Evidence-Based Policy Formation and Implementation of Public Employment Services: The Gambian Case

1. EVIDENCE BASED POLICY FORMATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT SERVICES: THE GAMBIAN CASE WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO LABOUR MARKET DATA AND STATISTICS By Pateh Jah & Mansata M. Darboe TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

2. OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION • Introduction • The Underlying Principle for the National Employment Policy • The National Employment Policy and Strategies • What Really is the GLMIS? • Challenges to GLMIS • Institutional Arrangements for Better Coordination • Key LIMI Producers • Conclusion TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

3. INTRODUCTION GEOGRAPHY • The Gambia is located midway on the bulge of West Africa coast and stretches over 400 kilometers inland from west to east on either side of the River Gambia, • The country is bound to north, south and east by the Atlantic Ocean. • Land area of 10,689 square kilometers almost equally into two halves: the South Bank and North Bank (Gambia Bureau of Statistics [GBoS], 2007). TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

4. INTRODUCTION (CONT) ECONOMY • The Gambia has a market-based economy characterized by traditional subsistence agriculture and a significant tourism industry. • The World Bank estimate the 2012 gross domestic product (GDP) in The Gambia at $944 million (current prices) and $ 707 million (constant prices). • The service sector continues to be the leading contributor to the GDP. • Agriculture accounted for roughly 22 percent of the GDP in 2012 and 2013, and this sector employs about 70 percent of the labour force. TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

5. INTRODUCTION(cont) POPULATION • The 2013 census estimated it at 1.9 million, an annual growth rate of 3.3 percent (GBoS, 2013). • According to the 2003 census, 50 percent of the country’s residents live in rural areas, and women constitute 51 percent of the total population. • The total fertility rate is 5.4 births per woman. The high fertility level has resulted in a very youthful population structure. Forty-two percent of the country’s residents are below 5, and about 22 percent are between age 15 and 24. • Average life expectancy at birth is 63.4 years (62.5 years for males and 65 years for females) (GBoS). TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

6. THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE FOR THE NATIONAL EMPLOYEMENT POLICY • The Gambia has a high population growth rate of 2.5 percent, with an employment level of 27 percent, • 63.6 percent of the country’s population are youth which constitute of more than half of the workforce. Therefore the need for an employment generation and promotion policy is clearly evident. • The level of the problem of unemployment, particularly the educated youth, makes the pursuit of a national employment policy imperative.   • Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBOS) estimated that the employment level for youths with the age group 16-30 years is estimated to have declined between 2003 and 2008by 7% TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

7. THEUNDERLYING PRINCIPLE FOR THE NATIONAL EMPLOYEMENT POLICY (cont) • Employment level has increased by 12% in the age group 25-30 years • The estimated rate of unemployment among the youths is recorded to be three times higher than among other adults. • The problems of unemployed young women are particularly acute. • Employment figures for 2008 shows that more males were employed and the percentage increase was much higher (31%) than females (18%). TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

8. The National Employment Policy and Strategies Policy Goals • The overriding policy goal is to promote full employment as a priority in national, economic and social policy and to enable the economically active population to attain and secure sustainable livelihood through full productive and freely chosen employment and work by the year 2020. Objectives • To stimulate economic growth and development, reduce the coincidence of poverty and improve the levels of living by minimising the rates of unemployment and underemployment; unemployment to be reduced at least by 5% per annum through the planning period to include sustainable livelihoods and informal sector employment. TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

9. The National Employment Policy and Strategies (Cont) • To promote a well educated, trained, skilled versatile, self-reliant and enterprising labour force with a view to increasing employment. Further to promote the development of relevant manpower/human resources that will continually meet the needs of the nation. • To pursue poverty reduction policies through labour intensive programs and improvement of the labour environment. • To improve and strengthen the existing labour administrative system for promotion of decent work, worker participation in decision and an efficient industrial conflict resolution mechanism in the labour market. TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

10. STRATEGIES OF THE NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT POLICY • Enabling macro and sectoral policy environment Accelerating growth and development of the private sector especially MSME as strategy for employment creation. • Skills and entrepreneurship development and training related issues. • To equip the youths with skills that will improve their employability in more productive and decent work. • To provide more skilled workers that are relevant to private sector needs. • To ensure that TVET is linked to market demands through collaboration between vocational training institutions, private sector and the NTA. TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

11. STRATEGIES OF THE NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT POLICY (Cont) • To ensure that vocational training institutions/centres are located in the rural areas to provide demand driven and community based training for employment generation. • Introduce technical and vocational training into entrepreneurial development and ensure that national policy on vocational training is revised to incorporate entrepreneurship development in all vocational and technical institutions. • Introduced a more structured industrial attachment and apprenticeship programme; the industrial attachments which vary from 3-6 months, will be replaced by a National Apprenticeship Scheme and trade testing programme/scheme. TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

12. STRATEGIES OF THE NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT POLICY (Cont.) • Promotion of labour intensive technologies in public work programme to create employment and sustainable livelihoods targeting urban and rural youths and women. • Labour intensive feeder roads repairs and construction programmes. • To develop labour intensive schemes in collaboration with municipalities and local government authorities particularly in the area of solid waste collection and disposal. • To enhance the capacity of the youths and increase income earnings and small enterprises opportunities. • Create a labour market intermediation centre to match demand and supply of labour. TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

13. STRATEGIES OF THE NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT POLICY (Cont.) • Improving and strengthening the legal and institutional framework for labour administration and employment policy implementation. • Promote collection of comprehensive and reliable employment statistics and labour market information through the conduct of surveys. • Government shall ensure the collection and dissemination of gender and age desegregated employment statistics and other labour market information • To reflect the full extent of the work of women and their contributions to the national economy. • To facilitate the design of focus programmes and activities consistent with the identified needs of vulnerable groups. • A Labour Market Information System (LMIS) established to monitor the regular collection, analysis and appropriate dissemination of required information. TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

14. WHAT REALLY IS THE GLMIS? LMI PRODUCERS TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016 LMI USERS The GLMIS is a network where LMI producers & users interact

15. CHALLENGES TO GLMIS • Inadequate financial and human resources (Limited funding for surveys, technological developments) • Poor response rate from partner institutions to supply necessary data • Limted recognition of the importance of LMI • Survey Fatigue and Expensive • Users are unaware of all the LMIS available data that they can use • Inadequate co-operation and collaboration between producers TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

16. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR BETTER COORDINATION MoTIE acts as the coordinating agency that manage the flow of information between LMI producers and users. GLMIS Committee Members • Personnel Management Office (PMO), • Accountant Generals’ Department • National Accreditation and Quality Assurance Authority (NAQAA), • Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE), TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

17. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR BETTER COORDINATION (Cont) • Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS), • Gambia Tourism Board (GT Board), • Department of Labour (DoL) • Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), • Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation (SSHFC), • Gambia Bureau of Statistics (Gbos) TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

18. KEY LMI PRODUCERS • Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) • Conducts studies like Population & Housing Census, Integrated Household Survey, Multiple Indicator cluster survey, Establishment survey, Labour Force Surveys (LFS) • Produce Key LMI indicators such as labour force, employment & unemployment rates, Skills, Safe work, poverty, productivity • Information is disaggregated by Gender, Age, Occupation, Industry etc. • Labour Department Produce Key LMI indicators such as occupational injuries, wages, etc • Industrial Relations • Occupational Safety & Health • Employment Services TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

19. KEY LMI PRODUCERS (Cont) • Personnel Management Office • Employees in the civil service • Social Security & Housing Finance Corporation • Social Security Information for the private sector and parastatals • Ministry of Education and Training Institutions • Education Statistics • Research Agencies • University of the Gambia • Private research firms TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

20. CONCLUSION • The employment policy is aimed at the promotion of more rapid growth of the productive employment sectors. • It is expected to achieve more employment intensive economic growth through a more appropriate macro-economic policy environment, • Supportfor more labourintensive and labour absorbing economic sectors, particularly agriculture, fisheries, tourism, construction and the informal sector through greater support and incentives for the private sector, and access to credit for productive investment. TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016

21. CONCLUSION (cont) • Linking education and training for employment, • To pursue more appropriate strategies for employment promotion, mainstreaming youths and women, • To ımprove working conditions and environment, • To strengthen, and better coordinate institutional framework for the promotion of employment and sustainable livelihoods • To improved employment statistics and labour market information system. TURKEY, SEPTEMBER 2016