The EU EUROsociAL+ Programme assists the Ministries of Economy, Labour and Education in creating a policy for decent employment in Guatemala, with coordination from the Social Policies Area in IILA and the same plan of action of the European Union in the country.
Local business in Guatemala started up by women. Photo: Perry Grone
Last December, a new phase in the Action to Support the Implementation of Guatemala’s National Policy for Decent Employment (PNED, 2017-2032) began, an action that seen participation from the country’s Ministries of Economy, Labour and Education.
EUROsociAL+, following up on the Youth Employment Programme of the European Union, supported the previous Guatemalan administration in strengthening the Inter-agency Technical Roundtable-MTI, a mechanism to facilitate cooperation between agencies responsible for implementing the PNED and which is made up of 4 subcommittees, one for each axis of the Policy: Axis 1: job creation; Axis 2: development of human capital; Axis 3: an environment conducive to business development; Axis 4: transition to employment formality; carried out an evaluation of the functioning of the Municipal One-Stop Shops for Employment (VUME); and designed a roadmap for the implementation of a National Labour Training System (SINAFOL).
With the current government administration, which assumed and gave continuity to the National Employment Policy, and coinciding with the start of the new European Union programme “Support for decent employment in Guatemala”, the new technical assistance from EUROsociAL+ will resume the three lines of action from the previous phase, examining some specific aspects and continuing with the implementation of the mechanisms and strategies provided by the PNED.
Support will specifically be given to create a Technical Secretariat to coordinate the actions of the MTI, to prepare its operational plan and reorganise the sub-commissions considering the current context of COVID-19 and the recent natural disasters that have hit the country. Support will be given to develop the VUME vocational guidance model and launch the National Network of the Public Employment Service project. In relation to SINAFOL, support will be given to create a Technical Unit in charge of its implementation, and the design of its professional profiles catalogue as the system’s organising principle. All this will be worked on in coordination with the European Union’s new Decent Employment programme.
