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While recognizing the variety of challenges facing individual countries, the common problem identified across the Arab region is that investments in education and training are not yet resulting in satisfactory levels of productive employment. Young people face uncertainty in moving from education into decent work. Enterprises often have trouble finding enough people with the skills they need to be able to expand their business or adopt new technologies. Also, the opportunities for employment growth due to industrial diversification and trade patterns may be jeopardized because skills development systems are not oriented towards preparing the workforce for the labour market of the future.

This paper is structured in two parts. The first part provides an analytical review of main skills and employability challenges and recent trends which relate to existing conditions prior to the crisis. The second part relates specifically to the impact of the crisis on the issue of skills and employability and it will attempt to identify solutions such as avoiding job losses supporting enterprises and workers in adjustment.

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This paper seeks to shed light on the current challenges faced by eight selected sub-Saharan African countries, namely Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, in achieving the integration of women into the labour market through education and training. In almost all these countries, except Sierra Leone, women are less likely to be employed than men. Moreover, most employed women have insecure, low-paying, and informal jobs. In addition, women performing these jobs are hardly protected against job losses. The lack of protection is also apparent in times of illness and when they are ageing. More women are concentrated in occupations and sectors that are characterized by low status and low remuneration. Furthermore, they continue to be under-represented and excluded from sectors and jobs that involve greater responsibility, pay more salaries, and offer potential for growth.

The reasons for the under-representation of women in prestigious jobs are varied and are rooted on factors such as gender norms and stereotypes, unpaid care at home, and legal frameworks that are unfavourable to women. This paper aims to present a diagnosis of women's situation in terms of their integration into the labour market. It will focus mainly on the role played by education and training in attaining gender parity and identify practices that will potentially address the marginalization of women in the labour market.

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Around the world millions of people lack essential infrastructure, like roads and bridges, water supply, schools, clinics and hospitals, as well as access to basic services (water, health, education and markets). Providing infrastructure and maintaining it can improve living standards and have a direct impact in the quality of people's lives. Productive community infrastructures can also contribute to reducing poverty and have the potential for offering better economic and social benefits. The ILO's Employment-Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) links infrastructure development and green works with employment creation relying on local labour and resources. Operating in over 70 countries, the EIIP promotes labour-based technologies that offer major advantages in terms of using investments in infrastructure to create work and income-generating opportunities, and to build the skills and capacities of local communities. Individuals are mostly employed for a short to medium time-frame and benefit from the wages they earn, the advantages of having a job and the infrastructure and the services that are improved through their commitments and work. Generally, these projects target vulnerable groups in society, mostly in rural areas, including the working poor, women, youth, refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and people with disabilities.

This guide consists of four main parts that follow the logical sequence of introducing an integrated EIIP vocational skills development programme: (1) understanding the context; (2) planning skills development in EIIPs; (3) implementing skills development in EIIPs; and (4) ensuring post-training support. Case studies and examples from specific project experiences illustrate good practices from different countries where EIIPs have been implemented.

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