Employment-Intensive Investment in

Colombia

Activities of the Employment Intensive Investment Programme in Colombia

EIIP Involvement in Colombia

The Employment Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) was involved in Colombia as early as 1984 with a project on road maintenance through micro enterprises. This project secured the foundation for a system of road maintenance still in use today. This system has since then been institutionalized and contains some 300 local microenterprises, which are under contract for routine maintenance of national roads.

In 2013, the ILO and the Ministry of Labour, under an agreement (Carta Acuerdo 225 OIT – Ministerio del Trabajo), worked on the design of an Emergency Employment Programme that could be activated in different emergency circumstances: economic, social or environmental. The project, called: "Design, analysis, evaluation, and implementation of studies, monitoring, and strengthening of employment policies and decent work in the generation of incomes and jobs at national and regional level”,1 was eventually placed under the Department of Social Development. Under this framework, there were various studies and guides developed, including an Operational Manual for Public Employment Programmes focusing on “Jobs for Peace and Social Integration”, and project proposals on institutionalizing road maintenance, alternative water and sanitation solutions, and development of micro-irrigation schemes with the aim of creating jobs for the most affected rural populations.

The current support in Colombia is based around a Memorandum of Understanding between the ILO and the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Labour, the National Training Service (SENA)2 and the Department for Social Prosperity (DPS)signed in 2015. The agreement promotes collaboration between these institutions for the design and implementation of integrated initiatives to strengthen public policy on rural employment promoting social and economic development.

The EIIP contributed to the “Academy for Rural Development and Decent Work for Peace"4 held in Bogotá in January 2017 to share approaches and methodologies in the reconstruction of the territories and to support the peace-building process. An elective course was offered with a focus on Employment-Intensive investment approaches, "Rebuilding with communities: Investing in employment to improve economic, social and environmental impacts" and an introduction was given to public employment programmes (PEP), focusing on "Reducing vulnerability: strengthening social protection in the territories of peace".

EIIP also organized a learning forum in Bogota between the 4th and 8th of December 2017. The objective of the event was to strengthen the capacities of the technical staff of the Region on methodologies and intensive labour strategy in response to the demand for more and better jobs from investments in infrastructure.
  • “Diseño, análisis, evaluación y realización de estudios, monitoreo y fortalecimiento de políticas de trabajo decente que fomenten la generación de ingresos y empleo a nivel nacional y regional”
  • El Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA)
  • El Departamento para la Prosperidad Social (DPS)
  • “Academia de Desarrollo Rural y Trabajo Decente para la Construcción de la Paz"