Consultant/ Service Provider Scoping Study for Potential Skills Partnerships on Migration Tender

Procurement Summary

Country : Switzerland

Summary : Consultant/ Service Provider Scoping Study for Potential Skills Partnerships on Migration

Deadline : 26 Feb 2019

Other Information

Notice Type : Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 30787766

Document Ref. No. :

Competition : ICB

Financier : International Labour Organization

Purchaser Ownership : -

Tender Value : Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

Purchaser : INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION
4 route des Morillons CH-1211 Genève 22 Tel: +41 (0) 22 799 6111 Fax: +41 (0) 22 798 8685
Switzerland
Email :kirsch@iloguest.org
URL :https://www.ilo.org/

Tender Details

Tenders are invited for Consultant/ Service Provider Scoping Study for Potential Skills Partnerships on Migration within ECOWAS.

I. Background and Introduction:

In September 2016, Heads of States at the UN General Assembly adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants[1]. The Declaration sought to ensure fair migration for all and strengthen the global governance of migration through the development of a Global Compact for Migration and a Global Compact for Refugees. Subsequently, in 2017-18, a range of intergovernmental consultations occurred for the planned adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 9th of December 2018[2].

The Compact rests on international conventions including the ILO-s standards for promoting decent work and labour migration. To this end, and recognizing the need for a Global Skills Partnership, Objective 18 is dedicated to the issue of investing in skills development and facilitating recognition of skills, qualifications and competences. It calls upon Member States to “Build global skills partnerships amongst countries that strengthen training capacities of national authorities and relevant stakeholders, including the private sector and trade unions, and foster skills development of workers in countries of origin and migrants in countries of destination with a view to preparing trainees for employability in the labour markets of all participating countries” (UNGC, 2018, 25-26).

Therefore, the ILO, in collaboration with the IOM, UNESCO, the IOE and the ITUC, is launching the Global Skills Partnership to support the development of skills partnerships between countries, along migration corridors, and within selected regions through knowledge sharing and technical assistance. Most international cooperation regarding the free movement of people focuses on highly skilled individuals. The Global Skills Partnership will, therefore, pay particular attention to low- and semi-skilled migrants. These migrants, who comprise a large share of migrants on the African continent, face constraints that hinder their mobility in regional labour markets. On the demand side, the lack of recognition of skills can pose barriers to mobility or result in de-skilling. In addition, restrictive immigration possibilities and the lack of work-permits and visas targeting occupations that require low or medium level skills, can curb opportunities for regular migration. The lack of legal protection resulting from unregulated and often temporary employment make semi-skilled and low-skilled workers more vulnerable to exploitation.

The highest incidence of low- and semi-skilled migration within the African continent is found in the West-African, Central African and Sahel region. Sectors such as construction, mining and services, attract semi-skilled migrants most of whom have completed secondary school or vocational education and training. Low skilled migrants with basic or less than basic education predominantly work in agriculture, domestic services or engage in informal cross-border trade.

To ensure the context sensitive design and genuine grounding of the global skills partnership at the country, corridor and regional level, the ILO will conduct two tripartite regional workshops in close collaboration with the respective sub-regional economic communities (RECs) and the Sahel G5 regional organization under the umbrella of its existing SKILL-UP project. The workshops will be conducted in 2019 and take place in (i) Libreville Gabon/ Yaoundé Cameroun in collaboration with the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), and in (ii) Abuja, Nigeria in collaboration with the Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) and the G5 Sahel regional organization. In the workshops, constituents will identify, define and plan for the implementation of tailored interventions to foster skills partnerships between governments, employers- and workers- organizations, training institutions, public employment services or national statistical institutes in countries of origin, destination and transit, considering the institutional framework for migration in selected countries. The workshops will be supported by regional mapping studies (Western Africa and Central Africa respectively) and country mapping studies.

While the African Union (AU) as well as ECOWAS and ECCAS legally provide for the establishment of Free Movement Protocols through their treaties, few have achieved it in reality[3]. Therefore, it is important to take stock of developments on the right of free movement in these regions, capturing principal migration flows and corridors, potential multilateral or bilateral agreements with skills recognition arrangements, relevant national and regional policy frameworks, sectors in focus, national and regional skills development and recognition arrangements, and existing collaborations that could be developed into skills partnerships.

II. Objectives:

In light of these concerns the present sub-regional[4] mapping study covering Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo, shall provide relevant background information on skills systems, migration flows and patterns, existing collaboration on skills anticipation, development and recognition between selected countries, and potential areas for new skills partnerships.

The international external collaborator will prepare one country study (Mauritania - outline of report see Annex I) and the sub-regional mapping report covering ECOWAS and Sahel G5, building on additional country reports prepared by national external collaborators (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo[5]). The external collaborator reviews the country studies to improve quality and coherence.

Moreover, drawing on the findings of the country-study on Mauritania, the international external collaborator will draft an 8-page country brief on Mauritania (outline see Annex II) summarizing key opportunities and challenges of Mauritania-s Skills system.

The international external collaborator will present the findings of the sub-regional mapping study at a sub-regional tripartite workshop in September, and following the discussion, will draft a 5-year implementation plan including an accompanying resource mobilization strategy.

III. Details of the Sub-regional Study: (40 pages)

1. Analysis of existing data on regional labour migration disaggregated by sex, age, level of educational attainment or skill, sector and occupation.

2. Comparative review of occupational sectoral labour supply vs. demand based on the draft country studies received, skills shortages in the selected countries, and sectors in which migrant workers primarily work to address labour demand not met by local labour.

3. Review and assessment of implementation status of existing regional cooperation and frameworks such as the ECOWAS- 2003 convention on the recognition of qualifications and other relevant instruments and the Sahel G5 strategy for the development and security of the G5 Sahel countries.

4. Review of the status of the ECOWAS right of free movement, in particular for technical/vocational skills (i.e. skilled, semi-skilled and low skilled)

5. Assessment of the compatibility of skills identification, anticipation, training qualifications and recognition systems in the selected countries for the identified occupations with a focus on those sectors/occupations for which skill demand exceeds skills supply and for which migrant workers fill the skills/ labour gap.

6. Identification of options for enhancing compatibility of the above systems between the selected countries in the identified occupations.

7. Review of past, existing or planned activities involving two or more governments in the sub-region in the area of technical and vocational education and training, skills anticipation and skills recognition, on the side of national and regional organizations as well as international organizations, such as the ILO, IOM, ICMPD, ECOWAS project “Support to Free Movement of Persons and Migration in West Africa” (2015-2019), and those by other UN agencies or other development partners. This may include initiatives to harmonize the collection of labour market information (in particular regarding skills demand identification and anticipation, to enhance compatibility of training provision and comparability of occupational standards and to enhance compatibility and recognition of skills qualifications between the selected countries.

8. Review of existing collaboration between organizations of workers and/or employers involving two or more countries in the sub-region for example between formal as well as informal sectoral organizations, diaspora communities, employers- and workers organizations in the area of skills and migration

9. Analysis of potential for forging new skills partnerships in the areas of skills anticipation, development, harmonization and recognition, including recommendations as to how regional organizations as well as individual countries could capitalize on existing arrangements to form skills partnerships for safe, orderly and regular labour migration in Western Africa.

IV. Details of the country Study (Mauritania): (25 pages)

The country studies should follow the proposed Table of content as included in Annex I of these ToR.

1. Analysis of existing data on labour migration from and to the country and their spatial distribution within the country (identifying the main host communities) disaggregated by sex, age, level of educational attainment or skill, sector and occupation, and their integration in the national labour market.

2. Analysis of country policies and programmes concerning the access of migrant workers, refugees an

Documents

 Tender Notice