Promoting Labour Rights and Decent Work for the Informal Economy in Rwanda

The core problem of lack of access to labour rights, particularly in the informal economy, will be addressed through promoting formalization, awareness raising and compliance through social dialogue, and will be demonstrated in two sub-sectors with large prevalence of women and youth. The informal economy employs around 88% of the Rwandan workforce. This presents a major challenge to inclusive growth and development and has a negative impact on sustainable enterprises, productive employment, the attainment of decent work, government revenue and fair competition. Grounded in a rights-based approach, the project will support advocacy efforts to make formalization a priority in the national policy agenda. It will enhance the capacity of constituents to undertake diagnoses of the informal economy, inform the design of relevant strategies and monitor progress towards formalization. The project will work with the ILO constituents and the cooperative movement to create a much higher degree of awareness of labour rights and obligations through sensitization workshops and a mass media campaign. A key expected output is strengthened capacity of the labour inspectorate, and employers’ and workers’ organizations, leading to measurable improvements in workplace compliance with national labour laws, applicable regulations, collective agreements and ratified international labour standards – to the extent possible also among the informal enterprises.

Project symbol

RWA/17/02/SWE

Admin unit

CO-Dar es Salaam

Start date

17/05/2017

End date

31/01/2018

Total allocation

70068

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

70068

Development Partners

Sweden, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency

Country/Countries

Rwanda

Outcomes

Strong and representative employers' and workers' organizations