11 May 2017

African Union employment experts appeal to governments to support the Jobs for Africa Foundation

The IOE and the Jobs for African Foundation are encouraged by an appeal to African Union governments by their employment and social affairs committee to support the endeavours of the Jobs for Africa Foundation to promote an enabling environment for enterprise creation and development with a view to job creation.

The appeal was documented in the report of the second session of the committee of experts, known formally as the African Union’s Specialised Technical Committee on Social Development, Labour and Employment (STC-SDLE) which took place in Algiers on 24-28 April 2017 and had as its theme "harnessing the continent's demographic dividend", an area of focus of the Jobs for Africa Foundation.

Mr Jamal Belahrach, President of the Foundation, and Mr Frederick Muia, the IOE’s Senior Adviser for Africa, both addressed the African Union, setting out the key outcomes of the African Social Partners’ Summit which had just taken place on 22-23 April with the support of the Confederation of Algerian Enterprises.

These outcomes included a call for action addressed to the AU governments to support the social partners in the implementation of the Blueprint for Jobs in Africa by focussing employment and social policy on job rich sectors, such as agriculture and ICT, and on addressing the skills mismatch by promoting STEM and Technical and Vocational Training (TVET), as well as lifelong learning.

This formal recognition of the work of the IOE and the Jobs for Africa Foundation by the African Union marks an important milestone, and further underscores the key need for a collective approach to urgently tackling the unsustainable levels of youth unemployment on the continent.

The full text of the experts’ report may be downloaded via the links in the side panel. Reference to the initiatives of the International Organisation of Employers and the Jobs for Africa Foundation may be found at paras 16 and 17.