Supplementary memorandum submitted by
AfricaRecruit, in response to written questions from the International
Development Committee
1 Which strategies regarding skills are most
effective in enabling poor people to participate in growth and
private sector development?
Strategies should increase the capacity of people
to move from consumptive to productive citizen becoming economic
participants in the society by increasing their skills base using
through:
(a) Effective policies and incentives to
stimulate the private sector to work with citizens at micro/small
business levels eg affirmative action.
(b) Developing programmes to build the skills
capabilities of citizens in specific target industries with low
capital entry points such as the service industry eg hairdressing,
buying and selling fast moveable consumer goods eg crafts.
(c) Developing infrastructure to enable increased
capacity at the micro-small business enterprise level eg access
to credit; land for agriculture; community savings schemes; affordable
housing; access to health and storage facilities for goods and
commodities, and where applicable reliable power supply.
(d) Empowerment through the development of
capacity building and enhancing skills programmes, which are tailored
and targeted "fit for purpose" and accessible, examples
include:
— Entrepreneurial and management—diversification
rather than duplication.
— Business support and advisory centres.
2 What are DFID's strengths in supporting
skills and technology development in developing countries? What
are their weaknesses?
Strength:
Increasing recognition that skills and technology
play a key role in development and providing support in training.
Weakness:
Lack of coordination and joined up action by
donors with national priorities and core competencies of developing
countries
Addressing the weaknesses
(a) Lack of sustainability: Many projects
are short term focused in particular in developing countries where
programmes are developed around the public sector and prone to
changes with new governments. Engaging with the private sector
increases the opportunities for long-term development.
(b) Using skills and technology to enhance
the productive capacity of the raw products developed in Africa
enabling the products to move up the value chain in a very cost
effective manner.
(c) Lack of technological capacity and development
to improve efficiency and effectiveness of producing and delivering
goods and services reducing the overheads in business leading
to increased competitiveness.
(d) Effective Labour policies—implemented,
monitor, review and regularly updated.
(e) Integration—technological advancement
based on national socio-economic projects.
(f) Monitor, benchmarking global trends in
commerce and industry.
(g) Using IT to collate and integrate information—knowledge
management eg local, national and regional labour forecast.
3 How can donors work with the private sector
to incentivise professionals from Diaspora communities to remain
working in Africa?
(a) Creating transparent private sector through
effective governance structures backed by legislation, regular
training for executives and board members.
(b) Increase the capacity of the private
sector to streamline their human resources management process
thereby increasing its efficiency and effectiveness as well as
turnaround the time taken to complete the recruitment process.
(c) Promote reforms that will make it attractive
to pursue careers in Africa.
(d) Reducing unemployment by training in
line with identified source of growth.
(e) Access to timely information on job opportunities
by the Diaspora.
(f) Work with Governments and private sector
"industry" and the educational institutions to develop
Regional Centres of Excellence for specific industries "Ivy
League Schools of Africa". This will provide opportunities
for career professional development retaining skills in Africa
as well as attracting the Diaspora.
(g) Increasing trade and investment between
hosting and sending countries translates into Diaspora from the
host country of the new investor attracting skilled nationals
back home- increased support by donors to private sector investment
in the developing countries.
(h) Work with national governments and private
sector to create financial and non-financial measures that will
enable attraction and retention of the Diaspora.
(i) Donors can work with the private sector
to develop the capacity to develop:
— Volunteering.
— Internship.
— Mentorship for new executives.
— Sabbaticals.
— Secondment.
— Leadership and succession programme.
— Job placement.
4 One of the primary aims of the AfricaRecruit
initiative is developing an African-wide skills strategy that
brings governments and employers together. Has such as strategy
been successfully developed?
Over the last three years six forums have been
held and was attended by over 1,500 employers and approximately
20 representatives from government. The outcomes from the event
have resulted in identification of best practices, which has been
widely disseminated, and some of the recommendations taken up
by governments. Specific examples include:
(a) Effective labour policies interlinked
with education, life long training and labour market needs by
conducting skills audit (a recommendation from strategic skills
seminar that took place in Kenya March 2004) as mirrored by the
skills audit conducted by the South African Government which identified
the need for engineering and project management skills.
(b) The adoption of an effective human resource
strategy by many more employers in Africa looking at processes
such as development of job description based on identified needs,
recruitment based on core competencies and skills and performance
management of the workforce.
(c) The growing recognition of skills development
as an instrumental tool in development and competitiveness of
a nation by all stakeholders resulting in an increase in the number
of employers specifically targeting the Diaspora for job opportunities
in areas of critical shortage. An increasing number of employers
from both private and public sector embarking on recruitment drives
in the Diaspora.
(d) Dual nationality granted by many African
countries as an incentive to mobilise national abroad.
(e) Identified areas of challenges:
— The need for public sector reform
and training programmes aimed at creating an efficient, effective
and performance orientated public service
— High level of unemployment or underemployment
in particular with the youth in part due to many of the graduates
being unemployable.
— The need to development of training
and diversity programme.
— The lack of a transparent recruitment
process dogged by legislative challenges such as recruitment based
on cultural or ethnic tribe vs. recruitment based on core competencies.
Moving from reactive to strategic recruitment.
— Poor succession planning or clear
career professional path at mid-executive level
— Free labour movement within Africa.
— Lack of knowledge of where the appropriate
skills are and how to they can be tapped into.
5 According to AfricaRecruit's research, what
are the key barriers to remittance flows and how can they be overcome?
Barriers:
— Unstable and weak or lack of transparent
remittances corridors.
— Lack of incentives to use the formal
channels at both policy and private sector levels.
— Poor/lack of integrative structures
between the sending money transfer/financial organization and
the recipients in another country.
— Lack of regulatory framework that
may provide incentives to the flows from the Diaspora into the
formal channels.
— Administrative and regulatory barriers
in both host and sending countries.
Ideas to overcome the barriers:
— Creation of private sector packages
linked into the Diaspora host countries to enable the seamless
use and transfer of funds eg Health insurance schemes for extended
family in Africa, mortgage packages etc as an example it is estimated
that over 500 million US dollars per annum has been invested in
the Nigeria Stock Exchange by the Nigerians in the Diaspora.
— Tax free or matching grants in the
sending and or developing countries for regular remitters who
use a formal channel eg more recipients become users of the banks
as result increasing the capacity to micro-credit facilities.
— Creation of "Remittance Bank"
driven by technology to reduce overheads.
June 2006
| 
