Employment-Intensive Investment in

Azerbaijan

Activities of the Employment Intensive Investment Programme in Azerbaijan

Current EIIP Involvement

Employment and Investment Policies

During the first phase of the implementation of the “2006-2015 Employment Strategy of the Azerbaijan Republic”, covering the 2006-2010 year period, the existing unemployment rate was considerably reduced; improvement of the social protection for the unemployed and vulnerable population strata was accomplished; and appropriate activities were carried out to develop the labour market, to improve the quality of labour resources and build up their competitive capacity and to generate favourable conditions for boosting economic activity.

In order to ensure consistency of the state policy in the field of population employment according to the item 9.2 of the “2007-2010 State Program for implementation of the Employment Strategy of the Azerbaijan Republic”, a State Program was developed for carrying out the second implementation phase of the Employment Strategy of the Azerbaijan Republic.

The State Program covers the 2011-2015 year period of the Employment Strategy and envisages formation of such business environment which would be up to the high international standards and promote the demand for labour force, deepening the structural reforms, increasing the investments, and provision of high development level of human resources.

The main objective of the State Program is to ensure implementation of the priority activities envisaged for the 2011-2015 year period by means of generating an appropriate political, economical, social and institutional environment which would promote development of population’s rational employment.

The State Program is financed from the state budget allocated for such purposes, from non-budget state funds, from the funds of the National Entrepreneurship Support Foundation and other sources without violation of the legislation of the Azerbaijan Republic.

Historical Information

Enhancing local level access, planning and community capacity

At the request of the Government, a project proposal was formulated in May 2005 to upgrade Goshakend Community Roads for a demonstration of labour-based approaches for infrastructure development. The project addressed three priority concerns of the Government, namely job creation, regional (rural) development and support to the internally-displaced people.

The project proposed an intervention comprising three infrastructure components, including:
  • The upgrading of the market access road that connects the settlement to the main highway, from a gravel standard to a paved surface;
  • The rehabilitation of the inter-village link road to a gravel standard; and
  • The paving of Goshakend Street with stone.
With funding from the ILO and the Azerbaijan Government, the labour-based construction work started in August 2005. By October 2005, 550 metres of pavement were completed. The project recruited the local poor for the construction work. Through paving the 550 metres street, a total of 2384 workdays were created, which included 1,416 workdays for the unskilled labour and 368 workdays for the skilled, 600 for stone collection and 164 for supervision.

Although the construction work was fairly small in size, the impact was great not only in Azerbaijan but also in the general region. To show the appreciation of both the Government (central and local) and the communities and to celebrate success of the road rehabilitation work, an official ceremony was held at Goshakend Village. Present at the ceremony were a number of high-ranking officials, including Mr. Shukur Mehrabov, the former Minister of Labour, three department heads of the Labour Ministry, Deputy Head of the Executive Authority of Ismaily Region, other officials from Baku and the region, etc.

Increasing capacity and capabilities

A Training Seminar was held in June 2006, the objectives of which were to raise awareness and to build capacities among the policy-makers and social partners to put employment at the centre of public investment in infrastructure in Azerbaijan. The seminar turned out a great success through joint efforts made by the ILO/Turin Centre, the ILO Regional Office in Moscow and EMP/INVEST. About 30 people attended the seminar, including high-ranking officials from the Labour and Social Insurance Ministry and other line ministries and representatives from the Workers' and Employers' organizations as well as from potential donor agencies.