The continuity of an impactful partnership ILO-Norway PCA 2020-21

A total of 362,075 people have benefited from the Programme’s activities and now a new phase is about to start.

News | 18 May 2020
Over the past two years, the SKILL-UP Programme has skilled, upskilled, and reskilled 2,530 people in Ethiopia, Ghana, Lebanon, Malawi, Niger, Senegal, and Tanzania. By the end of the Programme, the joint effort of the International Labour Organization and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will have reached 2,000 additional direct beneficiaries in the seven countries.

Where do we want to go?

On April 2020, representatives of the ILO, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Norad, met to discuss the results of the Programme during the last biennium. As a follow-up to the meeting, a roadmap is being prepared to shape the ongoing strategies based on the specific needs and priorities of the countries.
The next phase of the Programme aims to develop replicable strategies and encourage an innovative and inclusive approach in close consultations with tripartite national stakeholders. The aspirations, gaps, challenges, objectives, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in each country, will be among the priorities for the interventions.

Decisions that impact

On Thursday 7 May 2020, the SKILL-UP team, conformed by twenty staff members: National Project Coordinators, Project officers and the Project Manager in HQ and the field, identified together with the ILO’s Skills Branch Chief and the Skills Specialists, the strategies and priorities that will guide the proposals and operations for the next biennium.
The lessons learned from past interventions, key areas of work, priority sectors, COVID-19 responses, and the support to the tripartite national stakeholders, were discussed among other topics. The impact of the project on people and skills related institutions was defined as one of the Programme’s top priorities. ILO’s support in view of creating sustainability will mainly focus on:
  • Policy formulation and/or implementation
  • National skills systems developed/reviewed
  • Capacity development
  • Technical support
  • Impact of the interventions and their replicability.
Digitalization, e-learning, social inclusion, recognition of prior learning (RPL), skills anticipation, apprenticeships, and lifelong learning will continue to be the focus of interventions.
The Programme’s next phase will follow ILO’s Programme and Budget 2020-21 Outcome 5 “Skills and lifelong learning to facilitate access to and transitions in the labour market’”.

“We need to step-up” was one of the key messages of Srinivas Reddy, Chief of the ILO’s Skills and Employability Branch.