Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Guinea (Ratification: 1966)

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Coordination of employment policy with poverty reduction. The Committee notes the Government’s report received in July 2012. The Government indicates that employment is at the heart of the socio-economic development process and in 2007 it incorporated this dimension into the second poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP). In this context, the Government undertook to create better conditions for the effective implementation of programmes and projects to achieve full employment for all. To this end, the Ministry of Youth and Youth Employment and the Ministry of Employment, Technical Education and Vocational Training were established. The Government indicates various measures in its report intended to promote youth employment and women’s employment, including the formulation of the National Support Programme for Youth Employment (2007), the setting up of the National Fund for the Integration of Young People (FONIJ), the establishment of two support funds (30 billion Guinean francs for young people and 100 billion Guinean francs for women) for employment promotion and poverty reduction and the implementation, in partnership with the World Food Programme, of the “food for apprentices” programme for 1,000 disadvantaged young persons (2010). It also refers to the measures to improve the provision of vocational and technical training, including the establishment of a programme for the rehabilitation and equipment of vocational and technical training centres and the training of young persons in labour-intensive techniques by the Guinean Agency for Work in the Public Interest (AGETIP). The Government indicates that the plan of action for the implementation of the national employment promotion policy in Guinea of December 2003 has not yet been put into effect because of the social unrest experienced by the country since that time. The Committee further notes that, according to the PRSP 2011–12, the unemployment rate increased from 10.2 per cent to 15 per cent in Conakry and fell from 6.7 per cent to 3.2 per cent in the other cities between 2002 and 2007. Overall, underemployment affected 9.1 per cent of the active population in 2007 compared with 11.8 per cent in 2002. Women are worse affected by underemployment than men (7.5 per cent for men and 10.5 per cent for women). The proportion of the active population which is underemployed is higher in rural areas (11.1 per cent) than in urban areas (5.4 per cent). The Committee invites the Government to provide information in its next report on the results achieved, particularly for young persons and women, by the measures for employment promotion and for better provision of vocational and technical training. It also invites the Government to provide information on progress made on putting into effect the plan of action for the implementation of the national employment promotion policy.

Article 3. Participation of the social partners in the formulation and implementation of policies. The Government indicates that it includes the social partners in all stages of conception, formulation and implementation of employment policies. The Committee invites the Government to provide detailed information in its next report on consultation of the social partners in the process of formulation and implementation of employment policies.

ILO technical assistance. The Committee notes the request for technical assistance relating to implementation of the national employment policy made by the Government in its report. In view of the difficulties faced by the Government in recent years in meeting its obligation to submit reports on the application of the Convention, the Committee notes that the preparation of a detailed report containing the information required in the present observation and by the report form will certainly give the Government and the social partners the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the employment policy in achieving the objectives of full and productive employment which are set out in the Convention. The Committee considers that technical assistance from the competent units of the ILO might be useful to help the Government with bridging the gaps in the implementation of an active employment policy in accordance with the Convention.