World of Work in Montenegro: Paving the road to recovery

Executive summary In 2021, Montenegro begun two important transitions, one related to (i) designing and implementing policies and strategies to overcome the negative effects of the pandemic, and one related to (ii) the establishment of a new coalition government that marks the first transfer of powers in 30 years. The Government of Montenegro has reiterated the need to review and re-engineer existing institutional capacities, particularly within the Ministry of Economic Development and the Employment Agency, to implement changes in employment and labour market policies. The experience of other economies suggests that it is possible, with sufficient political will and adequate technical knowledge, to transform institutions and create efficient policy delivery mechanisms within a short time span to promote and support effective labour market governance, which in turn promotes equity and the realization of fundamental rights at work for all citizens. The direct beneficiaries of the project are decision-makers and staff from selected labour market institutions with a mandate to pave the way to inclusive and job-rich recovery. More specifically, the project will work primarily with the Ministry of Economic Development (MED), the Employment Agency of Montenegro (EAM), and the Social Council (SC). Because of overlapping memberships and roles, the project will include also the Labour Inspectorate (LI), the social partners, and, marginally, the Competitiveness Council in the implementation of selected activities. The end-beneficiaries of the project are working-age women and men who would benefit from better policy measures to support jobs and incomes during the crisis. More specifically, the project will generate measurable results for women, young people, long-term unemployed, persons with disabilities, and employers. The project follows a three-pronged approach based on: (i) Improving the quality and use of data/evidence; (ii) Upgrading the quality of decision-making with respect to employment and transition to formality; (iii) Boosting the quality of policy measures for job creation. It will focus on three main deliverables for the Montenegrin institutions: 1) New tools to elaborate and analyse employment and labour market data; 2) Some innovative policy proposals for job-rich recovery, based on evidence, including around the youth guarantee, and the activation of women and persons with disabilities; and 3) The piloting of novel measures for job creation, with a focus on excluded unemployed, and informal/seasonal workers.

Project symbol

MNE/21/02/GBR

Admin unit

DWT/CO-Budapest

Start date

05/08/2021

End date

31/03/2022

Total allocation

592427

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

366065

Development Partners

United Kingdom/UK-Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office

Country/Countries

Montenegro

Outcomes

Outcome 3: Economic, social and environmental transitions for full, productive and freely chosen employment and decent work for all