Officials in West and Central Africa are becoming increasingly aware of the need to fight against unemployment and poverty and for job creation. Nevertheless, there are still efforts to be made to ensure the efficiency of job creation policies and strategies, as evidenced by the studies on country objective as well as requests from governments to International Labour Organization (ILO).
Until the early 1990's, the Structural Adjustment Programmes did not address employment concerns. There was a strong conviction that the macro-economic reforms, which aimed at enhancing the role of the private sector, would automatically result in job creation.
These reforms were centred on : institutional reforms, marked by the change in economic doctrines, placing greater emphasis on the economic role of the private sector to the detriment of the public sector ; the reform of the public sector, marked by cuts in expenditures and reduction in public employment. Action taken included the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, reforms of the administration and the public service. These reforms led to job losses in the West and Central African countries.
In many cases, job cuts resulted in social and political crises, thereby increasing the awareness that manifested at the level of both the governments and financial institutions, which are deeply involved in the design of economic reform programmes.
The different countries have thus started to develop employment policies and strategies while pursuing institutional reforms that should liberate the "market forces". The deregulation of the labour markets in the countries concerned constitutes one of the major reform measures.
The mitigated effect of all these measures is the elaboration of new employment strategies, policies and programmes. Generally, job creation policies, strategies and programmes under the pressure of the needs of job seekers are conceived to resolve punctual problems. Yet, the creation of sustainable and quality job requires measures associated with macro-economic policies, particularly public and private investment policies.
Adapted from : Central and West African Sub Regional Follow-up Conference to The World Summit for Social Development, pp. 9-10