Page 90 - 40th Summit Brochure 2020

• To strengthen labour migration policies Member States, female un-
and regulatory systems for better labour employment rates are
migration governance; higher than males. In addi-
• To protect migrant workers’ rights and im- tion, the nature of employ-
prove advocacy and awareness of their ment across the region is
contribution to development and regional dominated by informality and a
integration; high degree of underemployment.
• To enhance the participation of migrant As a result, about half of all youth are con-
workers in socio-economic development sidered to be working poor, with their em-
processes in countries of origin and des- ployment in the informal employment
tination. encompassing a wide array of activities, that
It is envisaged that implementation of the mostly include subsistence and survivalist ac-
adopted policy instrument, through a multi- tivities.
sectoral approach, will contribute to the pro- As a follow up to the SADC youth labour
tection of labour migrants’ rights and give markets analysis, the SADC Secretariat is fa-
them an opportunity to make a greater devel- cilitating the development of interventions to
opmental impact on both countries of origin promote youth’s active and productive partic-
and destination. ipation in social, economic and political de-
T e Ministers of Employment and velopment processes in the region.
Labour and Social Partners have also adopted T e Secretariat is also working with the
the SADC Guidelines on Portability of Social International Labour Organisation towards a
Security Benef ts to ensure that workers mov- youth employment project to increase the
ing within the SADC region maintain social proportion of young men and women in de-
security rights and benef ts which they have cent employment across the SADC region.
acquired under the jurisdiction of dif erent T erefore, in the 2020/21 f nancial year,
Member States, including pension benef ts the Secretariat will facilitate the adoption a
and occupational injury and diseases benef ts. SADC Youth Programme by the Member
The guidelines also seek to facilitate mu- States to guide youth development across all
tual administrative assistance between so- sectors in a coordinated manner. 87
cial security authorities in two or more
countries. Following adoption of the Guide-
lines in March 2020, f ve Member States EDUCATION AND SKILLS
(Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa DEVELOPMENT
and Zimbabwe) committed to pilot their
implementation through bilateral arrange- Increase access to quality and relevant edu-
ments. A positive aspect in the implemen- cation and skills for industrial development
tation of the Guidelines will be the extension and other areas for social and economic in-
of social security coverage to migrant work- tegration and development.
ers on an equal basis with nationals, in line
with the SADC Protocol on Employment SADC Qualif cation Framework
and Labour of 2014. To accelerate the implementation of the
Addis Convention on the recognition of
SADC Youth Employment Promotion studies, certif cates, diplomas, degrees and
Policy Framework and Strategic Plan other academic qualif cations in higher ed-
T e SADC Secretariat and the ILO jointly ucation in Africa, the Secretariat developed
conducted an analysis of the youth labour and is implementing the SADC Qualif ca-
markets in the region, which revealed that tions Framework (SADC QF) to promote
the average youth unemployment rate in the regional integration by harmonising educa-
SADC region is approximately 12 percent,
higher than the 8 percent average for older
persons.
Adding to the concern about youth un-
employment is the high proportion of youth
not in employment, education or training
(NEET), in excess of 25 percent across several
SADC countries and even higher for females.
Notably, the ratio of female to male youth un-
employment rates show that in 10 of the 16