Focus on Youth Employment

The transitional Congolese government and the international community are making major investments in basic infrastructure in rural and urban areas, while at the same time placing great priority on job creation to support a transition to peace and a newly elected democratic government. This political will for employment creation is demonstrated by the creation of an Employment-Investment policy unit funded under national debt relief budget allocated to the National Employment Creation Programme, which itself was developed with ILO support. Youth employment is a particular concern, as the Head of State wrote in 1995 to the UN volunteering the DRC as one of the lead countries in the Secretary-General’s Youth Employment Network.

Activities on Operational and Policy Level

In May 2006, in advance of the first democratic elections to take place in over forty years, the ILO undertook an exploratory mission on job creation and infrastructure development. As a result there is a strong consensus amongst government departments and donors on the need for a support for integrating employment and labour-based approaches into infrastructure development. At the policy level, this programme will support a newly created inter ministerial employment-investment policy unit to assess and monitor employment impact of investment programmes. On an operational level, the ILO support programme would link up to major infrastructure investments providing added value by training small contractors and community contracting associations in labour-based approaches and help integrate ex combatants and urban and rural youth into productive employment.