The Centre, in collaboration with the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR), organised a workshop on “The First Meeting on Public Employment Services in OIC Member Countries”, on 29-30 April 2014, at SESRIC Headquarters in Ankara, Republic of Turkey.

The Meeting brought together heads of Public Employment Authorities of the OIC Member Countries, as well as directors and senior experts from different ministries of 17 OIC Member Countries, namely, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Egypt, Gambia, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Sudan, Togo and Turkey in order to provide an opportunity for the relevant institutions and administrations to introduce current state, challenges and improvements of Public Employment Services in their respective countries. The OIC General Secretariat was also represented at the workshop alongside other international institutions operating in the field of employment, namely International Labour Organisation (ILO) and World Bank (WB).

The Meeting commenced with recitation from the Holy Quran, followed by welcome addresses by Dr. Nusret Yazıcı, General Manager of İŞKUR, Mr. Sobir Komilov, Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Country Gateway Office Representative in Turkey, On behalf of His Excellency Iyad Ameen Madani, Secretary General of OIC, Mr. Naghi Jabbarov, Professional Officer at Economic Affairs Department and Prof. Savaş Alpay, Director General of SESRIC.

Dr. Nusret Yazıcı, General Manager of Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR), welcomed the representatives of the OIC member countries and underlined that after the 2008 global crisis, due to the developments in labour market and working life on the international level, cooperation among countries has become a must other than an option. In this regard, an international network among Public Employment Services in Islamic Countries will be the arena of practice sharing and developing new policies to be shared for a better future for all.

Prof. Savaş Alpay, Director General of SESRIC, indicated in his address that the recent global economic and financial crisis was severe by any metric and left long-lasting harm on real economies in terms of output contractions, large deficits and high unemployment rates. Prof. Alpay stressed that in OIC Member Countries major causes of the unemployment are associated with, among many others, insufficient job creations, skills mismatch, lower productivity, macroeconomic instability, conflict and political instability. Prof. Alpay also stated that reducing the unemployment rates in OIC Member Countries may well take innovative approaches to support their decision making, improving the methods of accumulation and dissemination of information on available jobs through developing a nationwide integrated database of jobs, employers, and available employees.

In his message H.E. Iyad Ameen Madani, Secretary General of OIC, expressed his special thanks to the Turkish Employment Agency and the SESRIC for the excellent arrangements made for this meeting and for the generous hospitality extended to all participants. The message of Mr. Madani expressed the importance of the meeting to address the critical unemployment situation in OIC Member Countries; particularly among the youth population with the statistics of unemployment in OIC Member States is as high as 15-20%, compared to the global range of 6-7%. The Secretary General also included in his message that the network to be established at this meeting would also add to the existing network under SESRIC, namely the OIC Occupational Safety and Health Network (OIC-OSHNET), which is aimed at creating closer cooperation for sharing and exchanging knowledge and experience, and to conduct joint research projects and training programmes among the relevant institutions in the area of Occupational Safety and Health in OIC Member States. The message of the Secretary General secured the determined support of the OIC General Secretariat to the prospective network.

During the meeting, the representatives of Public Employment Authorities shared information about the policies and strategies, as well as past and continuing programs and projects of their institutions in addressing one or more of the challenges of the unemployment in their respective countries. They also brainstormed during breakout sessions in order to construct views and ideas for tangible and practical proposals on means and ways of potential collaboration among public employment authorities for sharing knowledge & experience and joint action for enhanced public employment services.

Participants exposed strong aspiration in the establishment of a network among relevant institutions of OIC member countries to ensure exchange of experiences and best practices of public employment services, with the purpose of promoting better employment policies and development of skilled and competitive labour forces. In this regard, they agreed to establish the OIC Public Employment Services Network (OIC-PESNET) as one of the means to contribute to the achievement of the aspirations of the OIC Framework for Cooperation on Labor, Employment and Social Protection.

The Centre was requested by the participants of the Meeting to undertake the role of the Secretariat of the OIC-PESNET to represent, publicize and raise awareness in both OIC and international level, and to develop an OIC-PESNET Portal to facilitate knowledge sharing. In this regard, the Centre was further requested to prepare analytical reports that provides detailed account of labour market conditions in OIC countries in order to be able to identify and assess the fundamental problems and challenges in the labour markets of OIC countries, highlighting practical approaches that are regarded to be crucial in supporting and enhancing employment opportunities in order to reduce unemployment and avoiding impairment of the skill endowment of labour force.

The Meeting also agreed to convene the Meeting of the OIC-PESNET on an annual basis and to adopt a Final Communiqué at the end of each Meeting which shall stipulate the consensus, common views, decisions and recommendations of the members of the Network.

Documents

• Agenda and Programme (English)
• Participants List (English)
• Final Communique (English)
• Report on Labour Market Structure, Unemployment and the Role of VET in OIC Countries (English)

Statements

• Opening Statement of Prof. Savaş Alpay, Director General, SESRIC (English)
• Opening Statement of Dr. Nusret Yazıcı, General Manager, İŞKUR (English)
• Opening Statement of H.E. Iyad Ameen Madani, Secretary General, OIC (English)

Presentations

• Labour Market Structure and Unemployment in OIC Countries (SESRIC) (English)
• Activities and Best Practices (İŞKUR) (English)
• La Politique Nationale De Promotion De L’emploi (Algeria) (French)
• State Employment Service (Azerbaijan) (English)
• The Situation of the Job Market and Attempts of Solutions (Cameroon) (English)
• Labour Market Structure (Egypt) (Arabic)
• The Role Vision of Personnel Management Office in Civil Service (Gambia) (English)
• Public Employment Services (Indonesia) (English)
• Employment Situation (Maldives) (English)
• National Agency for Employment (Mali) (French)
• National Agency for the Promotion of Youth Employment (Mauritania) (Arabic)
• Agence Nationale de Promotion de L'emploi et des Compétences (Morocco) (French)
• Ressume Executif De La Politique De L’emploi (Pne) Et De Son Plan D’action Operationnel (Togo)  (French)

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