By Nasratu Kargbo
The Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Vanessa Phala has on behalf of the institution committed to creating one thousand decent jobs for Sierra Leonean citizens under the ILO’s ‘Opportunity Salone’ project.
The four-year project which is funded by the European Union (EU) will be implemented in Kenema, Bombali, Bo, and Port Loko districts. Eight million euros is set aside for the implementation of the project according to the officials.
Phala on the 17th May 2023 stated that the jobs when created will benefit women, youths and persons with disabilities, noting that under the value chain aspect of the project, they’ve been able to provide three hundred decent jobs as of the time of her speech.
She said the project ‘Opportunity Salone’ is geared towards establishing a vibrant and resilient economy and ensuring they deliver a decent workforce and decent opportunities for Sierra Leoneans.
Defining what a decent job is, the Director said that a decent job is one in which a worker has fundamental rights, assured of occupation, health and safety and access to social dialogue to engage on issues and matters that concern them. She added that the one thousand jobs they’ve promised to create should meet the criteria of a decent job.
She stated that on the 25th of this month, they will be launching the ‘decent work country programme’, according to Phala, this is a programme where they facilitate the provision of technical and financial support.
Phala said they also commit to training Sierra Leoneans “Our commitment is to train one thousand five hundred women, youth and persons with disabilities by the end of 2023, and three thousand by the end of the project. I am happy that so far we’ve trained about six hundred people on road maintenance last year” said the Director.
She noted that the project is a labour-based intervention; therefore, they have supported the training of seven hundred and twenty women and men on routine feeder road maintenance, stating that 40% of the trainees are women.
The Director said in a bid to provide decent jobs, they have provided business and contract management to twenty-eight small contractors in the country. Stressing its relevance, the director explained that they are supporting and building local persons to have decent jobs and make meaningful contributions to the country’s economic growth.
The Chief Technical Adviser (CTA) at ILO Tonderai Manoto explained that they will partner with the private sector whose employees have jobs but are not decent. He stated that “We will go in and train and make the jobs decent and we will call them improved jobs”.
Responding to a question on the types of jobs they will be creating, Manoto explained that jobs come in different forms. He cited that a group of women in Kenema had told them that they buy their garri in Bo, adding that by the time the product is transported to Kenema, the price of the product becomes expensive and proposed that they would like to process their garri for themselves and sell it.
He further explained that the group that is made up of twenty-one women was part of the village savings and loan scheme, adding that five of the women were able to contribute whilst the others had difficulty in doing so. Manoto said when they established the factory; those who had challenges in contributing became employees. He added that they earn a wage and can now contribute to the scheme.
Explaining what a decent job is, he said if an employee gets sick for five days and upon his/her recovery and returns to work and the job is taken, such a job is not considered to be decent. He mentioned health safety, being paid the minimum wage etc. among the criteria that meet the standards of a decent job.
The ILO signed individual implementation agreements with the following institutions: Sierra Leone Local Content Agency, Sierra Leone Chamber of Agribusiness Development (SLeCAD), Apex Bank and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDA) in order to create decent jobs.
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