Background Studies on Infrastructure Sector in Ghana
Under the ILO, EU and GoG partnership in implementing the STRENGTHEN Project, a study was undertaken to provide a better sense of the overall employment situation in the infrastructure sector.
It was revealed a myriad of policies, strategies and funds which have worked as frameworks within which direct, indirect and induced jobs have been generated. Analysis showed significant potentials to create more employment. They include:
- Local Content Policy is to ensure that over time, 70 per cent of all government projects and procurement are to be undertaken by local contractors to enhance job creation through value addition and skills improvement.
- Labour-intensive Public Works Policy has the potential to create more employment opportunities but without clear-cut strategies that satisfy the social dialogue pillar of decent work.
- National Road Fund, the Ghana Infrastructural Investment Fund and the National Investment Plan which constitute a source of funds for the expansion of infrastructural development to engender more employment.
- The National Housing Policies and Programme which provides a framework for indigenous ownership of infrastructure projects to enhance employment generation.
Further, the expansionary works in the infrastructure sector in the last three decades have accounted for a rise in the proportion of the workers in the construction sub-sector. Between 1987 and 2013, the proportion of employees in the construction sub-sector to the total labour force increased from 1.2 per cent in 1987 to 2.25 in 2013 even though the proportion had plunged to 0.95 per cent in 1991.
The data gathered indicated high degrees of work vulnerability across both sexes. Throughout the periods under consideration (1999- 2013) workers in the construction sub-sector were found to have endured working conditions below the ILO standards of decent work. Much of this is inextricably linked with the high levels of informality that characterizes the construction sub-sector.
It was revealed a myriad of policies, strategies and funds which have worked as frameworks within which direct, indirect and induced jobs have been generated. Analysis showed significant potentials to create more employment. They include:
- Local Content Policy is to ensure that over time, 70 per cent of all government projects and procurement are to be undertaken by local contractors to enhance job creation through value addition and skills improvement.
- Labour-intensive Public Works Policy has the potential to create more employment opportunities but without clear-cut strategies that satisfy the social dialogue pillar of decent work.
- National Road Fund, the Ghana Infrastructural Investment Fund and the National Investment Plan which constitute a source of funds for the expansion of infrastructural development to engender more employment.
- The National Housing Policies and Programme which provides a framework for indigenous ownership of infrastructure projects to enhance employment generation.
Further, the expansionary works in the infrastructure sector in the last three decades have accounted for a rise in the proportion of the workers in the construction sub-sector. Between 1987 and 2013, the proportion of employees in the construction sub-sector to the total labour force increased from 1.2 per cent in 1987 to 2.25 in 2013 even though the proportion had plunged to 0.95 per cent in 1991.
The data gathered indicated high degrees of work vulnerability across both sexes. Throughout the periods under consideration (1999- 2013) workers in the construction sub-sector were found to have endured working conditions below the ILO standards of decent work. Much of this is inextricably linked with the high levels of informality that characterizes the construction sub-sector.