ILO Moscow Manual for Public Employment Services

Statement by the ILO Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, Heinz Koller

News | 23 April 2021
The «PES and the Future of Work» Manual is an initiative launched by the ILO Decent Work Team and Country Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ILO Moscow) within the context of the ILO Centenary Declaration adopted in June 2019.

Inspired by the Centenary Declaration and its call to support provision of quality public services, and addressing the need for a guiding tool for PES, the ILO Moscow Office consolidated efforts to develop a Manual for helping the employment services to strengthen their institutional capacities in response to the emerging global labour market trends.

A sub-regional youth employment network supported by the ILO Moscow Office, prioritised the impact of the changing world of work on the employment services as an area of cooperation and mutual learning.
The Manual should reflect a rich experience on supporting major national reforms on employment services in the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, promoting cooperation on employment policies between the Commonwealth of Independent States’ member states, and delivering a number of capacity building and training activities for PES staff.

A PES Academy designed and rolled out by the ILO Moscow Office in the Russian Federation in 2019, has served as a knowledge hub and testing ground for the Manual.

This practical approach, aiming to design a policy tool able to address the institutional needs, skills and knowledge gaps identified through a number of training activities, institutional assessments and exchanges of good practices within the CIS network on youth employment promotion, is embedded in a Manual.  One of its strengths is in a user-friendly manner proposing how member states can move forward and make concrete and tangible progress to deliver quality employment services for all in the rapidly changing labour market.

The Manual introduces relevant experiences, identifies good practices from and beyond CIS countries, and provides recommendations for innovative services and areas for institutional reforms that could lead to upgrade and revamp the role played by the employment services in the national development strategies, including how to re-think strategic partnerships for employment promotion with local governments, employers and workers organizations, and different stakeholders for delivering more inclusive and gender sensitive labour market services.

By going beyond the community of the CIS countries and by embracing the interregional cooperation with the European network of employment services, the Manual can advance global responses for labour market and employment challenges. In fact, the Manual illustrates different country cases and good practices selected from European Central Asian countries. At the same time, all chapters build on the knowledge, lessons learnt, guidance and different toolkits for practitioners elaborated jointly by the ILO and the European Union, particularly in a number of issues concerning to employment services and youth programs.

All these references transform the “The PES and the Future of Work” Manual into an innovative knowledge tool for policy makers, researchers and practitioners interested on the difference that quality employment services can make for advancing towards more inclusive labour markets, for the future of work we want.