Session 7 - 18th Regional Seminar for Labour-based Practitioners

Summary of the discussions at the 18th Regional Seminar for Labour-based Practitioners held in Tunisia on September 9-13, 2019

News | 02 March 2020
18th Regional Seminar for Labour-based Practioners “Towards sustainable and inclusive local development: local resource-based approaches and decent job creation”, 9-13 September 2019, Tunis, Tunisia.

Session 7: Local resource-based approaches that benefit the integrated local development - Thursday, September 12

The sub-theme for session “Local resources-based approaches that benefits the integrated local development”. There were 3 presentation
The session started with a presentation by Mr. Medrad Kouatchou on the topic “Decentralisation as an opportunity for EIIP approach”. The presentation highlighted the problems faced at the local level in Cameroun which included high youth unemployment, insufficient skilled workforce, lack of accurate information and the knowledge of local needs. The paper argues that government of Cameroun by preparing laws to support decentralisation in the country with a strong commitment for decentralisation and local development. With the decentralisation, development now involves the local community through participatory approach. Procurement processes have been modified to use local companies and other local resources. The strength of the process which is fully managed at the local level is the creation of employment opportunities to address unemployment, the provision of decent work and the use of local resources. The have to date achieved 30% labour intensity in 38 contract valued at USD15m.

The second presentation was by Mr. Mohammed Lamine Bel Haj Amor, a consultant on governance and finance. The presentation was on “Local government development and employment promotion in Tunisia”. The paper deal with the challenges in the procurement at the local government and effort by government to address them. The challenges include the legal framework that do not encourage SME participation in procurement processes, misuse of banking guarantees, administrative and technical challenges, delays in payment and lack of incentives. The government through Article 102 is now able to regulate the local finance, budget and foster local economies to create employment opportunities. This has led to improvement in the legal and regulatory environment through use of incentives, use of local resources and the principle of trust and setting out of quota for specific services to accommodate SMEs. It further argues that there is improvement in the system and tools used in the construction sector for SME such improved monitoring, use of templates and the building of capacity.

The third presentation was by Mr. Tatsumi Tokunaga from Takushoku University on the topic “Impact of labour-based construction project on place attachment. A case study in rural area of Japan. The study which was carried in a village called Shimojo was started in 1992 and to date about 50,000USD is spent annually. The project is intended to improve the living environment of the communities. The village Council provides construction material and the community contributes labour for the infrastructure works. The project expected effect is construction cost reduction, fostering of togetherness among the local people and the increase of place attachment (study hypothesis). The objective of the study was the impact of LBT project on place attachment. Data was collected through interview surveys to identify the expected effect of LBT and also identify potential variables affecting place attachment. 1,131 household were targeted and 576 questionnaires collected. The study adopted “Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)” which is an IBM SPSS software “Amos”. Study results showed LBT has a direct impact on village activities. LBT have indirect impact on place attachment and enrichment of village life.