STRENGTHEN2

Integration of EmpIAs, Republic of Korea

Labour market outcomes are affected not just by the actions of entrepreneurs and workers but also by many policy, budget and investment choices by governments – ranging from comprehensive employment, macro-economic, investment and industrial policies to skills and labour market policies. These decisions cut across many government ministries and departments from education to agriculture to social services.

In the past, information on these activities has been widely dispersed and rarely collated. In recent years, however, governments in cooperation with the ILO have been aiming to formally assess the outcome of policy decisions through Employment Impact Assessments (EmpIAs).

Effective EmpIAs should engage with policy- and decision-making, and they should be methodically institutionalized, using clear systems that determine which policies or investments to assess – with the findings and recommendations feeding back into decision-making and budgeting.

Over recent years, the ILO has taken important strides in the development of different methodologies and approaches. For Africa, for example, the ILO has been helping countries develop and apply various methodologies through the joint EU-ILO STRENGTHEN2 project: “Employment impact assessment to maximize job creation in Africa.”

Some of the most comprehensive efforts to assess national employment policies have been in the Republic of Korea – whose experience can offer inspiration and insights for other countries wishing to pursue similar ambitions. The ILO’s Employment, Labour Market and Youth Branch (EMPLAB) has therefore collaborated with the STRENGTHEN2 project to document the Korean case and make it available to other stakeholders, in particular governments and social partners, including in the countries in which STRENGTHEN2 is operating.