Jobagri: Shaping better policies and investments based on new evidence on the labour content in the agri-food sector in Africa

Executive Summary Successful rural development in the Africa region has never been more critical. Agriculture and agri-food employ more than one-half of workers across the region. The post-pandemic regional economy, adversely affected by the current geopolitical context, struggles to sustain progress towards food security targets, as well as to improve decent job creation. Developing the agri-food sector and its ability to generate decent employment is the necessary next step to bring Africa’s trajectory towards a more sustainable, inclusive, and prosperous direction. Employment and agriculture policies need to work together towards this goal. In practice though, they operate in silo and draw from a limited availability of evidence. JobAgri will address the development of agri-food and decent employment in Africa in an integrated manner, and by using innovative data. This initiative stems from a partnership between the African Union (AU), ILO , FAO and Cirad . In Ghana, JobAgri will work on two main areas. First, it will strengthen national statistical and research capacities in the areas of agriculture and employment. It will do so by working with national institutions to develop indicators and data collection processes investigating the labour content of different farming systems. Second, it will support the establishment of multi-stakeholder and ‘tripartite-plus’ policy dialogues so as to ensure coordinated and concerted solutions to maximize the impact of the agri-food sector on decent work. This process will be inclusive of stakeholders that are usually absent from policy discussions on employment, such as rural workers’ associations and farmers’ organizations. JobAgri Ghana is a pilot project. Its results will be critical to develop a broader approach that is expected to target additional countries, across the African continent. Ultimately, the larger JobAgri programme aims to contribute to structural transformation path for Africa that acknowledges the current context, its structural and incidental challenges, as well as its unique opportunities.

Project symbol

GHA/23/02/DEU

Admin unit

EMPLAB

Start date

18/12/2023

End date

31/12/2025

Total allocation

996366

Total expenditure

Status

Active

864965

Development Partners

Germany, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Country/Countries

Ghana

Outcomes

Outcome 3: Full and productive employment for just transitions