Context
Worldwide there are 200 million people unemployed, 75 million of whom youths (15 to 24 years old). An additional 400 million people will enter the labour market in the next decade, which implies that 600 million new jobs are required.
However, the term unemployment is insufficient to capture the complex issue of employment. Many people work in the informal sector or under precarious conditions, have a substantial workload and suffer from low productivity and remuneration. 900 million employees worldwide are poor despite having a job (working poor), which means that they and their families have less than 2 US$ per head and day. The probability for young people to become unemployed is twice as high as for adults and the employment situation for women is often worse than for men. Women are more likely to become unemployed; they are more frequently affected by precarious working conditions and are generally paid less than men.
Productive employment and decent work are essential for the generation of revenues, reduction of poverty, increase in productivity and economic growth. In addition, they contribute to social security and cohesion as well as to prevention of conflicts and reduction of involuntary migration. For these reasons, decent work and productive employment are the key factors for sustainable development. Nevertheless, the promotion of decent and productive employment is still underrepresented in the development policy practice.
Objective
Therefore, the Sector Project (SP) pursues the objective: "Strategies and approaches to employment promotion are more firmly anchored in German and international development cooperation."
Approach
The SP aims to promote employment objectives in German and international development cooperation as well as to increase the impact on employment in this context. For this purpose, the SP advises the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on current processes and topics regarding employment promotion. The Project develops new and improved conceptual approaches to employment promotion based on learning experience and new technical challenges. It promotes the establishment and implementation of the aim of employment promotion in projects of German development cooperation, especially through pilot testing of innovative approaches. To achieve its objective, the SP cooperates with national and international stakeholders of development cooperation, science, the private sector and civil society.
Results achieved so far
The SP supports the BMZ in elaborating the development policy concept "Decent work and income for everyone", which should contribute to an increased effectiveness of the German development cooperation regarding productive and decent employment. So far achieved results are the successful contributions to the international positioning of the German development cooperation related to employment issues, e.g. in the G20-Process and in establishing the objective of employment promotion in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. The SP advises selected development cooperation projects on employment promotion issues to increase their impacts on employment. It organizes trainings on topics regarding employment and labour market policies. Through studies and workshops, the SP contributed to the conceptual development especially in the areas of methods for the identification of impacts on employment, green jobs, employment promotion in fragile contexts, labour market analyses and employment for women.
The SP promotes the implementation of an integrated approach to employment promotion and elaborated the manual "productive employment and decent work for all", a comprehensive guide for policymakers and practitioners, which is currently being revised.