ECA/SA: Meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts

Manzini, 12 April - “Job Creation for Poverty Reduction” is the central theme of the twelfth ICE Meeting ECA-Southern Africa Sub-regional Office currently underway in Manzini, Swaziland.

The meeting, from 10-12 April 2006, is part of the preparatory process of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development whose theme this year is ‘Labour and Employment’. It will provide substantive inputs to the forthcoming conference.

The objective of the ICE meeting is to facilitate dialogue among delegates on the thorny issue of job creation to bring about poverty reduction. It brings together representatives from the member states in Southern Africa, AU, NEPAD, ADB, COMESA, SADC, DBSA, IOC, ILO, UNDP, as well as other United Nations agencies, the private sector and civil society organizations.

The meeting will provide an opportunity to review present practices and discuss required actions to successfully meet the challenges of job creation in the sub-region. Targeting women and youth should constitute the major focus of job creation strategies with concrete programmes aimed at integrating such groups. Participants will discuss government policies in this area, as well as private sector activities and individual initiatives.

As underlined by the “Expert Group Meeting on Labour Markets and Employment in Southern Africa”(3-6 February 2003), the concerns of Southern Africa are the stagnating level of poverty, increasing members of the labour force who cannot find productive and gainful employment, and rising numbers of young people and school leavers unable to find employment A central question facing policymakers in the sub-region is why job creation has been so lacklustre and morose, and what policy tools and measures can be used to boost productivity and accelerate the expansion of decent employment opportunities.

In light of the policy dialogue opportunity generally offered by ICE meetings, the SA meeting will address the relevance of adopting policies and strategies likely to help reduce poverty. The concerns of job creation will be analyzed through a series of presentations and discussions on the following themes:
- Economic and social conditions in Southern Africa with a focus on job creation for poverty reduction;
- Integration of gender into development programmes in Southern Africa- focus on practical job creation measures;
- Harmonization of mining policies in Southern Africa;
- ECA in Southern Africa: Strategic Orientation;
- ECA major initiatives and programme developments, and;
- Partners’ responses to the Ouagadougou Declaration on Employment and Poverty of September 2004.

The meeting is expected to recommend ways of addressing major challenges related to job creation in the sub-region, as well as ways of assisting member countries in mitigating the effect of unemployment on wide cross sections of their populations.