Materials of Workshop on Addressing the informal economy from a bottom up perspective - June 2012
Background of the workshop
In 2009, two Calls for Proposals were launched targeting actions in the informal economy: (i) Developing technical and vocational education and training (TVET) methodologies and services for the informal economy[1], and (ii) Support for social inclusion and social protection of workers in the informal economy and of vulnerable groups at community level[2]. A total of 33 projects have been selected and contracted in 2010 and 2011.
The objectives of the calls for proposals were to develop sustainable initiatives to strengthen employment, skills development, and social protection for workers in the informal economy and/or vulnerable groups. The logic behind the calls for proposals was to use a bottom-up approach to link actions in the informal economy with the broader context, for example through (i) strengthening links between actions in the informal economy and formal institutions, (ii) encouraging partnerships between non-state actors and government at local and national level, (iii) supporting scaling up of actions, and (iv) exchanging of best practices of actions targeting the informal economy.
The European Commission is considering launching a set of new actions targeting the informal economy within the 2013 Annual Action Programme (AAP) of Investing in People.In view of this, the Commission has decided to carry out an evaluation exercise to better identify the way to focus the new call and the impact of the programme along two priorities: alleviate vulnerability in the informal economy and boosting the multiplier effect of the future projects.
As the projects under the current call are still in progress it has been decided to bring the implementing partners together in a workshop.
Objective of the workshop
The primary objective of which will be to take stock of what has already been accomplished as a basis to discuss the best way of improving the activities of the future projects along the lines of 2013 Annual Action Programme (AAP) of Investing in People two priorities. Through the projects implementation, the participants have acquired rich and concrete experiences. It is proposed to draw from these concrete and specific experiences more general conclusions on how to broaden the scale of projects’ intended impacts in order to have a more significant effect on the development of the targeted countries.
In addition the workshop intends to provide the project managers with guidance and advice aiming to improve the intended results of the projects.
Organisation of the workshop
Three main categories of activities have been identified in the framework of “Investing in People” thematic programme:
- Access: accessibility to the services of the project by the target population,
- Improvement: improvement of the living and working conditions of the target population,
- Empowerment and sustainability: the mid-term and long-term development effect of the projects.
The three core sessions (3, 4 and 6) will be organized around these categories. For each of them, the discussion will have to consider at least two cross-cutting priorities of the thematic programme “Investing in People”, which are: the links between informal and formal employment/economy including the way to alleviate vulnerability in the informal economy and the scaling up of the project outputs.
Keynote speakers interventions will be of a more general nature than the topics of the core sessions and will aim at broadening the discussions. Their presentations will be an opportunity to get updated analysis on development and informal economy.
You can download all the presentations here:
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