Designing Public Employment Programmes (PEPs)

This course will discuss policy and design features of PEPs that take into account these challenges and will share current experiences on how these programme have been used to respond to the current crises. This will include experiences from both high, middle and low-income countries and will provide tools for enabling effective programme design, to achieve the multiple objectives. OBJECTIVES By following the course, you can expect to: 1. Get an overview of how these programmes have been used for economic recovery over history; 2. Gain an understanding of the role of PEPs in achieving full employment and decent work, as well as some of the key policy dilemmas and trade-offs encountered in the use of PEPs; 3. Get familiarized with several tools for effective public programme design and implementation and assessment; 4. Acquire insights into the expansion of PEP activities into: – Green works including the use Nature –based Solutions for Disaster Risk reduction as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation. – The care economy, including community based care and early childhood development. 5. Acquire knowledge of innovations and best practices of PEPs for decent work creation; including – Getting exposure to operational and work organization methodologies and capacity building approaches; – Learning from several countries’ experiences and good practices. CONTENT The course covers the following six topics: Theme 1: Key concepts: Right to work, full employment, and employment guarantees This module will introduce the key concepts that underpin the rationale for Public Employment Programmes, in particular in times of crisis and increasing unemployment and underemployment. It will highlight their role in achieving full employment and providing a rights-based approach to employment. The module will also include discussions on PEPs and their role in fulfilling the social contract and how this may shift in a rapidly changing world of work. Theme 2: Essential characteristics and design of PEPS In this module, the defining characteristics of PEPs will be discussed. Tools for the design and assessment of these programmes developed by the ILO and with other agencies will be introduced. It will also include a case study on how PEPs have been used to respond to the COVID crisis in South Africa. Theme 3: PEPs creating employment in different sectors PEPs can implement different work activities including environmental, social and infrastructure works. “Green” activities include the use of nature-based solutions for hybrid infrastructure, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and ecosystem restoration. Social works tend to focus on the care economy. This module will focus on how PEPs can assist in both improving coverage and standards in the sector, while infrastructure can include a wide range of construction and maintenance activities. This module will include several country case studies. Theme 4: PEPs and decent work PEPs often operate in difficult contexts with large decent work deficits and thus it is important that these programmes incorporate measures to ensure the safeguard of minimum standards and conditions of work. This module will provide guidance on amongst others wage setting, appropriate conditions of work, occupational health and safety, and measures to target vulnerable groups that face challenges accessing the labour market. This module will include several country case studies. Theme 5: PEPs in relation to investment, employment and social policy PEPs generally have employment, social and investment related objectives. As such their alignment and integration with public investment, skills, social protection and active labour market policies are particular important. This module will delve into the areas of overlap and intersection and identify areas of both synergies and trade-offs. Theme 6: Critical operational issues This module will be focused on key operational issues that can be particularly challenging in PEPs, including contracting workers and making payments, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of PEPs and inclusion of workers and communities in decision making and accountability. The module will also highlight how recent technologies such as mobile recruitment and reporting systems can be used to improve operations. NUMBER OF WEEKS: 4 weeks