Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Social Policy (Basic Aims and Standards) Convention, 1962 (No. 117) - Democratic Republic of the Congo (Ratification: 1967)

Parts I and II of the Convention. Improvement of standards of living. The Committee notes the indications provided by the Government in June 2011 in reply to its 2010 observation. The Committee previously noted the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper of July 2006. The Government also indicated that the Priority Action Programme (PAP) 2009–10 aimed to attenuate the effects of the international financial crisis and the food crisis on macroeconomic performance with a view to improving the socio-economic conditions of the population. According to World Bank estimates, economic growth fell from 6.2 per cent in 2008 to 2.8 per cent in 2009 because of the effects of the global financial and economic crisis on the country. Growth then grew to 5.4 per cent in 2010 and is still healthy in 2011. The country benefits from significant multilateral and bilateral support (among others, from China and India) for public and private investment and economic recovery. The Government indicates in its latest report that, before seeking the external resources that development partners would be prepared to provide the county, each ministerial sector has established a framework of medium-term expenditure with a view to financing priority actions though the resources of the national budget for the period from 2011 to 2016. The Committee invites the Government to provide more precise indications in its next report on the manner in which the provisions of the Convention have been taken into account in the formulation of economic programmes and the implementation of the measures decided upon in the context of the Priority Action Programme and the strategy to combat poverty.

Part VI. Education and vocational training. The Government provided a table recapitulating the measures adopted to develop the education system in the context of the PAP. The Committee notes that the rate of implementation of the PAP for the period 2006–10 was 27 per cent; 53.82 per cent of the actions planned are currently being implemented, while one third have not been carried out, which also illustrates the lack of relevance of certain actions, the weakness of the institutional implementation mechanisms and other difficulties in improving the quality of the teaching and learning process. The Committee invites the Government to provide updated information in its next report on the impact of the measures adopted to overcome the difficulties encountered and achieve the progressive improvement of education, vocational training and apprenticeship and to prepare children and young persons of both sexes for a useful professional life, as envisaged in Article 15 of the Convention.