On 13 May 2021, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the ITCILO signed an agreement for the implementation of a 15-month project titled ARPEJ.

The €2 million project will be led by the Centre and implemented jointly with the ILO. It will benefit the following countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Republic of Congo, Senegal and Tunisia.

Its main objective is to support and strengthen the capacities of these countries to improve the definition, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of public employment and skills development policies for young people. This initiative will establish a virtuous cycle linking collection of primary data on youth employment and their aspirations (School to Work Transition Surveys and Aspiration Surveys) with the design and delivery of public employment and skills development policies.

This platform titled the “Jobs Facility” will use the information and analysis of data coming out of the surveys to deliver concrete services as per the needs of the countries. It will form the key basis to improve the design as well as the implementation of policies that are built using self-assessment processes that are iterative in nature. It will help the host governments and development partners to build and invest in coherent and sustainable interventions that are in line with SDGs as well as principles of Aid Effectiveness.

"The ARPEJ project commences at a time when the world is looking ahead to take measures that support economic recovery through increased employment of the youth. The ITCILO is thankful to AFD for the support that they are providing to pilot this approach that relies on developing data driven employment and training policies," said Andreas Klemmer, Director of Training at the ITCILO.

Throughout 2020, the ITCILO and AFD have seen a number of joint development initiatives, under the global umbrella of the ILO-AFD partnership. We are actively collaborating regarding the launch of the first edition of the Master on Skills Development as part of the ITCILO-Turin School of Development higher education portfolio, in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute for VET. A memorandum of understanding has been signed with the AFD Campus in Marseille, as a learning alliance between like-minded partners in the area of learning and capacity development. Arising from this partnership, a first activity to design and deliver learning modules for a MOOC on gender, in collaboration with AFD and Expertise France, is underway.