GENEVA (News) – The ILO has launched a new global database on national employment policies and strategies to promote jobs for young people.

Aimed at governments, social partners, research institutions, practitioners and other development stakeholders, the Employment Policy Gateway enables users to search existing national policies and strategies for employment promotion by region, country and themes. This allows comparisons of national policies across countries and supports research and analysis on existing policy instruments.

The launch of the database follows increasing requests from governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations for comparative information on employment policies at the country level, including strategies that target youth. With the COVID-19 crisis severely affecting labour markets around the world, leading to changes in policies and the introduction of new measures, the demand for such a database has increased.

To promote an inclusive, job-rich recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, countries need a bold and innovative employment-focused policy agenda. In this context, gender-responsive national employment policies can play an important role. In various countries, such policies are being adapted or formulated to focus on COVID-19 responses.
“The experience of the ILO in working with Member States on employment policies in the last two decades has resulted in valuable knowledge on content and processes related to national employment policies and youth employment strategies,” said Sukti Dasgupta, Chief of the ILO’s Employment, Labour Markets and Youth Branch. “The Employment Policy Gateway is an effort to ensure that these policies and strategies are systematically documented, analysed and made available in an easy format.”

The Policy Gateway is structured in three inter-related sections:

• National Employment Policies (NEPs) – offers information on national employment policies adopted by countries worldwide. It includes policy design, content, policy implementation and monitoring;
• Youth Employment Strategies – covers national youth employment strategies, based on country submissions to the “ILO Survey on National Strategies for Youth Employment” in the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; and,
• E-library – catalogues in their original language policy documents used in the Employment Gateway.

“The Gateway will continue to update and expand its base of information, integrating additional countries and new features based on evolving contexts, including policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis,” said Sangheon Lee, Director of the ILO’s Employment Policy Department.

The Employment Policy Gateway is supported by the Swedish International Development Agency and the Luxembourg Agency for Development Cooperation.