Vanuatu (ILO News) - The Government of Vanuatu, with employers’ and workers’ organisations as well as civil society are working together on the development of a National Employment Policy, a crucial step towards creating a more resilient and inclusive economy in the country.
Under the leadership of Vanuatu’s Department of Labour and Employment Services and with the support of the International Labour Organization (ILO), a one-day workshop held in 2023 involved stakeholders discussing priorities for the policy and identifying sectors for national economic development and job creation.
The National Employment Policy will aim to address issues such as skills development, labour market information and analysis systems, and social protection, with a view to boosting job creation in key economic sectors including agriculture, construction and tourism.
“The development of the National Employment Policy is a crucial step towards creating a more resilient and inclusive economy for Vanuatu. The policy will be guided by the principles of sustainability, inclusiveness, and equity, with the goal of creating decent work opportunities for all Vanuatuans,” said Christian Viegelahn, Employment Specialist at the ILO Office for Pacific Island Countries.
The workshop was funded by the joint programme “Advancing the SDGs by Improving livelihoods and resilience via economic diversification and digital transformation” which brings together the ILO, ITU, UNESCO, OHCHR, UNODC, and UNOPS to support SDG acceleration fostering economic diversification and digital transformation in Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. The joint programme leverages the agencies’ complementary sets of expertise to design policies for a job-rich recovery, promote entrepreneurship in strategic sectors, foster the transition to formality for resilient labour markets, and strengthen access to digital services, and skills for community resilience.
Originally published by ILO
Note:
All joint programs of the Joint SDG Fund are led by UN Resident Coordinators and implemented by the agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations development system. With sincere appreciation for the contributions from the European Union and Governments of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and our private sector funding partners, for a transformative movement towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.
