougou+10 at country level, through well-established Decent Work Country Programmes; at sub-regional level, through sub-regional Decent Work Programmes, like those developed for the SADC region and East African Community; and at regional level, through our dialogue with the African Union on the development of an African Regional Decent Work Programme.

The three-day conference should come up with a joint multilateral initiative with a strong buy-in from all partners to allow greater accountability, shared responsibility and a stronger dynamic for implementation by each member State of the Declaration and Plan of Action – that must be clearly embedded within the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 - to be adopted in Ouagadougou in September 2014.

Modalities for preparation of the AU Extraordinary Summit in September 2014 are high on the agenda and these discussions will be further debated with the African Union Commission and member States at the International Labour Conference in Geneva in June 2014.

For more detailed information and media queries, please contact ILO Africa Communication team in Addis Ababa (www.ilo.org/africa):
[email protected], Tel: + 251/115-444415 or + 251/911-218115
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