ILO to support Ghana’s first-ever National Employment Policy

ACCRA (ILO News) – The ILO Director-General Guy Ryder has assured Ghana’s tripartite constituents of his organization’s commitment to jointly work in the implementation of the country’s first ever national employment policy launched mid-April by H.E. President John Dramani Mahama.

Ryder’s announcement at the opening ceremony of the Ghana’s Jobs Summit held in Accra, underscored ILO’s support to a new policy that had not only outlined strategies to address the challenges of creating a sufficient number of jobs to meet the needs for Ghana’s young and growing population, but also on the emphasis for these jobs to be decent.

The Director-General commended the tripartite partners for establishing the National Employment Policy on an uncompromising assessment of the challenges facing Ghana’s Labour market and the shortcomings of previous policy outcomes.

Promoting and providing skills and jobs for Ghana’s youths are at the core of the policy, noted Guy Ryder while underlying that the National Plan had reiterated the need to formalise Ghana’s very large informal sector, to realise the enormous potential of the rural economy.

The Head of the ILO pinpointed also the role that Social Dialogue played in the preparation of the National Employment Policy and its intent to institutionalise Social Dialogue between the tripartite partners for informed decision-making. “This would be critical to the future successful implementation of the policy”, he added.

Ghana at the 2015 ILC

The Director-General of the ILO stressed on the implementation of the National Employment Policy as Ghana’s strong contribution to the ongoing movement in the World towards making for Decent Work for All a reality.

In this regard, the Director General invited President Mahama to address the forthcoming 104 Session of the International Labour Conference in June 2015, Geneva, Switzerland.

The National Jobs Summit was organised by the Government of Ghana in collaboration with the ILO. More than 1500 participants attended the two-day event, including the Ghana Minister of Employment and Industrial Relations, Hon. H. Iddrisu; the ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Africa, Aeneas Chapinga Chuma and the Director of ILO Abuja Country Office Abuja, Sina Chuma-Mkandawire.


Senior government, employers’ and workers’ delegations as well as high level representatives of UN agencies, development Partners, Academia, research institutions, and think-tanks contributed to this platform for interaction among key stakeholders in the employment sector to help Ghana’s goal of reaching full employment by 2030.