Cooperation with AU and the RECs

Cooperation at the regional level

Following the African Union Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government on Employment and Poverty Alleviation in Africa (Ouagadougou, 2004), the ILO has been working with member States, the African Union, the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), UN specialized agencies, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, and the African Development Bank to achieve greater policy coherence and to increase support for the decent work agenda within the context of continental, regional and national development strategies.

The AU Commission and the ILO established a joint task force in 2006 to provide a forum for strategic thinking, analysis and formulation of proposals to stimulate employment creation in Africa, based on the Ouagadougou Summit commitments. The task force developed a communication strategy as part of which brochures and CD-ROMs on the Summit outcomes were produced in the four official languages of the AU (Arabic, English, French and Portuguese).

The ILO also provided technical support to the AU Commission in the preparation of the first biennial report (“Report of the Chairperson of the African Union on the Implementation of the Outcome of the Extraordinary Summit on Employment and Poverty Alleviation in Africa”), presented at 4th Ordinary Session of the AU Labour and Social Affairs Commission (Cairo, 2006). A striking quote in the above report is that “Ouagadougou has brought back employment to the table of decision makers. From the reports so received, it is clear that “labour” is no longer the preoccupation of only labour ministries but national goals. This can be illustrated from the various national initiatives in which pro-poor growth and employment creation policies have been mainstreamed into the development process”.

The “Declaration on Financing Employment and Poverty Alleviation” was adopted at the same meeting. It recommended, inter alia, that “holistic strategies should be developed based on the need to promote faster, sustained, and employment intensive growth so as to accelerate the pace of poverty reduction”.

The 39th Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, (Ouagadougou, 2006), reviewed initiatives since the Ouagadougou Summit and difficulties faced. While expressing concern that implementation had not so far been comprehensive and employment had still not been adequately embedded in national development strategies, the Ministers recognized the major human, fiscal and institutional capacity constraints and made a number of proposals to further refine and accelerate implementation strategies at all levels.

The proposals outlined in the Ministerial Statement adopted by the Conference include the need to integrate the goal of decent employment in the design, implementation and monitoring of the second generation of poverty reduction strategies, embedding employment criteria in investment promotion policies and recognizing the critical goal of government and the public sector on employment creation to improve the quality of public financial management, alongside the development of accurate statistical and information systems to monitor the impact of policies. The Ministerial Statement also recognized the increased role and responsibility of the private sector in employment generation and the central role of the State in creating a conducive environment through measures covering infrastructure improvement, elimination of costly regulations and public-private partnerships in skill development.

The Statement further called for the establishment of a Regional Employment Forum as a resource facility to help develop capacity and facilitate sharing of country experiences. The Forum is to be managed jointly between the AU Commission, ECA and ILO, with the latter hosting the secretariat. The Forum is open to other regional institutions.

Cooperation with the Regional Economic Communities

Cooperation between the ILO and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) was enhanced following the Ouagadougou Summit. The ILO signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ECOWAS in 2005 and with CEEAC in 2006. The Summit follow-up mechanism designated the Member States and the RECs as the principals responsible for implementation. Member States, in collaboration with RECs, are expected to submit biennial progress reports on the status of implementation to the AU LSAC while the AU Commission has to prepare Comprehensive Evaluation Reports in 2009 and 2014.

In 2005 the AU and ILO jointly organized a meeting with the RECs in Addis Ababa to discuss their role in the follow-up to the Ouagadougou Summit. Capacity constraints in both the RECs and the AU Commission emerged as an important concern. Following this meeting, in 2006, the AU Commission organized a series of five regional meetings in 2006 (respectively in Windhoek, Abuja, Algiers, Khartoum and Yaounde) to disseminate information on the Ouagadougou Summit outcomes and support capacity building efforts in the RECs to assist them in fulfilling the mandate given to them by the Summit.

In each of the meetings, “Regional Frameworks for Integrated Employment Policies” were adopted. The Regional Frameworks aim at achieving development and economic growth, alleviate poverty, enhance the standards and quality of life of the people of the region and support the socially disadvantaged through promoting more and better employment. They become the guide which Member States in each region can use when formulating comprehensive national employment policies, with the Ouagadougou Summit commitments forming the backbone of the framework and decent work objectives the benchmarks.