Despite the recovery of economic growth rates in several African countries, the overall employment situation remains critical, with labour supply rapidly outpacing productive job-creation. Africa must, therefore, go beyond structural adjustment stabilization programmes and launch investment-led growth strategies that create jobs and reduce poverty. These are among the conclusions of a report issued late last year by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
According to the report, Jobs For Africa: A Policy Framework for an Employment-Intensive Growth Strategy, some 7.4 mn new job-seekers will enter sub-Saharan Africa's labour market this year, rising to about 10.4 mn in 2008. This projected annual growth rate of over 2.9 per cent in the 1997-2010 period makes sub-Saharan Africa the developing region with the fastest growing labour force. Comparable growth rates for the labour forces of South-East Asia and Latin America are 1.9 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively.
Photo: Camerapix
The report states that in most sub-Saharan African countries, labour productivity is lower today than in 1980, and in many, even lower than in 1965. While Botswana, Mauritius, Chad and the Seychelles show the biggest gains in the productivity of labour, there has been significant regression in most countries, the equivalent of 75 per cent of the sub-Saharan work force. Equally, formal sector workers have suffered large reductions in the real value of their wages, which have collapsed with little expansion in formal sector employment.
Noting the rarity of coherent national development strategies in African countries, the report states that the recent turnaround in growth and the renewed efforts to accelerate development provide the region with a "launching pad" for economic take-off if the right policies are introduced and pursued. The major challenge is designing a coherent strategy with the explicit objective of maximizing employment growth and ensuring access by the poor to productive employment opportunities. The report calls for an employment-intensive growth strategy whose objective is sustained growth and increased job-creation. It argues that the creation of employment opportunities is the most effective way of reducing poverty. The report also points out that orthodox structural adjustment has led to a contraction of job opportunities and real incomes. According to the ILO and UNDP, African countries need to mobilize all domestic resources, and improve the skills of the work force, with the public sector playing a leading role by making its own spending more productive. One particular target is to increase productivity and incomes in agriculture, including enabling women to diversify into cash crop production.
Turning to the UN system, the report calls for a coordinated programme of action in support of investment-led growth strategies. It says the programme should aim, among other things, to build capacity at national and regional level to design and implement policies for reducing poverty and creating jobs.
