Activation Policies for the Poor in OIC Member States

from establishing themselves and creating jobs, thereby attracting workers, but workers who may

want to set up their businesses struggle to do so. This is particularly true for young would be

entrepreneurs as they tend to have fewer connections and be less valued as financial clients in order

to access capital.

In response to this challenge, organisations across North Africa have begun

promoting entrepreneurship and particularly youth entrepreneurship, such as Education for

Employment, Maghreb Enterprise Development Initiative, and ATUPEE.

Whereas the key issue highlighted in the literature for the unattractiveness of the private sector in

North Africa, i.e. lower-middle and upper-middle income OIC Member States, relates to the

regulatory environment constraining the jobs available, in high income OIC Member States, the issue

is the unattractiveness of the private sector compared to the public sector. The trend of needing to

promote private sector employment therefore spans both the supply and demand sides of labour

market policies. In Qatar, for example, public sector workers can expect to earn considerably more

than private sector workers. According to the 2009 Qatar Labor Force Survey, average monthly

wages for workers in the civil service were US$4,018 compared to just US$1,481 for workers in the

private sector.

Foreign workers outnumber Qatari workers heavily. The most recent Qatar Labor

Force survey shows that there are 1.5million Non-Qatari workers in the gulf state, compared to less

than 100,000 Qatari workers.

The large number of foreign workers, and Qataris’ preference to

work in the public sector means that the private sector is dominated by Non-Qatari workers.

In lower-middle and low income Member States, governments are also pursuing policies to

contribute to private sector employment. This is because these Member States tend to have the

youngest populations and therefore need the availability of jobs to keep up with population growth.

The promotion of entrepreneurship is a job creation activation tool being pursued by several

countries and will be reviewed in more detail in our case studies.

This section has aimed to provide a broad overview of some of the key challenges faced by OIC

Member States and the trends that can be observed in alleviating poverty through employment. This

is not an exhaustive list. Limited infrastructure, lack of care for dependants, and health issues are

just some of the other challenges OIC Member States will face in developing activation policies and

programmes. Specific challenges will also arise if activation is targeted at supporting certain

members of the population, such as people with disabilities. It is clear from the trends discussed

above that they are interlinked. Therefore, in order to alleviate poverty through the use of activation,

policies and programmes cannot be based on a quick fix solution that does not address the

complexity of the labour market and economies in OIC Member States. This is explained further in

the following two sections.

2.2

Activation policies and programmes implemented

As previously set out, three key activation tools are under consideration: Job search support,

Training and Job creation.

The types of activation tools implemented in OIC Member States differ according to their labour

markets and the resources available. Upper-middle and high income countries, for example, have

greater ability to focus on job creation in the long-term. Low and lower-middle income countries, on

the other hand, must balance long-term growth with short-term measures to address immediate

need.

With regards to training, low income countries must combine training to provide basic skills such as

literacy, with skills to promote employability. Upper-middle and high income countries, on the other

hand, focus on providing workers with the skills required to work in high skilled sectors. Most

Institute for Integrated Transitions (2013),

Inside the Transition Bubble: international expert assistance in Tunisia

, IFIT

Hertog, S. (2013), The private sector and reform in the Gulf Cooperation Council, LSE

Qatar Statistics Authority, Quarterly Labor Force Survey (July-September 2014)