Background
The Pacific Alliance Sustainable Development and Skills for Employment in the Extractive Sector Program (referred to as the Pacific Alliance Education for Employment Program, PA-EFE) seeks to increase socioeconomic opportunities for women and men in a sustainable and inclusive extractive sector within the Pacific Alliance (PA) countries. The program is funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada and was presented to the PA during the Ministerial Dialogue between the PA and the Observer Countries, within the framework of the meetings associated with the XI Summit of the PA (July 1st, 2016). The Program recognizes two fundamental pillars for its development. The first pillar is the establishment of institutional partnerships between CICan member institutes of higher education and Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions in the four PA countries. The main objective of these partnerships is to improve the quality and diversification of the training supply. The final beneficiaries of this institutional support are young people, men and women in the communities and the training centres in the regions, as well as indigenous communities where companies in the extractive sector operate, all of whom need to develop skills demanded by the labour market and will have access to training processes in the technical training institutions participating in the Program. The second pillar of the Program focuses on supporting good governance of the extractive sector by establishing opportunities to exchange experiences and strengthen the capacity of actors from the public, private and civil society sectors related to the extractive sector in the four countries, through the strengthening of regional dialogue and the exchange of best practices. One of the results of the Program has been the development of a series of five thematic forums, whose objectives include opening spaces for regional dialogue between the countries of the Pacific Alliance and Canada, and strengthening the capacity of national and regional actors to face priority challenges in certain areas of the extractive sector, such as gender equality, technical training, environmental sustainability and the articulation of training supply with labour market demand, among others. The first three of the Program’s thematic forums—the Forum on Gender Equality in the Extractive Sector and the Forum on Indigenous Communities, Education for Employment and Relations with the Extractive Sector (both held in 2019), and the Intersectoral Forum on Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Best Practices and Policies from the Pacific Alliance and Canada (held in 2020), were all successful events. Challenges and best practices for government-level policies were identified, as well as joint recommendations and conclusions on possible next steps for these specific themes were summarized in the above published reports.
The Pacific Alliance program for sustainable development and skills for employment in the extractive sector Intersectorial Forum on Environmental Sustainability in the Extractive Sector: Best Practices and Policies in the Pacific Alliance and Canada.
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