Rabat, April 8, 2021 (ECA) - The ECA Office for North Africa held on Wednesday 7 April an online webinar under the theme "Active labour market policies: Good practices and recommendations for North Africa”.
“Our office is holding this webinar to support our member countries in the design and implementation of effective labour market policies based on realistic policies and successful experiences, such as the good practices observed in some North African countries, ”said Amal Elbeshbishi, Chief of the Employment Section at the ECA Office in North Africa.
Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) are designed, by definition, to help job seekers find positions matching their profiles as quickly as possible. To do so they intervene at several levels, such as: improving the employability of job seekers through vocational training; promoting entrepreneurship and self-employment; supporting job creation by the private sector through wage subsidies; and setting up programmes to help match supply and demand on the labour market.
The meeting provided about thirty experts and representatives of North African ministries of employment with an opportunity to take stock of ALMP implementation in North Africa and examine good practices from Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.
Key meeting recommendations included: involving the private sector in vocational training; skill upgrading; using public works to preserve and promote employment during economic crises; and including preincubation and business incubation phases in efforts to promote female entrepreneurship.
North Africa is currently facing the global economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, after having gone through a decade (2010 – 2020) of job-poor growth, which resulted in 2019 in a structurally high unemployment rate (12.1% according to ILO).
In 2019, North Africa’s characteristics included a limited labour market participation rate (45.7% against 60.7% on the world average) that was particularly low in the case of women (22.1%), and one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world, which stood at 30.2%, against a world average of 13.6% according to the ILO.
A large number of North African workers also rely on the informal sector, which remains characterized by low incomes and low levels of social protection.
As part of its support to its member countries (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Sudan and Tunisia), the ECA Office in North Africa will soon publish a policy brief based on successful sub-regional achievements with the aim of helping strengthen ALMPs across North Africa.
Communication Team
Economic Commission for Africa
Office for North Africa
Tel: +212 (0) 673 734 462
Email: filali-ansary@un.org