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Employment, informal sector, vocational training
Sub-topic: Vocational training
Vocational training would appear to be one of the instruments best suited to an equitable growth policy: as a means of developing human capital by enhancing individuals’ economic and social capacity, it helps to reduce inequality as well as to fight poverty; as a factor of competitiveness, via the development of skills that are useful to the economy, it is central to employment policies and to the process of growth through investment (including foreign direct investment).
All too often, however, vocational training is given short shrift in national development policies, being assigned either, at best, the function of developing individual skills for the exclusive use of government and large formal-sector firms, or, more often, the function of a social corridor allowing those excluded from the formal education and employment systems to stay just above the poverty line.
The Research Department’s work on this topic since 2005 has aimed to shed light on the role of vocational training policy and the structure of vocational training systems in an equitable development process, as well as on the most suitable forms of donor action.
Sub-topic: The labour market
Gender inequality and disparities in access to jobs are important issues for developing economies, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, owing to their negative impact on both growth and poverty reduction. Although the objective of achieving gender equality is included in most poverty reduction strategy programmes and in the Millennium Development Goals, we still have little information on gender disparity issues in sub-Saharan Africa, which makes it difficult to introduce more suitable and more effective policies.
Gender inequality is particularly marked on the labour market. Although the situation varies widely from one country to another, the data available indicate that, in many countries, there are fewer women than men in gainful employment, that women are disproportionately concentrated in the informal sector and insecure employment, and that they are paid less than men. If access to decent work for both men and women is a key to poverty reduction in Africa, the more difficult conditions faced by women on the labour market constitute a particularly important challenge: existing studies show that women’s access to employment and income has positive externalities and helps to reduce poverty not only through the direct contribution that these women make to household income, but also through higher returns on educational investment, women’s increased decision-making power in the family and a shift in household spending towards essential needs, particularly children’s health and education.
It is generally recognised the gender inequality exists on African labour markets, but little is known about its nature and scale. Existing databases provide only limited and incomplete information, and are primarily concerned with urban areas. In this context, the research programme undertaken by AFD and the World Bank aims to increase and deepen our knowledge on this subject as a guide to public policy and donor activity.
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