1 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Creating jobs and building economies through strategic employment policies

Foluso PhillipsPhillips Consulting

2 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Some Current Realities

Objectives of national employment policies

Who should formulate polices on employment?

Performance indicators on employment issues

Formulating an employment policy

Concept of National Competencies

My Agenda

3 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Some Current Realities

4 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

AFRICA

5 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Some Current Realities

• Public sector is largest employer & will continue to be so:– Africa’s Social security– Largest budget and spender.

• Private sector is challenged in Africa• New employment will come from

entrepreneurship, SMEs, cooperatives etc• Brain drain is real and valuable• Self employment is a strong strategy for

economic emancipation.

6 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Some Current Realities

• Higher enterprise creation will increase level of employment

• The cost and process for enterprise creation is still tedious

• There are no large corporates for SMEs to support

• FDI will only happen through macro economic stability.

7 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Objectives of national employment policies

8 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

EmploymentPolicies

Economic Environment

LabourMarket

Promoting trade and investment for productive employment

Promoting technology for higher productivity and job creation

Promoting sustainable development for equitable livelihood

Macro-economic policy integration

Employment through entrepreneurship

Improving knowledge and skills

Active labour market policies

Job protection through wider skills & self employment

Reconciling supply & demand

9 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Objectives of National Employment Policies

• An understanding of employment demographics

• Knowledge of the labour supply & demand equation nationally & by sector

• An understanding of the elements which influence the economic environment & gainful employment:– Level of trade, economic activity &

investment– Level and type of imports – Market access of local output– Policy integration – growth & employment.

10 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Objectives of National Employment Policies

• Influence education & training: – Skills available & required and lead time

for ‘production’• Increase local labour content.• Anticipatory capabilities:

– Predict demand for specific labour skills• Encourage DFI through availability of value

for money labour

11 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Objectives of National Employment Policies

• Sustainable development:– Fundamental rights at work– Work place health & safety– HIV/AIDS

• Remuneration and reward structures:– Private & Public sectors– Ensuring equity and competitiveness– Value for money labour provision.

12 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Who should formulate polices on employment?

13 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Who Should Formulate Employment Policies?

• Government ministries:– Labour & productivity– Commerce & Industry– State governments

• The Labour unions:– International, national & sector

• Educational & technical institutions & the youths

• Employers of labour:– Public & private.

• Employment agencies & consultants

14 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Performance indicators on employment issues

15 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Possible Performance Indicators?

• Unemployment data – sector & region• Employed data – sector & region• Vacancies not filled due to absence of skills• Foreign labour (skills or policy gap)• Professional, technical and other graduates

in the pipeline (labour production capacity)• Types of ‘graduates’ who fail to get jobs• Training & development capacity• Social unrest and crime.

16 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Strategy for formulating an employment policy

17 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

What Supports Policy Formulation?

• Clear understanding national economic and social goals

• Monitoring & benchmarking global trends in commerce, industry & trade

• Extensive data collection and interpretation• Constant communication and interaction with the

various stakeholders• Manpower forecasts – national, regional and

Sectoral• Education – what should we be teaching our

children today for tomorrow• Legislative process to enact policies critical to

overall economic development.

18 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

The Concept of National Competencies

19 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

The Concept of National Competencies

• Competencies relate to the knowledge, skills and attitude required to successfully carry out a particular role or service

• Competencies exist at a national, corporate and individual level

• National competencies usually revolve around a country’s natural resources

• Corporate and individual competencies enhance and support the national competency

• National Competencies help to secure comparative advantage

20 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

National Competencies

• Norway: – Fishing, shipbuilding, oil rig platforms, fishing

equipment etc• Canada:

– Mining, mining equipment, technology and management

• USA: – Technology – applied to everything

• Japan:– No resources – efficiency, discipline and quality

• S. Africa:– Mining, Tourism, hospitality, sports, entertainment

• India:– Emerging intellectual competencies in IT

21 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Nigeria’s competencies – case studyAgriculture?

– Peanuts, cocoa, rubber, cotton, palm oil, hides & skins

– 85% of population– Agricultural research institutes– Agriculture taught in schools– Tough to get into ‘varsity to study Agric– Mastered transportation logistics to ports– Financing through regional banks– Regional competencies– Industries began to emerge (Unilever,

Cadbury, UAC etc).

22 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

What happened? – Oil Happened

• Oil created opportunity for another competency but…• Low ‘people’ input – high financial output• No strategic focus on developing oil related

competencies:– Very little ripple effect, little national engagement– No evolving national technical & organisational

competency in oil production• Successive governments failed to invest oil proceeds:

– Expand agriculture (the competency)– Horizontal or vertical integration (factories &

services)– The Infrastructure to support its growth– Reducing opportunity for private sector engagement.

23 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

National Competencies in Africa

»Ghana – agriculture? Cocoa

»Uganda – agriculture? Coffee

»DRC – potential competency in hydro

»Franco – phone countries – strong attachment to France

»Gambia – tourism

»Botswana – mining

»Lesotho – hydro, agriculture

»Etc.

24 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Integrative Policies

• Beneficiation strategy– Gold & diamonds to jewellery– Cocoa to chocolates– Crude Oil to petroleum products– Rubber to tyres

• Focussed integration strategy– Building industries and not companies– Full participation in the production value

chain• SME’s must ‘feed’ industry

– Where are the industries?

25 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

EmploymentPolicies

Economic Environment

LabourMarket

26 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

“The principle economic goal of any nation is to produce a high and rising standard of living for its citizens by gainfully employing them” … Michael

Porter

27 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Developing the skills, knowledge & capabilities of your people in areas of clear national comparative advantage

should be the focus of employment polices and strategies in Africa

28 Strategic Skills for Africa 2004:

Thank You!

Foluso Phillips