Assessment of Public Employment Services and Active Labour Market Policies in Kenya 248 views1 applications

1. Introduction and Purpose

1.1 Employment Services in Kenya

Public Employment Services in Kenya are provided by the Kenya National Employment Authority (NEA), established in 2016 by an Act of Parliament (The National Employment Authority Act of 2016). This covers both external employment (Foreign Employment Services) and internal employment (Regional Employment Services) under the overall guidance of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection^[1]. The Authority was created out of the then National Employment Bureau (NEB) which was one of the Departments in the Ministry of East African Community, Labour and Social Protection. The Act therefore provided for the transitioning of the Bureau into the National Employment Authority. It mainly provides for a comprehensive institutional framework for: employment management; enhancement of employment promotion interventions; and increasing access to *employment by the youth, minorities and marginalized groups and for connected purposes**.* However, at the central government, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection under the State Department of labour also provides employment services mainly covering: basic skills matching (determining existing skills gaps in various sectors of economy), provision of labour market information and formulation of National human resource planning, development and utilization policies

Employment services are established under the Employment Act of 2007 which requires vacancies to be notified to the County Employment Officer^[2] whenever they occur (without obliging the employer to recruit through the PES). The Employment Act and National Employment Authority Act mandate the County Employment Officer to canvass for vacancies, register and advertise them in public places (physically or electronically) and prepare and submit quarterly reports to the Director General. The National Employment Authority (NEA) is mandated by the National Employment Authority Act to advise the Cabinet Secretary among other things on “matters concerning the operation of employment service and the development of the employment service policy”. The National Employment Policy provides for the establishment of a “proactive, effective, impartial and service-oriented” employment service system that caters for both the internal market and for externalization of labour while ensuring protection of Kenyan labour migrants.

The Employment Act, 2007 and the National Employment Policy recognize the role of private employment agencies and the need to regulate and cooperate with them. Private employment agencies have to be registered and licensed by the National Employment Authority (NEA) to operate. Labour officers are supposed to monitor their operations and enforce the law on behalf of NEA. The Act also regulates recruiters of workers which are required to obtain a permit from NEA.

The challenge that came with devolution is that county governments decide on the functions to prioritize and in most cases labour administration is not among their main priorities. According to the information provided by the NEA, out of the 47 counties only 28^[3] have a county employment office with a lean staff that’s dealing with all labour administration activities including employment services. The capacity of PES therefore is largely weak providing basic matching services on demand. For the past four years NEA has concentrated on accreditation of private employment agencies with bias on foreign employment services. There is no evidence and data in regards to job seeker placements, dissemination of information to job seeker nor a database of job seeker registry.

The National Employment Authority through the State Department of Labour has requested ILO for support to build the capacity of its employment services both at central and county levels and provide guidance on most appropriate employment services that both the National and county Governments can use to facilitate employment opportunities.

1.2 PES support under the “PROSPECTS” Project

Under the PROSPECTS Partnership Programme, the ILO in partnership with IFC, UNICEF, UNHCR and the World Bank will provide meso and local level interventions to support livelihoods and decent employment for forcibly displaced persons and host communities in Garissa and Turkana County. Where necessary, upstream policy assistance will also be supported at the macro level with systemic mainstreaming of interventions and their sustainability. Among the key intervention areas identified by constituents during ILO consultations is the support for more efficient and effective labour market information systems and public employment services.

The overall outcome of the PROSPECTS project in Kenya is “improved sustainable living conditions for women, men, girls, and boys in refugee and host communities in Kenya”. This is to be achieved through “increased number of refugees and host community people with enhanced livelihoods and/or employment in safe/decent work”. Public employment services (and publicly provided employment services ) in Kenya can play an important role in both provision of employment services as well as collection and dissemination of labour market information, especially administrative statistics resulting from implementation of active labour market policies, if their human resource and institutional capacity are strengthened. Employment services could provide employability services such as job search assistance, guidance and counselling, matching, as well as referring or sign posting jobseekers to relevant services that could help them expedite their integration in the labour market. They could also support job seekers to improve on their applications to better align with available positions or refer them to training opportunities to improve their employability.

In Garissa there is a County Labour Officer who is responsible for all labour and employment functions. Consequently, employment services are normally not provided except in extremely rare cases of special requests from agricultural establishments for recruitment of unskilled labour. In Turkana there are no labour officers in place; labour administration functions are provided by other departments when needed making it unlikely that employment services are provided to any reasonable measure. Given that private employment agencies are allowed to operate in all of Kenya, there are organizations that are already providing employability services and some matching and could be willing to provide such services with some support.

Within the setup of the PROSPECTS programme, employment services can support other components including the employment intensive investments, skills and employability as well as entrepreneurship and self-employment support programmes to identify and prepare beneficiaries.

In the event that either other public or private employment service providers are willing to provide services to host communities and refugees, there would still be need for strengthening the capacity of county governments and the central PES to monitor and coordinate their activities and ensure that they deliver results effectively and in an inclusive manner.

In addition, there are several non-governmental players that provide services at the local level, especially in refugee hosting areas. There is therefore a need to establish and provide basic employment services focusing on; coordination of labour market actors, provision of labour market services as well as matching jobseekers with vacancies at the local, regional and national level. There is however need for a more detailed assessment of the existing structure and services offered, institutional set up and the viability and scope for strengthening employment services in Kenya, with particular reference to serving refugees and host communities.

2. Justification for the Comprehensive (Rapid) Assessment

As discussed above, while the basic building blocks of PES and employment services in general are in place (the legal and overall policy framework), especially at the central level, the institutional capacity, service offer and quality of services appear to be low and not covering the entire country. Provision of PES services at the county level is wholly dependent on the priorities and capacity of county government administration. In general, labour administration has tended to suffer, including employment services.

Nonetheless, there is scope for strengthening PES and employment services in general at the national level through strengthening the structures at the Ministry Headquarters and, to overcome the zoning limitations that come with devolution, supporting the leveraging of digital technologies to reach out to all major geographical areas. In Garissa and Turkana, there are international NGOs like the Norwegian Refugee Council, Danish Refugee Council, Don Bosco, Saint Claire and others that provide employability and self-employment initiatives but fall short of facilitating matching of the trainees to jobs within the county or national level.

Engaging with employers will be critical as the source of available jobs and towards this the Federation of Kenya Employers and Agricultural Employer Association^[4] will serve as collaborators.

The “comprehensive” rapid appraisal of employment services will through in-depth consultations, provide possible options for employment services provision such as through private or NGO providers. This appraisal will be useful to guide ILO in making an informed decision regarding potential effectiveness of ES support in Kenya and in refugee hosting districts in particular

Consultations will be undertaken at the national level with key institutions for example, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, in particular The State Department of Labour , National Employment Authority (NEA), social partners and other key stakeholders such as TVET institutions which work closely with PES centres . The consultant will also visit the two target Counties and hold consultations with relevant County Government administration, partners e.g. NRC, DRC, GIZ, LWF, Swiss Contact, as well as other service providers where feasible

Objectives of the Rapid Assessment

The overall objective of the comprehensive rapid assessment of employment services in Kenya is to determine the feasibility, nature and scope of employment service strengthening and modernization in the country and in the PROSPECTS target Counties in particular. The assessment will provide practical recommendations to the Kenya National Employment Authority (NEA) on the possible options and to ILO and its partners the possible support for strengthening employment services.

The specific objectives are:

I. To assess in detail the scope for strengthening employment services at the national and local level through analysis of the policy and legal frameworks, organizational structure and management, service offer and delivery mechanisms including through partnerships, role of technology in service design and delivery, performance management and results framework, institutional capacity, etc^[5].

II. To propose on the one hand measures to strengthen and modernize employment services at the national level, possibilities for organizational set-up and collaboration, etc. and at the local level looking at viable options for delivery of employment services where PES presence is extremely weak. A practical and phased action plan for the strengthening of employment services and coordination of ALMPs in Kenya will be developed incorporating the measures, including capacity building for the government.

III. Assess the likelihood and options for delivering employment services to help jobseekers (refugees and host communities) integrate in the labour market through employment (paid or self-employment) as well as boosting their employability. The focus here is to look at a wider labour market – county, regional and national.

IV. Document examples international best practices of PES with focus on countries such as Cambodia, Sweden, South Korea, Morocco and Germany BA (Bundesagentur für Arbeit). The emphasis here is to recommend best practices that could be adopted and intergrated to strengthen PES in Kenya.

V. To explore areas for resource mobilization at national and international level based on the findings of the assessment.

4. Scope of work

Overall, the assignment will involve undertaking a customised assessment of employment services based on the methodology developed by the ILO and adapted to the Kenyan situation and producing a comprehensive assessment report, action plan and a resource mobilization plan.

The comprehensive report will provide information on the legal framework of the PES, its functions and organization, as well as on human and financial resources. The assessment will in addition focus on the following aspects among others:

Methodology

The consultant will review the ILO analytical approach (see Annexes 1-3 and summary below) and customise to the context of Kenya. This will be applied at the national level and to the extent possible at the local level. The consultant will focus attention on undertaking a SWOT analysis with the NEA officials in order to properly understand areas for support including capacity building for officials. Discussions with private providers of employment services will be focussed on identifying areas for collaboration and the modalities for such collaboration.

At the county level, the consultant will hold discussions with key partners (as identified by the project team) as well as administrative structures. The aim is to identify a viable way of providing employment services capitalising on the hanging fruits – a large number of beneficiaries who have been trained but not placed either in paid or self-employment, the potential of employment services serving other components of the PROSPECTS project, collaboration with the partners, etc.

The framework for analysis can be summarised as follows:

(a) Review of PES policy and strategy: This will involve analysis of the vision and mission of the organization, objectives, legal framework, main reform drivers, relationships with Private Employment Agencies (PrEAs), and monitoring and evaluation systems;

(b) Analysis of organizational structure and functions: This entails evaluation of central and local structures; functional relations between main departments and related field services; major functions (job matching, counselling and guidance, job fairs, LMI, labour market programmes and unemployment benefits administration, as well as other regulatory activities);

(c) Assessment of programmes, service organization and workflow: focus will be on administration, monitoring and evaluation of labour market programmes; distribution of PES functions among staff (registration, vocational guidance, job placement services and eligibility criteria for ALMPs and any unemployment benefit); sequencing and targeting of services; hierarchy, client segmentation and profiling approaches;

(d) Review of management of resource: including adequacy of staff (levels and qualifications), recruitment procedures, competencies, training, and human resource development approaches; infrastructure and logistics arrangements; financial resources, budget and funding;

(e) Assessing link to other policies: This will call for investigating existing and potential links to skills development policies and initiatives, youth development policies and programmes, citizen empowerment programmes, national and sectoral policies, among others; and

(f) Analysis of International PES systems: This will entail an analysis of international PES legal framework, service provision (employer and jobseeker), partnerships with private actors,innovation, collaborations between training institution,industry and PES, and financing of the systems for Cambodia, Sweden, South Korea, Morocco and Germany BA followed by recommendation of best practices to be adopted from the analysis.

(g) In addition to (c) above, review and assess and document provision of key ALMP[6]s by other stakeholders other than PESs at national, regional and local levels highlighting among others their objectives, design and implementation, achievements, institutional coordination for implementation and the role PES played or could have played. **

The assessment will also pay particular attention to the issues of gender, youth and disability in the demand and supply of PES as well as to the aspects relating to the role of the PES in the provision of services to workers in the informal economy. In addition, the assessment will review the current role of social dialogue and tripartism in employment services and will make specific recommendations for improvement in all the areas highlighted.

Particular attention will be paid in the review to the development and role played by PrEAs[7] and other non-public employment service providers with respect to services provided, the policy and legal framework applicable to them, opportunities and challenges they face as well as potential opportunities for collaboration in provision of employment services with PES[8].

5. Deliverables/Expected Outputs

The consultancy will deliver the following key outputs:

i) An inception report ahead outlining methodology/approach, stakeholders to be interviewed.

ii) A comprehensive report of between 10,000 to 15,000 words, Times New Roman font 12, on the structure, organization and service delivery of the Kenyan PES and employment services in general including an assessment of its performance and key recommendations for improving and modernising the system. The report will also provide key recommendations on how to deliver employment services at the local level including in Garissa and Turkana;

iii) A 5-7 pages synthesis report of the assessment findings and recommendations for policy makers; and

iv) A synthesised resource mobilization plan to strengthen employment services and ALMP delivery in Kenya.

The following schedule for deliverables will be adopted:

i. Inception Report: to be submitted within two weeks of signing the contract outlining approach and methodology for the assessment and a draft outline of the final report

ii. Final Assessment Report: to be submitted within eight weeks of signing the contract incorporating inputs/comments from Government, ILO and Social Partners. The final comprehensive report will be validated by social partners and national stakeholders and will be published jointly by Government and the ILO. An example of the structure of the report is appended in Annex 3.

6. Modus Operandi

The consultant will work under the technical guidance of the ILO’s Senior Active Labour Market Policies and Employment Services Specialist based in Geneva with support of the CTA PROSPECTS and the regional forced displacement skills and Employability specialist. Further support with be provided by the Employment Specialists based in ILO’s Decent Work Team in Pretoria and Country Office in Dar es Salaam. The National Employment Authority and Ministry of Labour and Social Protection will provide overall guidance, leadership, direction and ownership in the review and development of the action plan. It is envisaged that a technical team, comprising at least one official will be assigned to manage this process.

[1] Executive Order No. 1 of 2018 (Revised) The Ministry has one Autonomous Government Agency (AGA), the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and five Semi-Autonomous Government Agencies (SAGAs) namely: National Industrial Training Authority (NITA); National Employment Authority (NEA); National Council for Persons With Disabilities (NCPWD; National Council for Children Services (NCCS); and Child Welfare Society of Kenya (CWSK).

[2] In practice, vacancies can be reported to the Ministry of labour and Social Protection HQ – to the Regional employment services State department of labour or directly to National Employment Authority.

[3] Under the Constitution of 2010, and subsequent integration of the Provincial Administration with a new system of Counties, Provinces are to be scrapped, the 46 Districts, in existence in 1992 turned into Counties with elected governments, and subdivisions below that re-organized as 290 Sub-Counties-One for every constituency in Kenya’s national assembly.

[4] FKE established in 1959 under the Trade Unions Act Cap 233, provides a forum for employers in promoting sound industrial relations and observance of fair labour practices. The Federation also advocates, endorses, and defends the interests of employers. In addition, the Federation supports good management practices and develops sustainable institutional capacity and competence among its members.

[5] See a schematic presentation of the key areas in Annexe 1.

[6] ALMPs comprise employment services, labour market training, entrepreneurship and self-employment support, subsidised employment (public works, wage subsidy, etc.).

[7] Private Employment Agencies in this regard are defined to include all non-public service providers supplying any of the four core employment service functions: matching services and counselling, labour market information, administration of labour market programmes and provision of employment related social assistance programmes.

[8] This is in view of the realization through various studies in the developing world – for example the World Bank (MENA region) and American Development Bank (in Latin America) – that perhaps the only feasible way to go round the weak financial capacities in government to finance employment services and labour market programmes effectively is to partner with non-public service providers from the early stages as soon as basic capacity and system have been built in PES.

Duration and Completion:

The duration of the assignment is 40 working days spaced over a period of 10 weeks.

Skills and expertise required

(i) Advanced university degree with demonstrated expertise in social sciences and recognition in the field of active labour market policies and employment services including in developing countries;

(ii) Practical experience and demonstrated knowledge in labour market governance, Public Employment Services including assessments and strategies for their modernisation;

(iii) Experience in advocacy, programme and policy design and management, legislation review, training, and human resource management, including demonstrated work with diverse stakeholders such as governments, the private sector, employers’ associations, trade unions, non-government organizations, and UN and other inter-governmental organizations;

(iv) Demonstrated experience in Institutional and organizational capacity building; and

(v) Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and experience in working with a wide range of individuals in government, private sector and civil society.