Employment-Intensive Investment in

São Tomé and Príncipe

Activities of the Employment Intensive Investment Programme in São Tomé and Príncipe

Current EIIP Involvement 

After several years without any activities, since 2018, thanks to the internal funding, the International Labor Office developed an RBSA project in Sao Tome & Principe with an Employment Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) component for the training of youth and SMEs in the use of Employment Intensive Investment (EII) approach in infrastructure. This component is currently underway in several phases.

The first phase, was organized in November 2018 in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Protection and the Ministry of Infrastructure through the National Institute of Roads (INAE) as part of the PRIASA project through the financing of the African Development Bank (AfDB). It consisted in training 30 construction engineers from Sao Tome and Principe in road construction, maintenance works, and implementation of sanitation systems.

The second step, addressed mainly to professionals and civil society organizations in the construction sector, focused on the advantages of organizing the SMEs in formal and legal structures, the creation and management of SMEs of the construction sector, the access to public procurement and the use of the Employment Intensive Investment approach as a tool for jobs creation and the promotion of SMEs. This phase started in July 2019 with the organization of a training session on EIIP in collaboration with the tripartite constituents, more specifically, the CCIAS, the Workers' Organizations, the Ministry of Public Works, Infrastructure, natural resources and the environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development, the Ministry of Labor.

The third phase, which will begin in November 2019, will focus on the organization of theoretical and practical training in Employment Intensive Investment approaches. The demonstration works will be developed in various fields such as road infrastructure, housing, sanitation and land management. In addition, the Yaounde DWCT supported the Government in the use of the ILO's Employment Integration Toolkit in strategic and programmatic referents, reviewing macroeconomic policies that support the creation of more and better jobs. A diagnosis in terms of the inclusion of employment in these referents has been developed, followed by an action plan aimed at reinforcing the integration of employment into the Programme and Budget mechanism.

For the immediate future, EIIP will continue to implement the EIIP component of the RBSA project in order to show its comparative advantages for the development and implementation of new EIIP programmes. In addition, during the next biennium, a tool to estimate the potential of jobs creation through Public Investment Budget will be developed.

Historical Information

For the previous years, the level of involvement of the EIIP unit in São Tomé and Príncipe was very weak despite several attempts mostly because of the shortage of funds and the issues related to language. However, with the support of the European Union and the African Development Bank, the São Tomé and Príncipe Government has been able to launch some initiatives in order to promote the Employment Intensive Investment methods. The EU through its different projects has contributed to the creation of GIMES and the strengthening of the capacities of the INAE’s national technicians. These actions have been reinforced with the two projects financed by the AfDB.