By Mariatou Ngum
Communication Officer
MoTIE
The Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment (MoTIE) in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) National Secretariat recently concluded a three-day ILO reporting capacity-building workshop for members of the Tripartite Committee in Senegambia.
The workshop was meant to build the capacities of the members of the tripartite committee (MoTIE, Trade Unions, ILO) on the national reporting obligation per the International Labour Standards as provided by ILO to ensure effective future participation and sustainability.
The Director of Employment, MoTIE Mr. Fabba Jammeh, expressed delight over the technical assistance offered by ILO to the Government of The Gambia. He expressed hope that this assistance would be a significant turn-around for the long-standing cooperation between the Government of The Gambia and ILO in further reinforcing bilateral cooperation.
According to him, ILO is the only tripartite agency under United Nations since 1919 that brings together governments, employers, and workers of 187 member states to set standards, develop policies and devise programmes to promote decent work for all women and men.
It is within this context, h said, the Government of The Gambia and ILO collaborated to provide technical assistance to transform, re-structure and re-position the labour market to respond to the current global dynamics and market failures of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war.
Mr. Jammeh informed the participants that this technical assistance is provided through policy and regulatory reforms and capacity building to ensure both human resource development and institutional formulations. ILO, he explained, works through the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration, and Employment as the national focal point to engage other relevant stakeholders to achieve desired goals.
“In light of this, the Ministry will continue to remain resolute to coordinate and mobilise all relevant stakeholders in the eco-system,” he assured.
Under the continuous technical assistance framework, he informed, countries are required to submit annual reports on the implementation and domestication of ILO Conventions.
“However, it is important to point out the fact that The Gambia has fallen short of this reporting obligation over the recent years and as such has a backlog of reports and this has prompted the need to solicit support from ILO.”
Mr. Jammeh added that ILO has recognised a capacity gap at the level of the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Integration and Employment and the level of the Tripartite Committee as a result of two factors; which are MoTIE staff retention and Covid-19 pandemic restrictive measures –as regular Tripartite meetings were not organised.
The Employment Director mentioned that a national ILO Reporting was established to complete the outstanding reports of eight core ILO Conventions ratified by The Gambia and now it is to respond to the backlog of reports being supported by ILO and that a National Consultant has been recruited by ILO in the person of Mr. Abdoulie Kolley to guide and facilitate the reporting but equally to build the capacity of participants to ensure regular annual reporting to ILO.
