Poverty Reduction through Decent Employment Creation in Ethiopia

This project constitutes a key vehicle for delivering ILO assistance for the implementation of the Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) for Ethiopia, which has been developed by the ILO and its local constituents in response to the Government’s development strategy. The DWCP provides the framework for ILO’s contribution, in collaboration with its constituents, to the realization of the objectives of Ethiopia’s Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP), which, among other things, aims “to raise the employability of labour resources and strengthening of private sector growth and development, especially in industry as a means of achieving off-farm employment.” Similarly, the DWCP provides an interface between ILO action and UNDAF, to which it is also linked. The DWCP is a culmination of a series of consultations between SRO Addis Ababa and government, social partners, target beneficiaries, researchers and ILO HQ colleagues. It is aimed at promoting decent work, with a primary focus on three sectors: (a) cotton /textiles, (b) floriculture and (c) solid waste management in the city of Addis Ababa. The DWCP also aims at promoting employment creation, creating a conducive environment for increasing foreign exchange earnings, enhancing local economic development, promoting social dialogue to address issues of training and human resource management, innovation, productivity and working conditions, facilitating the elimination of child labour, and enhancing compliance with International Labour Standards. Women represent the main work force in each of these three sectors, empirical evidence showing that they are disadvantaged vis-à-vis their male counterparts in terms of levels of salary, working conditions, access to facilities, etc. Therefore, particular attention will be paid to giving them equal opportunities at all levels of the project in order to promote gender equality. The present project will contribute to the realization of the goals of the DWCP, by using a set of interventions to implement a sectoral approach focusing on the three sectors and the priorities covered by the DWCP. Its aims are to contribute to the enhancement of productivity and competitiveness in the floriculture, solid waste management and cotton/textile sectors by fostering decent work, with a view to unleashing their productive and employment potentials. In addition, for the cotton/textiles and floriculture sectors, the project will contribute to the enhancement of the social and environmental credentials that enable sustainable access to global markets. The project builds on recent achievements in the different sectors. To ensure effective and efficient implementation, project outputs and activities are grouped under three components, each coinciding more or less with one of the three sectors. This sectoral approach will be combined with an integrated approach to addressing the common problems faced by the three sectors, in terms of policy development, institutional and technical capacity building, awareness creation and direct actions at national, sectoral, enterprise and household levels. In addition to outputs and activities that address the peculiar problems of each sector, project interventions will include common activities dealing with cross-cutting issues, namely: gender equality and mainstreaming; child labour, social dialogue, occupation safety and health (OSH), and International Labour Standards. The following paragraphs provide an overview of the main issues addressed by each component, the respective goals and the approaches to be followed.

Project symbol

ETH/06/50/NET

Admin unit

CO-Addis Ababa

Start date

01/06/2006

End date

30/04/2010

Total allocation

2792831

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

2792831

Development Partners

Netherlands, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Country/Countries

Ethiopia

Outcomes

Employment Promotion