30 April 2018

Uganda Employers welcome IOE members in Kampala for East, Central & Southern Africa EO Conference 2018

The Federation of Uganda Employers (FUE) welcomed representatives of national and sub-regional employers’ organisations (EOs) from 16 countries in the East, Central and Southern Africa region to Kampala last week for their annual two-day conference.

The theme of this year’s conference, which was co-funded by the European Union, built on the Declaration from the 2017 event in Walvis Bay, Namibia.  Last week, the assembled EO leaders were joined by experts from the IOE, ILO and IOM to explore: “From Declaration to Action – Accelerating an enabling environment for youth employability and entrepreneurship”.

The keynote address was delivered by Mr Nicholas Okwir, Chairperson of the FUE, who was joined in the opening session by Ms Jacqueline Mugo, Secretary-General of Business Africa; Mr Matthias Thorns, Director of Stakeholder Engagement, IOE; and Mr Jealous Chirove, Employment Specialist, ILO Dar es Salaam.

Panel discussions explored themes of youth employment, regional integration and labour migration, with USCIB Counsel, Ms Ronnie Goldberg, outlining the business perspective on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which will be adopted by the UN later this year.

The second part of the two-day programme considered best practices to address youth unemployment, as well as ways to foster youth and women’s entrepreneurship.  Group sessions worked on a Road Map to identify and implement key areas for action, in line with the objective of the event.

IOE Vice-President for the ILO, Mr Mthunzi Mdwaba, looked ahead to the 2018 International Labour Conference, with a comprehensive overview of the key matters of relevance to the Employers. He also updated the EOs on other ILO developments requiring concerted Employer engagement.

A full report of the conference, including the final Road Map, will be circulated in due course.

For further information, please contact the IOE representatives via the link in the side panel.