Activation Policies for the Poor in OIC Member States
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to provide emergency support when it is most needed. However, the scheme will provide long-term
benefits such as the development of infrastructure which could indirectly lead to future job creation.
2.2.4 Summary of activation tools
Based on the evidence described above, the following general features can be described as being
necessary for the success of activation in alleviating poverty. The features presented here have been
used to inform the development of the recommendations presented later in this report:
 Short-term poverty alleviation can be provided through emergency employment. However, long-
term and sustained poverty alleviation requires a longer term objective, eradicating the need for
emergency employment by supporting workers to make a sectoral shift to sectors less affected by
labour market shocks. This being said, PWPs often contribute to the achievement of long-term
objectives such as infrastructure development.
 The poor must be successfully targeted by employment programmes. The EGPP, for example,
ensures only the poorest take up employment on the programme by paying wages for unskilled
workers below the market rate. Whilst young graduates are the target of youth employment
initiatives in Arabic countries such as Egypt, young graduates who remain unemployed and wait
for opportunities in the public sector are more likely to be those who can rely on their families for
financial support. Consideration must therefore also be given to moving young workers out of
informal employment, as pursued in Albania, as workers with less financial support are more
likely to accept work in this sector.
 The poor must also be successfully targeted by training programmes and policies. This ensures
they are able to take advantage of new employment opportunities.
 The need for successful targeting also extends to job creation. The challenge of jobless growth
illustrates that economic growth is not enough to increase employment and alleviate poverty,
even if poor workers are likely to experience some benefits through the ‘trickle down’ effect. Job
creation in modern sectors is unlikely to alleviate poverty if they are not the sectors with a high
concentration of poor workers. Employment and productivity growth must be created in sectors
with a high concentration of poor workers, usually the agricultural sector, for a strong effect on
poverty alleviation (an objective the AfDB is pursuing in Uganda). Growing, modern sectors can
then be linked to sectors where the majority of labour is concentrated to then manage sectoral
shifts, promoting longer term employment and economic growth.73
 Programmes that have been successful enough to be introduced in other OIC Member States, such
as TEPs in Albania, have fostered relationships between organisations, thereby expanding the
reach of employment services and increasing awareness amongst employers of their role in the
labour market. This could particularly be valuable in countries where the PES is constrained in
the services it can offer due to lack of funding.
73 UN, UN (2005) The centrality of employment to poverty eradication, Report of the Secretary-General