Addressing issues of mutual interest on fragility, the International Labour Organization (ILO) is presently engaging participants from 16 countries at the Radisson Blu Conference Hall on the promotion of decent jobs in fragile and conflict-affected settings.
The engagement attracted both English and French speaking African Countries including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote D Ivoire among others
Fragile countries or fragile areas within countries often lag behind in the achievement of internationally established development goals despite considerable efforts by national and international actors.
Although fragility is diverse, a common trajectory appears to be the combination of high poverty rates with weak societal and state capacity to absorb the exogenous and endogenous shocks.
Indicators for the g7+ countries in Africa show that, on the economic side, most of the countries are “low-income” (per capita income < $US 1045), Most of their economies are small and most of them belong in the low human development group.
According to the Director of ILO country office for Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Ghana and Liberian, Dennis Zulu, in recent years, the ILO has been increasingly active in peace building and post-disaster recovery, citing 2014 when the ILO, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the g7+ group of self-declared fragile states, 14 of which are located in Africa.
He said the 5-day academy would be delivered by leading international experts with the focus on the promotion of decent jobs in fragile and conflict-affected settings, disclosing the focus content is around strengthening the institutions, processes and mechanisms for quality employment and livelihoods creation fostering development inclusiveness and fragile-to-fragile cooperation and decent work.
He furthered that participants from Sierra Leone will share their experiences and learn from others on how best to get away from poverty and create jobs for people.
According to him at the end of the program participants will have an understanding of the complexities of job creation in fragile and conflict-affected settings and the guiding principles in developing a coherent and effective responses, enhanced capacity to design, implement and evaluate effective strategies that promote job creation in fragile and conflict affected settings.
Officially opening the Academy, the Minister of Labour and Social Security Mathew Teambo, said fragility has been debated at different international levels and has become one of the signature aliens at the international development cycle.
According to him it is important to note that fragility is not synonym of conflict, calling on the participants to make use of the opportunity during the engagement so that they can contribute in eliminating poverty away from their respective countries.
The United Nations Representative in Sierra Leone, Sunil Saigal said it is his expectation that the Academy will provide the opportunity for participants to take get equated to the latest opportunities but also provide the forum for exchange of information and experience.
AMK/27/11/17
By Alhaji M. Kamara
Tuesday November 28, 2017.