Support to the SAARC Plan of Action on Labour Migration

Labour migration was adopted in the agenda of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 2014, with the Kathmandu Declaration. SAARC Heads of States agreed to “collaborate and cooperate on safe, orderly and responsible management of labour migration from South Asia to ensure safety, security and wellbeing of their migrant workers in the destination countries outside the region“. In 2016, with support from ILO and IOM, and the SAARC Plan of Action for Cooperation on Labour Migration was finalized, which includes, among other things, the formation of a Technical Committee on Labour Migration. The ILO have received a request from the Government of Nepal and the SAARC Secretariat to support the first meeting of the SAARC Technical Meeting on Labour Migration. Through consultations with the relevant stakeholders, the project aims at supporting the operationalization of the Plan of Action by facilitating the establishment of the modalities for the functioning of the Technical Committee, recommending thematic prioritizations and the preparation of a feasibility study on establishment of Regional Qualification Reference Framework. At the end of the project, there will be more clarity on the value and direction of a SAARC platform to cooperate on labour migration issues, with decisions taken on how to move forward in terms of modalities and thematic priorities, including on skills recognition and sex disaggregated data collection and analysis.

Project symbol

RAS/18/03/CHE

Admin unit

DWT/CO-New Delhi

Start date

20/07/2018

End date

31/01/2019

Total allocation

84750

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

0

Development Partners

Switzerland, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

Country/Countries

Nepal
India

Outcomes

Promoting fair and effective labour migration policies