Activation Policies for the Poor in OIC Member States
36
market requirements in order to tailor training. Since being implemented, the Taehil programme has
supported over 50,000 jobseekers to find work. Half of the beneficiaries are unemployed graduates
who are unlikely to be the poorest jobseekers. There also does not seem to be any evidence available
assessing the programme’s impact on poverty alleviation.
Low income Member States
Education enrolment in low income countries is less likely to be as high as richer Member States and
the focus for these countries therefore tends to be on improving basic skills such as literacy. Having
said this, there is significant variation between low income Member States in terms of education
enrolment. The provision of free primary education has tended to increase enrolment and literacy
rates considerably in the countries which have implemented it. However, the improvement of
literacy rates for some OIC Member States remains an area of focus and the challenge is therefore to
address basic skills needs whilst also making provision for those who are able to pursue training at a
higher level.
Afghanistan is an example of a Member State which faces this challenge. For example, in 2011,
Afghanistan had a female literacy rate among 15 to 24 year olds of only 32 percent.60 Several literacy
programmes have been implemented to improve literacy rates, including the Programme for
Enhancement of Literacy in Afghanistan (ELA). The national programme uses donor funding to
deliver education and delivery has been gradually expanded since the programme’s inception in
2008. 30 of the country’s 34 provinces are expected to benefit from the programme by 2015.61 The
government aims to increase adult literacy rates to 60 percent by 2020.62 In terms of skills training
to improve employability, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labor, Social
Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled, supported by the Wold Bank, launched the Afghanistan Skills
Development Project (ASDP) to increase the number of immediately employable graduates. A key
focus of this has been on improving the Technical Vocational Education & Training (TVET) available
in the country. The programme was introduced in 2008 and closed in June 2014. Overall financing
for the project stood at $38 million.
2.2.3 Job creation
As described earlier in this section, developing economies face the challenge of creating jobs as more
modern, and less labour intensive, sectors are prioritised. Countries also face the challenge of
ensuring that the new jobs created provide quality employment, avoiding working poverty and the
vulnerable employment associated with surplus labour from shrinking agricultural sectors
transferring to informal sectors.
High income Member States
The OIC’s high income Member States (and some middle income Member States) face labour market
distortions such as preferences by workers to work in certain sectors. Workers in the OIC’s high
income Member States for example have a preference to work in the public sector, which is often
better paid, on average, than the private sector and is associated with fewer working hours than the
private sector. This leads to many private sector jobs being filled by foreign workers. Rather, these
countries face the challenge of creating jobs for citizens of their countries, and not foreign nationals.
The healthier economies of these countries mean that jobs are available, but positions created
during periods of high growth tend to be filled by foreign nationals.63 Policies of ‘Saudization’,
‘Kuwaitization’, and ‘Omanization’ have therefore been pursued.64 These policies are not those
60 World Bank data, available at:
61 UNESCO, Enhancement of Literacy in Afghanistan (ELA) program, available at:
62 Ministry of Education, The Programme for Enhancement of Literacy in Afghanistan, available at:
programme-for-enhancement-of-literacy-in-afghanistan-ela
63 Hertog, S. (2013)
64 Ibid