Activation Policies for the Poor in OIC Member States
28
enough to determine the success of activation policies and programmes as tools of poverty
alleviation or the state of the labour market. The quality of jobs must also be taken into account.
Providing quality jobs
Poor quality jobs are associated with working poverty (i.e. despite employment, workers remain
poor) and vulnerable employment.27 Where jobs do not pay high enough wages, or are concentrated
in the informal sector, for example, employment is unlikely to support people in moving out of
poverty. Conversely, quality jobs are associated with alleviating poverty for workers and at the
country level. Countries that have invested the most in quality jobs in the early 2000s have grown
almost one percentage point faster in terms of economic growth every year since 2007, compared to
other emerging economies.28
Poor quality jobs are particularly problematic in low income and lower-middle income OIC Member
States in Asia and Africa. These countries are still transitioning from having large agricultural
sectors. Where jobs in agriculture cannot be preserved until enough quality jobs are available in
more modern sectors, workers tend to find work in trade, transport and construction. These sectors
are often associated with vulnerable employment and the informal economy.29 As with vulnerable
employment, workers in the informal economy are at risk of poverty because they do not tend to be
covered by social safety net systems. Large informal economies also lead to difficulties in gathering
an accurate picture of Member States’ labour markets.
North African countries, which are in the lower-middle and upper-middle income categories of OIC
Member States, are notable because of the particular challenge they face in providing quality jobs for
young people. Youth unemployment has become a problem since 1980, as economic growth has
slowed, employment elasticity of growth has shrunk and the young population has expanded.30 The
recent political developments have also heavily affected the region’s economic development. 31 OIC
Member States in the North African region stand out from other OIC Member States because the
challenge they face in creating quality jobs is in terms of employment for young people, but
particularly the well-educated young. In Tunisia and Egypt, for example, young graduates have
either accepted longer waiting periods or entered informal self-employment.32 Reports on youth
unemployment in North Africa have highlighted that the trend can be attributed to graduates lacking
the skills sought by employers, as well as perception that employment in the public sector is
preferable to the private sector. These issues are therefore considered later in this study. The
challenge of youth unemployment also needs be considered by low income OIC Member States as
their economies develop. As their younger population becomes better educated than ever before,
they too face the challenge of providing suitable jobs for the educated young.
The ILO has recommended using different tools to measure progress in improving the quality of
jobs. This includes using measures such as working poverty rates, the share of informal employment
in total employment and low pay rates. The ILO has also developed Decent Work Country
Programmes (DWCPs) in 26 OIC Member States to support the development of quality jobs as part of
national development strategies.33
Other factors relating to quality of work, and which require consideration by OIC Member States to
ensure the quality of available jobs, include:
27 ILO (2010) Vulnerable employment and poverty on the rise, interview with ILO chief of Employment Trends Unit, Global
Employment Trends, ILO
28 Ibid
29 Asian Development Bank (2014) ASEAN Community 2014: Managing integration for better jobs and shared prosperity, ADB
ILO (2014)
30 African Development Bank (2012) Jobs, Justice and the Arab Spring: inclusive growth in North Africa, AfDB
31 AfDB, OECD, UNDP (2014) African Economic Outlook 2014: global value chains and Africa’s industrialisation, AfDB, OECD, UNDP
32 AfDB (2012)
33 ILO, available at accessed 20th November 2014].