Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1992, published 79th ILC session (1992)

The Committee has taken note with interest of the information supplied by the Government in response to its previous comments. It would be grateful if the Government would include in its next report additional information on the following points:

1. The Committee notes the results of the National Manpower Survey of 1987-88 which provided information only for establishments of more than five employees. It observes in particular that the informal sector employed two-and-a-half times as many workers as the formal sector, in which two-thirds were employed in the Civil Service. According to the Government, these figures reveal the acuteness and urgency of the problem of unemployment among young people, particularly school-leavers, and women. The Committee notes with interest that, following the recommendations of the ILO Multidisciplinary Advisory Mission of 1988, a structure has been created within the Labour Department to establish a labour market information system. The structure in question is not yet in possession of the necessary resources for an efficient collection of information on the whole of the formal and informal sectors, but it should gradually become able to cover activities in the rural areas. The Committee notes that, according to the Government, a knowledge of trends in supply and demand on the labour market is a prerequisite for the formulation of an employment policy consistent with the priority economic and social objectives; it asks the Government to continue supplying information on the measures taken to collect and analyse the relevant statistical data and the results achieved in that respect.

2. The Committee notes that a programme document entitled "The Way Forward III 1991-1995, Human Resources and Employment Strategy" is being prepared; it invites the Government to supply a copy of this document as soon as it is available or to describe the objectives set and the measures planned for attaining them. In this connection please refer to the questions raised in the report form under Article 1 of the Convention, according to whatever is relevant to national conditions.

3. The Government states that, following the ILO Advisory Mission, it undertook to reactivate the Employment Service network. Please supply information on the progress made in that respect. The Government states further that the commission set up to review the education system has recommended in its report the vocationalisation of the whole education system. Please supply a copy of that report.

4. The Committee notes that according to the Government the informal sector has a great potential for absorbing the increasing number of unemployed young people. It points out in this connection that the provisions of Part V of Recommendation No. 169 contain some useful indications concerning the principles that should guide employment policy in relation to the informal sector.

5. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes with interest that the Labour Advisory Board was reconstituted in 1990 and that the Government is considering setting up a tripartite national coordinating committee. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply indications as to the way representatives of the persons affected by the measures to be taken are consulted concerning employment policies in accordance with Article 3 of the Convention. The Committee points out in that connection that the representatives of the persons concerned may include, in addition to representatives of employers' and workers' organisations, representatives of other sectors of the economically active population such as persons employed in the rural and the informal sector.

6. The Committee has been informed of the execution of several ILO technical cooperation projects concerning in particular support for the programme of labour-intensive activities. With reference to its previous comments, it trusts that the Government will indicate, as requested in Part V of the report form, the action taken or contemplated as a result of the assistance and advice received under ILO technical cooperation projects and any factors which may have prevented or delayed such action.