From conflict to recovery: Creating decent jobs in Iraq

About the event

Due to decades of conflict and displacement in Iraq, the need for humanitarian assistance has outweighed that of development for many years. Yet more recently, there has been growing need to work on recovery and development as part of the country’s post-conflict reconstruction. And this is where the ILO comes in.

A year ago, the ILO established its first country coordination office in Baghdad, allowing the agency to provide better support to the government, workers and employers in promoting decent work and increasing employment opportunities.

This support includes a growing portfolio of projects and programmes that address the world of work at the policy level and through direct interventions and activities.

The Iraq Decent Work Country Programme, which was signed in 2019, focuses on three key areas of priority: job creation and private sector development; social protection and addressing child labour; and labour market governance and social dialogue.

This webinar will be an opportunity to reflect back at the opportunities and challenges thus far for the ILO in Iraq and examine ways forward in terms of exploring news areas of interventions and expanding collaborations with international partners, the donor community and our local partners on the ground.

This will include a focus on the following:
• Iraq’s multiple crises and impact on the country’s most vulnerable communities
• The ILO – its priorities in Iraq and experience gained from the region

Current interventions:
  1. Promoting job creation and private sector development
  2. Employment Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP)
  3. Skills development and Employment Services (in camps and in urban settings)
  4. Enterprise development- ILO entrepreneurship and financial literacy programmes
  5. Strengthening social protection and addressing child labour
  6. Towards establishing a comprehensive social protection system
  7. Addressing worst forms of child labour
  8. Enhancing labour governance and social dialogue
  9. Evidence-based support – national labour force survey, other assessments
  10. National policy on labour inspection and Occupational Safety and Health.
  11. Enhance social dialogue for better recovery.
  12. Way forward
Further information on ILO in Iraq can be found here