By Akanimo Sampson
Initiatives developed through the
International Labour Organisation (ILO)-supported Partnership for Action on Green Economy
(PAGE) programme and the Employment
Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) have been recognised in the
2019 Future Policy Awards.
Senegal’s National Strategy for the Promotion of Green Jobs was selected from
67 nominated policies from 36 countries as one of the two winners of the Future
Policy Vision Award. The ILO supported the Senegalese government in creating
and implementing the strategy, which has created 2,000 green jobs.
South Africa’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) received the Bronze award
in the category for Decent and Sustainable Jobs for Youth Economic Empowerment.
The programme was set up in 2004 in response to high unemployment rates,
opening up more than eight million job opportunities. The ILO’s Employment
Investment Programme (EIIP) contributed to its design, planning, implementation
and evaluation.
The Future
Policy Awards , also known as the “Oscar for Best Policies”,
highlights the world’s most impactful policies empowering youth. It is the only
global award that recognizes policies designed to benefit both present and
future generations. Its aim is to raise global awareness of the importance of
good policies and speed up action.
The award was created by the World Future Council in 2010, in partnership with
UN agencies and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). The 2019 award theme
highlighted the need to find inspiring and effective laws and policies that
could empower young people in building a fair and sustainable future.
Senegal’s first National Strategy
for the Promotion of Green Jobs serves as a reference framework, strengthening
the legislative, institutional and regulatory framework for green jobs,
building human capacity, developing an appropriate financing policy, promoting
advocacy, and setting up mechanisms for monitoring and sustainability.
Mainly young people and women have benefited from the 2,000 green jobs that
have been created under the strategy. They include recycling, aquaculture and
forestry projects. All generated a return on investment in their second year of
production. The Senegalese approach is being adopted as a model by other
countries in Africa and elsewhere.
In South Africa, youth benefited from almost half of the eight million
temporary work opportunities generated under the Expanded Public Works
Programme.
The programme has taken an innovative approach, expanding beyond the more
traditional infrastructure-related activities and mobilising unemployed youth
to support social services and environmental activities such as home-based
care, early childhood development, prevention of forest fires, rehabilitation
of wetlands and other ecosystems.
The ILO’s EIIP has operated for around 40 years and is currently active in more
than 25 countries. It supports and implements programmes for youth and other
groups whose livelihoods have been threatened, such as refugees, farmers and
those affected by conflict or natural disasters.
“Government policies have the potential to open up opportunities for millions
of green, decent jobs in the context of the ecological transition. Actions that
transform the entrepreneurial ecosystems – the actors, organisations, culture,
and policies – are central to realizing the employment dividend of a green
economy.
The ILO works to empower our
constituents – governments, workers and employers – in that direction,” said
Moustapha Kamal Gueye, Head of the ILO’s
Green Jobs unit.
PAGE brings together five UN agencies: the ILO, UN Environment, the UN
Development Programme, the UN Industrial Development Organization and the UN
Institute for Training and Research. The Partnership was launched in 2013 to
help countries adopt greener and more inclusive growth trajectories.
PAGE seeks to put sustainability at
the heart of economic policies and practices and to advance the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development . It provides support in reframing
national and regional economic policies and practices around sustainability, so
fostering economic growth, creating income and jobs, and reducing poverty and
inequality.
The winners of this year’s Future Policy Award were recognised on October 16,
during the 141st Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, in Belgrade,
Serbia. A live webcast was available from 3:00 – 4:15pm CEST.
