Activation Policies for the Poor in OIC Member States
17
monitoring, either by the PES or another agency, seeking information on job search activities and
confirmation of unemployment status.
Regular face-to-face contact with an employment counsellor, personal adviser or case manager is an
important determinant of system effectiveness. Such staff can check on job search, refer to vacancies,
raise awareness of job search techniques, improve motivation and self-confidence and, where
necessary, refer a claimant to a ‘menu’ of support, from short focused interventions, through to
mandatory participation in longer duration skills or employment programmes.
However, there are some potentially negative impacts of activation measures if strategies are either
poorly designed or implemented:
 Increased flows to ‘inactive’ benefits (where they exist)
 Deterrence of unemployed people from support because of excessively strict conditions
 Detachment of long-term unemployed people from job seeking because of programme
design
 Poor return on investment because of low labour market impacts
The impact that activation strategies have will be shaped by the interactions between different
aspects of the strategies. Several studies have shown how unemployment and welfare caseloads
have been shaped (and in large part explained for some groups of people) by interactions between:
 Benefit entitlements
 Activation requirements
 Administrative structures
 Labour market institutions
Immervoll and Scarpetta8, for example, argue that ‘an effective policy strategy rests on a finely tuned
balance between income support, work incentives, as well as mutual obligations and active labour
market programmes.’ Their review highlighted some important dimensions of activation strategies:
 Financial work incentives
 Eligibility criteria and obligations of job seekers
Their main contention is that the effectiveness of activation strategies relies on how these different
dimensions interact. As such, strategies need to be seen as a ‘package of policy tools’ which, if well
designed, can have a demonstrable impact on the employment outcomes. This impact can be
strengthened if the individual policies are part of a coherent strategy and can be tailored as close as
possible to the needs of different beneficiaries. However, an important caveat is that activation
strategies can require significant resources and a well-resourced PES that can co-ordinate effectively
with other relevant services (such as health, education and social services).
Although activation strategies are targeted at the poor and the people at risk of poverty to one extent
or another, there are some important distinctions that are made between different groups of people.
This is because within the target group, some individuals will have characteristics which mean they
may be considered more vulnerable and require more support to move into employment. These
characteristics may lead to different activation measures being used to support individuals within
the broader target group of disadvantaged people. Characteristics which may lead to different forms
of support include:
8 Herwig Immervoll and Stefano Scarpetta, ‘Activation and employment support policies in
OECD countries. An overview of current approaches’, IZA Journal of Labour Policy, 2012