Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Mauritania (Ratification: 1971)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government's report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

1. The Committee notes with interest the "Special Programme of Productive Works", prepared with the technical co-operation of the ILO, with the object of constructing social and economic infrastructures in the sub-Saharan and Saharan zones that offer the best chances for slowing down rural emigration. Based on the use of highly labour-intensive techniques, this Programme is included in the Economic and Financial Recovery Plan, 1985-88, in which it appears to constitute one of the major options of employment policy. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate the action taken under the Plan and the extent to which the employment objectives of the Special Programme of Productive Works and, more generally, those of the 1985-88 Plan, have been or are being achieved. Please also specify any particular difficulties encountered in promoting the objectives of the Convention as set out in Article 1 of the Convention.

2. With reference to its 1988 direct request, the Committee notes from the Government's report that the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Employment has still not been set up since the Decree to establish it is still in draft form. The Committee emphasises the value of the provisions of Article 2, supplemented by those of Recommendation No. 122 (paragraph 6 and paragraph 2 of the Annex) which stress the co-ordination that is necessary between employment policy and social and economic policy, and it hopes that it will be possible to establish this body and make it operational in the near future.

3. With regard to the consultations with the representatives of the persons affected provided for in the Convention, the Committee points out that Article 3 is to be interpreted as meaning: (i) that the aim of the consultations is not restricted to the formulation of the employment policy, but extends also to its implementation, and (ii) that the "representatives of the persons affected" may, in addition to the representatives of employers' and workers' organisations, be representatives of other sectors of the active population, such as persons working in the rural sector and the informal sector. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply information on the way in which consultations, as set out above, are held with the representatives of the various persons affected, as defined above.

4. Please supply information on the action that has been taken or is contemplated as a result of the report submitted by the Office to the Government in 1985 which set out the objective of establishing a planning system for training and employment.

5. Please supply information on the action taken or contemplated as a result of the report submitted by the PECTA mission in 1986 concerning the employment problems of young persons, in which emphasis was placed, inter alia, on the creation of productive employment within the framework of a strategy of rural development, while at the same time it drew attention to the urgent need to promote employment in the informal sector, and particularly in Nouakchott.

6. Please supply information on the consideration that has been given to the ILO report prepared by a multidisciplinary mission within the framework of the "Resolution concerning the most urgent problems of Africa, and particularly food security", adopted by the Conference in June 1985. What action has been taken or is contemplated, particularly to give effect to the recommendations concerning highly labour-intensive work for the rehabilitation of the areas surrounding villages and the improvement of communication, support for the co-operative organisation of rural workers, promotion of non-agricultural rural employment (handicrafts and small and medium industries) and appropriate vocational training in the trades concerned, in addition to special programmes for underprivileged and vulnerable population groups?