Improved labour market and migration governance

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) hosted an impressive 7.8 million migrant workers in 2013 which makes the UAE the 5th biggest country in the world in terms of immigrants. With Emiratis working mainly in the public sector, migrant workers make up a substantial proportion of the labour market in the private sector. The Ministry of Labour of the UAE faces a number of challenges in its governance of the labour market, including its governance of labour migration, and invited the ILO to collaborate on areas of mutual concern. Following an ILO technical scoping mission to the UAE on 16-19 November 2014, three broad areas of mutual interest for collaboration were identified, adding to the ongoing work on skills recognition of migrant workers. In addition, an inter-country initiative for fair recruitment was identified, which will be covered in a separate proposal. The three focus areas are linked together by the need to improve evidence-based policy making and document impact and progress on labour market and labour migration governance, and thus contribute to Vision2021 and the national agenda, making employment a fundamental pillar of its development policy. A programme of joint work is proposed for a 2-year-period, and this concept note aims to frame a technical cooperation project, covering the three areas identified as follows: 1. Upgrade of the Labour Market Information System (LMIS) at federal and sub national level. 2. Improve the labour inspection (LI) system and capacity in the private sector, including to prevent and identify forced labour. 3. the development of dispute prevention and resolution (DR) mechanisms along with improved access to justice for migrant workers. For each of these three areas a concept note was developed, and agreed upon, between the Ministry of Labour of the UAE and the ILO. The essentials of these three concept notes have been integrated into one in this concept note. A total amount of funds of USD 1,916,251 has in principle been reserved by the Ministry of Labour of the UAE to cover costs under this programme of work.

Project symbol

UAE/15/01/UAE

Admin unit

LABADMIN/OSH
RO-Arab States/DWT-Beirut

Start date

01/11/2015

End date

28/02/2018

Total allocation

977687

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

977687

Development Partners

United Arab Emirates, Ministry of Labour

Country/Countries

United Arab Emirates

Outcomes

Outcome 1: Strong tripartite constituents and influential and inclusive social dialogue
Outcome 7: Adequate and effective protection at work for all
Outcome A: Authoritative knowledge and high impact partnerships for promoting decent work