More than fifty (50) participants drawn from the Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute (ALLPI), the African Union Commission (AUC), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Jets Education Services, Governments of Namibia and Niger, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)  met to discuss the study of programs and qualifications for skills recognition and development in the leather sector in Africa.

The Study is in line with the AU’s First Five Year Priority Programme on Employment, Poverty Eradication and Inclusive Development (5YPP) which called for the ‘elaboration and promotion of key strategies for identification of successful beneficiation models, leading to value addition, decent employment creation, skill acquisition/upgrading etc. for African Women and Youth’. It implements the Joint Labour Migration Programme, JLMP’s Priority initiative under Activity 1.1.3 of the project document to test a value chain approach to employment and skills development and recognition in a priority sector. The study was commissioned by the ILO as part of the JLMP and carried out by ALLPI. 7 African Union Member States namely Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, Namibia, Niger, Morocco and South Africa as well as 4 Regional Economic Communities (RECs) namely: COMESA, ECOWAS, SADC and UMA were covered by the Study.

During the event, the Director of the ILO, Mr. Alexio Musindo stated that the study has examined education and training arrangements, as well as programs and qualifications supporting the full range of occupations for the leather sector in seven study countries and four RECS. The selection of the countries and RECs was based on the results of a previous study conducted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 2018. The study population consisted of Ministries of Education/higher learning, Industry and Trade, and Labour; Universities/Higher learning Institutions, Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions offering leather programs; regulatory bodies; leather sector associations along the value chain, and leather sector enterprises along the value chain.

The Head of Division of Labour and Employment at the AUC, Mr Sabelo Mbokazi added that skills portability and mutual recognition of qualifications as well as development of the development of the African Continental Qualifications Framework are key activities of JLMP. This is due to the fact that many countries in Sub Saharan Africa face labour and skills shortage in critical sector and are confronted by unemployment and an increasing youthful population. One of the objectives of the Migration Policy for Africa is to ‘undertake efforts to resolve skills shortages and skills-education matches while increasing recognition of harmonized qualification in Africa’.

Participants thanked ALPPI for the work done, especially given the challenges of data collection presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and made several recommendations on improving the report before its publication.

More information about JLMP @ https://au.int/en/jlmp

For more information related JLMP program please contact:

1. Mr. Oumar Diop| JLMP Support Unit Coordinator, African Union Commission | Email: DiopO@africa-union.org
2. Ms. Adaeze Emily Molokwu | Programme Office | Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development Department | Email: MolokwuA@africa-union.org

For further media inquiries, please contact:

1. Mr. Gamal Eldin Ahmed A. Karrar | Senior Communication Officer | Information and Communication Directorate | E-mail: GamalK@africa-union.org

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