Sustaining businesses and protecting jobs in the informal economy of Ethiopia

The COVID-19 crisis is now shedding light on the harsh consequences of an informal economy with growing reports on the economic losses being faced by the workers in the informal economy. According to the findings of the UN Socio-economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) of the COVID-19, the most vulnerable and affected group in Ethiopia so far includes workers, mainly women members in micro and small enterprises (MSEs), especially in the informal sector, and cooperatives. Within this broad context, both the UN Country Team (UNCT) and the relevant Ethiopian government authorities agreed that there was an urgent need to design and implement interventions that are directly aimed at the informal sector. The project “MPTF: UN COVID-19 Sustaining businesses and protecting jobs in the informal economy of Ethiopia” is a joint programme among four UN Agencies UNDP, UNIDO, ILO and UN WOMEN. The expected impact of the project is to “Reduced vulnerability and improved resilience of urban informal sector workers and enterprises, especially women, female youth and persons with disabilities” and has two main outcome “Operations and Viability of At-Risk MSMEs Secured” and “Informal Sector Workers Protected and Formalisation Encouraged”. The project has four outputs 1. “Deploying measures related to financial instruments including guarantees” – lead by UNDP, with support from ILO and UNIDO; 2. “Informal sector businesses are supported to be formalized and organized into to access business development support” – lead by UNIDO with support from ILO and UNDP; 3. “Workplace safety and health measures ensured” – lead by ILO with support from UNIDO and 4. “Gender Mainstreaming and Review” – lead by UN WOMEN The ILO’s focus on Workplace safety and health” aiming at Protecting the health and safety of retained workers of MSMEs in the informal economy to create safe working environments under pandemic conditions. This will be achieved through strengthening capacities of labour inspectors to provide technical information on Covid-19 preventive and control measures to informal enterprises and building capacity of MSMEs to develop emergency preparedness plans and standard operating procedures to deal with cases of COVID-19 in the workplace including gender and disability COVID-19 awareness-raising initiatives among others. The project target beneficiaries include 600 MSEs; 30% of Female and young people owned enterprises; 1,800 individuals where at least 30% female. The will also target 150 Labour Inspectors/OSH Officers (30%) working in Ministry of Labour responsible labour administration and Covid-19 mitigation in the work place. Expected impact include “Protection of health and safety of the workers in MSEs”; “Strengthened Labour inspection system” and “OSH management system in place to deal safety issues in the informal sector”.

Project symbol

ETH/21/50/UND

Admin unit

CO-Addis Ababa

Start date

30/06/2021

End date

30/03/2022

Total allocation

419440

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

125332

Development Partners

Multi Partner Trust Fund Office, UNDP

Country/Countries

Ethiopia

Outcomes

Outcome 4: Sustainable enterprises as generators of employment and promoters of innovation and decent work