Demande directe (CEACR) - adoptée 2016, publiée 106ème session CIT (2017)

Convention (n° 122) sur la politique de l'emploi, 1964 - Mauritanie (Ratification: 1971)

The Committee notes the observations of the General Confederation of Workers of Mauritania (CGTM), received on 30 August 2016. The Committee requests the Government to provide its comments thereon.

Articles 1 and 3 of the Convention. Employment promotion. Consultation of the social partners. In its report the Government indicates that the National Employment Strategy, which is gender-sensitive, is being updated. The Government also refers to a national inquiry on employment and the informal sector conducted in 2012 by the National Statistics Office. It also mentions a steering committee for the updating of the National Employment Strategy of which the social partners are full members, and confirms that there is to be a mechanism for consultation which will involve rural associations and associations of workers in the informal economy. The CGTM is of the view that Mauritania is slow to implement an employment policy that seeks to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment. The CGTM also highlights the fact that the absence of a national employment policy has repercussions on all job sectors in the private sector, observing that employment has never been an objective of economic policy, but more a result of the market economy. The CGTM indicates that the Government has not taken steps to consult employers’ and workers’ organizations about employment policies. It considers that employment policy should be a derivative of the National Employment Strategy, which the Government has a duty to formulate in agreement with the social partners. In the absence of fuller information on this matter, the Committee again requests the Government to provide detailed and up-to-date information on: the results obtained under the National Employment Strategy, in terms of creating lasting employment, lowering underemployment and reducing poverty; the participation of the social partners in formulating, updating and implementing the National Employment Strategy; and the measures taken or envisaged to associate the representatives of persons working in rural areas and the informal economy with the consultations required by the Convention.

Policy coordination. Education and vocational training. The Government indicates that it envisages revising the decree to create and organize the Higher Council for Employment and for Technical and Vocational Training. The Government adds that the Higher Council’s duties will include facilitating consultation between the various players, reinforcing synergies between employment and technical and vocational training, promoting coordinated action so as to rationalize policies and programmes on employment and technical and vocational training and facilitating coordination and follow-up in the implementation of national policies on employment and on technical and vocational training. The Government further indicates that training establishments enrolled 6,210 trainees in the 2015–16 scholastic year, as compared to 2,200 in 2008. It reports that girls account for 30 and 40 per cent of the beneficiaries. The Committee once again requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken to ensure that education, vocational training and employment policies are coordinated. It again requests the Government to include information on the measures taken to improve the offer of vocational and technical training, particularly for young people and women, and to create productive and lasting employment in socially satisfactory conditions for workers in the informal economy.

Article 2. Collecting and using data on employment. The Government indicates that it is working on the implementation of an employment market and training information system (SIMEF), with support from the ILO and funded by the African Development Bank. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on all progress made in collecting data on employment, specifying the employment policy measures taken thanks to the implementation of the SIMEF.

Labour market institutions. The Government indicates that placement is one of the main functions of the National Agency for the Promotion of Youth Employment (ANAPEJ). It adds that ANAPEJ is working on the implementation of a programme to set up placement offices. The Government reports that three such offices, at Nouakchott, Kiffa and Nouadhibou, are already in operation. The CGTM objects that recruitment is disorganized since hiring and placement offices have ceased to exist. It considers that the youth employment offices set up to fill this role have proved a blatant failure in terms of placing young people in employment. The Committee notes the Government’s General Policy Statement (2015–16), whose objectives include: consolidating and diversifying employment promotion bodies; implementation of the regulatory framework governing placement offices; and the formulation of plans for employment promotion at wilaya (regional) level. The Committee refers the Government to its direct request on the application of the Fee-Charging Employment Agencies Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 96). The Committee requests the Government to provide fuller information on the measures taken to strengthen the institutions that are necessary to the attainment of full employment. It also requests the Government to provide information on the manner in which the placement offices that do exist in the country contribute to ensuring that workers who are available, including young workers, are suitably integrated in the labour market.

Micro- and small enterprises. The Government reports the approval of two national strategies, the preparation and dissemination of which have had the support of all local players in the microfinance sector and of the technical partners in development: the National Microfinance Strategy (2015–19) and the National Strategy for the Promotion of Micro- and Small Enterprises (2015–19). The Committee requests the Government to provide up-to-date information on the impact of the measures taken, in terms of encouraging the creation of lasting employment by micro- and small enterprises.

Employment promotion and labour intensive programmes. The Government refers to a project for the paving of highways in Nouakchott, launched in 2007, which has contributed to the creation of 471 jobs. The Government also refers to a project for an on-site school for road maintenance in Mauritania, launched in 2015, in which more than 400 young people will be trained in trades linked to road maintenance. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the jobs generated by the labour intensive programmes.