ILO Deputy Regional Director for Arab States discusses with the Minister of Social Affairs and Labour in Yemen the opportunities to promote human-centred recovery and decent work

Aden, 29th June 2022

The ILO Deputy Regional Director, the Head of Decent Work Team for Arab States Mr. Peter Rademaker met today in Aden with His Excellency the Minister of Social Affairs and Labour, Dr. Mohammed Saeed Al-Zaouri.
During the meeting, His Excellency Minister Al-Zaouri raised that the protracted crisis and global tensions have exacerbated further the already challenging labour market situation in Yemen. Unemployment is alarmingly high, especially among youth and women, there is an increase in child labour and enrolment of children in armed groups. The Ministry needs to develop its capacity and update labour market information to inform policy development.

Mr. Rademaker referred to the long-standing ILO engagement with Yemen as a key member State in the Arab Region. Thanks to the support of international partners such as the European Union and Sweden, the ILO has continued to implement programmes in Yemen to enhance youth employment through market-driven vocational training and promoting entrepreneurship. The ILO’s work is implemented in an integrated manner with other UN agencies through a series of partners working in the different governorates.

Mr. Rademaker recalled that as a tripartite agency, the ILO is keen to see a strong social dialogue between the government, the trade unions and the chambers of commerce and industry. Together these three partners are best placed to find responses to the current labour market challenges in Yemen.

At the end of the meeting, both agreed to further enhance the coordination, following-up between technical teams from MoSAL and ILO to advance agreed priorities including labour force surveys and labour market information to guide employment policy, improvements in occupational safety and health, combating child labour. The ILO will seek to provide capacity development support to the Ministry at central and decentralised levels.
The meeting was further attended by Mr Saleh Mahmoud, Acting Deputy Minister for Labour Welfare, Mr Mohammed Al-Shaari, Acting Deputy Minister for Labour Relations, Dr Ahmed Almekhlafi, Acting Deputy Minister for Labour Force and Ms Mona Alban, Director of the Child Labour department. From the ILO side Mr. Oktavianto Pasaribu, Chief of Regional Programming Services of the ILO Regional Office, and Ali Dehaq, National Program Coordinator for Yemen attended.