Project Description 

The Productive Employment and Decent Work for Youth and Women in the Textile and Garment Manufacturing Sector in Ethiopia project, or the INCLUDE project in short, is a stakeholder engagement initiative that aims to inform policy on decent work in the textile and garment industries through evidence-based dialogue and policy engagement among diverse policy actors.

The project is being implemented by FSS in collaboration with INCLUDE, an African-Dutch platform on inclusive development in Africa. The project’s main objective is the establishment of the  African Policy Dialogues in Ethiopia (APD-Ethiopia) in order to bridge the gap between knowledge generation and policy making or practice.

This project is driven by the goal of advancing productive employment and a decent work agenda, aiming to generate greater interest and uptake among relevant stakeholders. Furthermore, it has the following specific objectives:

(1) identify levels and trends of employment opportunities created in the textile and garment sub-sectors for youth and women and other vulnerable and marginalized groups (e.g. rural-urban migrants)

(2) analyze gaps and challenges facing the sub-sectors to creating productive and decent employment opportunities, especially for youths and women and;

(3) establish a platform for government policy makers and other relevant stakeholders to engage in evidence-informed policy dialogues on decent employment of youths and women in textile and garment sub-sectors in Ethiopia.

This initiative will first undertake policy-relevant research to generate evidence and knowledge to stimulate dialogue and evidence-based engagement among stakeholders. FSS, as the lead APD-Ethiopia partner, will implement a series of activities and strategies; such as workshops and roundtables, and utilizing different communication tools, to ensure maximum uptake of evidence and knowledge by different policy actors and practitioners.

The project expects to create partnerships and networks among relevant policy actors, stimulate policy dialogue, foster public interest and awareness in productive employment, and garner greater interest and uptake in the productive employment and decent work agenda among stakeholders.

Context and Justification

According to available evidence, the textile and garment sub-sectors have made significant contributions to Ethiopia’s GDP growth and formal employment opportunities, especially for youth and women. However, despite the encouraging trend in terms of creating job opportunities for youth and women in the country, several policy, implementation and knowledge gaps remain to be addressed in order to improve the prospects for women and youth to find productive employment and decent work opportunities in Ethiopia. 

In this respect, investigating and discussing whether the causes are due to lack of growth and progression, inefficient management, inadequate compensation, poor workplace culture, etc., would be extremely useful from a policy perspective.

Recognizing the encouraging increase in attention to the labor policies in the country, the evidence and knowledge generated by the proposed APD, through research and continuous engagements with the policy makers would be instrumental in securing productive employment and decent work for women and youth in the textile and garment manufacturing sector in Ethiopia.