Download 1. The main problems and challenges in developing human resources

Brussels, 21 January 2008
AN IMPROVED PARTNERSHIP FOR A BETTER DEVELOPMENT:
25TH MEETING OF ACP-EU ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL INTEREST GROUPS
Brussels, 4-6 March 2008
REPORT
on
Human resources for development
RAPPORTEUR
Mr Adrien Béléki Akouete
Member of the EU-ACP Follow-up Committee
Secretary-General of the TOGO Confederation of Workers’ Unions (CSTT)
DI CESE 38/2007 rev. FR/CD/JP/ht
EN
-1The development of human resources is now a vital element in any development strategy. Education
and training play a key role in this process by creating a flexible and highly-skilled workforce and
producing a stratum of middle and senior-level managers.
However, the human resources development process has become extremely complex. On the one
hand, it is difficult to predict how labour force needs will evolve. On the other hand, training
providers have diversified considerably and increasing numbers, only not of private institutions but
also of enterprises and various other bodies outside the traditional structures, now take part in research
and training.
Human resources planners therefore need to conduct in-depth analyses of employment and labour
market needs, to make medium- and long-term forecasts, to anticipate the major problems and
challenges associated with matching training and employment and to draw up appropriate strategies.
1.
The main problems and challenges in developing human resources
1.1
A difficult macro-economic environment
Despite having natural potential, the majority of developing countries are currently experiencing
economic recession as a result of the deterioration in the terms of trade, the drop in prices for raw
materials and ineffective development policies and planning strategies.
The scale and impact of their debts has created an untenable financial imbalance in these countries.
Privatisation policies have led to drastic workforce cuts across enterprises, the civil service and the
private sector, the corollary of which has been the de-structuring of the modern sector of the economy
and growing household poverty.
1.2
A labour market characterised by increasing supply and falling demand
The main characteristics of the labour market are the predominance of rural employment, particularly
in agriculture, and a high level of female participation. The civil service still dominates the breakdown
of jobs in the modern sector of the economy.
Unemployment rates are running at over 10%. The informal sector and underemployment are the
main options for job seekers. The lack of demographic policy is leading to an expansion in the
available labour force. Access to employment has become a social and political problem. The
traditional model, where integration into the modern sector of the economy is seen as the normal
outcome of the investment in school education, is no longer warranted.
Although women are playing an increasingly important role in the labour market, they continue to be
disadvantaged in relation to economic activity in general. Women are often ghettoised in "female
professions" and badly paid jobs in the informal sector or obliged to engage in subsistence farming.
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-21.3
The informal sector and employment
The informal sector plays a key role in developing countries’ economies, where it employs over 80%
of the working population in activities such as agricultural work, trade, crafts and services. The sector
has continued to expand, under the impact of economic recession and its consequences (which include
a slowdown in growth, a public finance and balance of payments deficit, a growing weight of debt and
saturation of the modern sector of the economy). Against this background, the informal sector has
become a refuge and key source of employment. The sector can be divided into a number of subcategories:
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production (traditional crafts in general);
services (most frequently modern crafts);
trade;
transport.
With increases in the numbers of those employed in the informal sector standing at an average rate of
around 4% per year (the figure for Togo), this sector would now appear to be one of the most essential
components of economic life in all these countries. In view of the current challenges to traditional
development strategies, it would be wrong to dismiss this sector, whose employment potential far
exceeds that of the modern sector of the economy. From this perspective, training for workers in this
sector will be a prerequisite for integrating the informal economy into the overall economic
development process.
1.4
The agricultural sector
The agricultural sector plays a major role in developing countries due to its considerable contribution
to GDP (20% or more, according to the country) and the fact that it employs over 70% of the working
population.
This sector is nonetheless still dominated by scattered smallholdings (less than two hectares on
average), which are usually acquired through inheritance and whose yields are generally very low.
They are characterised by:
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low technical level and low level of equipment in the smallholdings;
low level of monetarisation.
This is a traditional form of agriculture, with conservative practices which are not conducive to
change and innovation. Furthermore, there is a very limited overall area of farmable land. This
situation is a major obstacle to promoting a development policy aimed at maximising the rural sector's
considerable potential for added value.
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-31.5
Education
In the face of this development crisis, we are increasingly witnessing a decline in the demand for
education in society, as a result of the declining job opportunities in the modern sector of the
economy.
Technical education accounts for only a tiny minority of those who receive schooling. Moreover its
overall quality is disappointing and graduates face difficulties in entering the labour market. Girls
represent under 50% of those enrolled in technical and vocational secondary education (EFT Global
Monitoring Report for 2003/2004) and prefer more traditionally female, less technical areas.
Moreover, their access to secondary or post-secondary education is often hampered by admission
criteria and cost.
Apart from a few rare exceptions, those with a secondary school diploma enter higher education quasi
automatically. Given the low probability of finding work, students sometimes prolong their studies
longer than necessary.
1.6
Impact of HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS is now a clear threat to the world of work, affecting the education and training sector,
slashing the productive workforce, paralysing an already weakened economic environment and
reducing economic productivity. Productivity in the production and resource sectors is affected by the
lack of workers and the high cost of training replacements.
2.
The various possible strategies
2.1
Formulation of proper employment/training policies
In all the countries facing employment problems, there is now a trend towards drawing up
employment and training policies. However, whether they concern measures for integrating young
first-time job seekers or the launch of labour-intensive public works projects, these initiatives may
well help to reduce poverty but are not enough to regulate the labour market in any significant way.
2.2
Forecasting fluctuations in the numbers of those leaving the education system and
identifying practicable strategies for regulating them
In the face of the growing labour surplus, a number of strategies could be envisaged, including:
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forecasting fluctuations in the numbers of people leaving the various levels of the education
system, in order to have an idea of the likely numbers of graduates entering the labour market at
different levels of qualification;
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-4
2.3
envisaging strategies for regulating these flows for example, through selection and assessment
methods, the way education is provided (in particular by providing different forms of postprimary education) and funding systems.
Developing the informal sector
In view of the important role which the informal sector plays in developing countries’ economies,
policies aimed at developing human resources should focus on strengthening this sector to help it
become more productive.
Initiatives aimed at consolidating the informal sector should focus on bringing together small
enterprises and providing further training for those working in them, setting up credit groups,
providing technical and marketing support and reforming traditional apprenticeships, which are still
the main way of passing on technical knowledge and know-how in the sector.
In particular, the crafts sector, which accounts for a considerable proportion of those in informal
employment, either in production, arts and crafts or services, remains a promising focus for promoting
the occupations that informal education and primary education need to support. These jobs involve
both women and men and, although it is difficult to quantify, make a significant contribution to GDP.
Apart from the creation of savings and credit groups, initiatives in this area could include research
into product markets to encourage this category of economic agents, which has hitherto received little
attention from governments.
2.4
Promoting employment in the agricultural sector
A rational policy for promoting agricultural employment should be based on:
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reducing under-employment;
promoting more productive methods and techniques;
increasing incomes by improving productivity and seed quality;
developing rural savings with a view to creating and strengthening agricultural credit;
promoting a new generation of farmers via programmes to modernise agriculture based on
business start-ups and support for young people;
establishing a model of basic education calculated to boost the efficiency of measures to promote
agricultural skills and agricultural development programmes;
developing functional literacy programmes for rural communities building on motivational issues
which will enable farmers to identify solutions to their problems. These programmes must
therefore be reviewed and illiterate adults, especially women and young school dropouts
(particularly girls), must be given access to education which will allow them to become active
members of their societies and to start up agricultural projects;
developing secondary education specialising in agriculture.
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-5Training programmes must go further than measures to promote agricultural skills, the objective of
which is to spread new production methods in a bid to raise productivity, but must be integrated into a
broader approach and seek to improve living conditions in rural areas by incorporating, among others,
nutrition, health and environmental issues.
These programmes must take account of farmers' genuine training needs, establish an optimum
correlation between agricultural training and productivity and promote agricultural development.
Defined in this way, a training system designed to foster rural development must be more than
functional. It must be conceived as a way to help the community; above and beyond vocational goals
(acquiring or building up skills), its purpose is to develop community life. The challenge is no longer
to promote practical knowledge, but to change patterns of behaviour (developing the capacity to take
the initiative or to assume responsibility).
The action programmes that could be implemented to support this approach should include:
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helping to increase incomes by developing community-oriented schemes (such as the construction
of service roads, water-retention dams and silos);
developing cooperatives for processing, marketing and transporting harvested crops from
producers to consumers;
helping individual peasant farmers to organise into producers’ associations and providing them
with training and assistance.
Each of these action programmes would be translated into small-scale projects of various kinds that
would support the policy of rural self-development. Initiatives to support self-employment require
more focus on organising, encouraging and motivating the individual stakeholders than on financial
investment.
2.5
Developing the female workforce
Any policy of promoting employment for sustainable human development must include the
organisation of female labour, which accounts for a particularly large part of the workforce in
agriculture, trade, crafts and manufacturing. It should focus on:
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encouraging specific initiatives aimed at providing women with basic skills for managing and
running businesses;
supporting initiatives to set up cooperatives in the production, processing and marketing sectors
and extending them more widely;
promoting savings and credit groups, which underpin economic activity for women, who are
often barred from banking circuits by the absence of trade registers.
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-62.6
Linking the various branches of education with work and non-formal education
Initiatives could focus on promoting integration and rural development, and might include craft
production at school, integrated agricultural training, and coordinating training, research, measures to
promote agricultural skills and financial support for setting up businesses.
With respect to girls, the integration of formal and non-formal education might help girls in general
and marginalised groups in particular to access vocational training. This would take the form of a
partnership between technical and vocational training establishments, women’s NGOs, local
communities and enterprises, the aim being to create a favourable environment and to tailor teaching
methods to the needs of the target groups.
2.7
Introduction of an integrated technical education and vocational training policy
The adaptation of the technical education system should aim to:
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2.8
ensure more effective flow regulation and restructure the various subject areas around a small
number of vocational fields, broad enough not to be affected strongly by the changing economic
situation. To this end, technical education will have to be brought back to its original function, i.e.
job-related training for skilled workers and technicians, and cease to be used as a fall-back for
some students on lengthier courses of general education;
improve the way the system is piloted by establishing a link with the mechanisms for monitoring
the labour market;
strengthen the link between education and employment by establishing closer relations between
schools and skilled workers;
ensure that initial and continuing vocational training are better coordinated, by involving
enterprises;
establish collaboration between the various players.
Adapting higher education to employment
The tasks and place of higher education need to be redefined. This will involve:
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2.9
restructuring training provision to take account of the potential development of the economy;
reorganising training along modular lines;
developing regional cooperation in the area of higher education;
promoting self-employment;
developing partnerships between universities and industry.
Redefining teacher training
The most common form of teacher training is a three-stage course: initial training, initiation and
ongoing training. Given the urgent need to train more teachers, some countries emphasise initial
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-7training while the other two stages continue to be underdeveloped. Other countries, owing to
economic difficulties, recruit teachers who have no initial training.
In the majority of cases, initial training courses are overly theoretical and distant from reality. If the
three stages are viewed as components in an ongoing process of career development, it becomes
possible to shift part of the content of the initial stage to subsequent stages where it might be more
relevant to teachers and have a stronger impact on their teaching. The initial stage could thus be
abbreviated, focusing more on the practical skills needed for the classroom, provided recruitment
procedures were made more rigorous.
2.10
Implementing a comprehensive strategy to combat HIV/AIDS
Programmes to combat HIV/AIDS must go beyond awareness-raising and prevention campaigns for
workers. They must also cover free access to care and specific education initiatives. Non-formal and
traditional programmes, involving communities, should be considered for children who leave the
school system early and for vulnerable groups.
CONCLUSION
The major challenges in relation to preparing tomorrow’s labour force, supporting economic and
social development and facilitating young people’s integration into the job market are very complex,
being set in an environment characterised both by a large informal sector, which provides income
earning possibilities for a large proportion of the population in developing countries, and by the
spreading HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Against a background of self-employment, it is difficult to make employment creation estimates for
either the modern or the informal sectors of the economy. Consequently, far from being effective
responses, the various strategies proposed to meet these challenges are mere palliatives in the face of
the crisis in the development of human resources.
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