/201109_em5_main_points_of_vc_26_sept_2011_v2

AFD

September 2011

Main points of 26.09.2011 videoconference on the establishment of the “EM5” programme

Present: ILO: Alfredo Lazarte (ILO/CRISIS), Yousra Hamed (social finance programme, employment sector), Luca Fedi (Africa Department), [pouvez-vous SVP completer? Je n’ai malheureusement pas pu noter les noms de chacun]…

World Bank: Rebekka Grun (MENA) EU Tunis delegation : Nabil Ben Nacef, Régis Méritan AFD: Virginie Diaz (Research dpt), Hervé Dubreuil (Employment and professional training), Emmanuel Comolet (MENA) and Olivier Ray (MENA) CMI / AFD: Jocelyne Vauquelin

Agenda points: 1. to present each organisation’s core competences / capacities on the issue of social protection in the MENA region, comment the concept note and activity timeline, and say what each partner would like to get out of the programme; 2. to discuss the modes of collaboration in EM5, and potential financing capacities of each partner on the different components of EM5; 3. to discuss the next steps.

1. Interest in the programme, capacities and requests of the partners ILO: The ILO is not a “donor organisation”, but an organisation of technical capacity. Outside of the organisation of a few workshops, their main input will be the mobilization of its expertise. The ILO has many different areas of expertise that could be mobilized around EM5: employment, social protection, support to the renovation of social dialogue, labour and social protection statistics… The key will be to find a convenient way to mobilise the relevant stakeholders at the relevant moments (participation in workshops, study steering committees, technical assistance, etc.).

World Bank: The World Bank is in the process of writing its social protection strategy. EM5 will be one of the ways through which the background analysis and consultation process for this report will take place. The Bank has three main interests in EM5: (i)

the organisation of workshops in close collaboration with partners from MENA countries;

(ii)

evidence generation: surveys, especially demand-side needs; and rigorous impact evaluations (interest in research on social safety nets) ;

(iii)

operations manuals.

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EU: The Tunis delegation of the Commission is yet to discuss EM5 with Head office to decide whether the EC will be involved as one of the partners of the programme in its regional dimension. An internal discussion is due to be held this week. The EC should be able to say whether it takes part in the programme early to mid-October.

The EU in Tunis is very interested in EM5, and ready to contribute to the financing of background studies, especially on existing social safety nets, price subsidies and social transfers. There is also a strong interest in the mutualisation of findings of evaluations (whether undertaken by donors or governments) led in different countries of the region. The Tunisian minister of employment would be interested in specific evaluations, including one on information systems.

AFD: AFD feels a strong need for better communication between the various actors of employment and social protection policies in the MENA region, both national and international, in order to manage as successfully as possible the economic and social transitions that need to accompany political transitions in MENA1. AFD is also interested in learning from its partners on employment and social protection issues – two issues where AFD has specific expertise (professional training, health…) but little general knowledge to this day.

At this stage, AFD is ready to contribute to various components of EM5 (AFD focal points in parenthesis): (i) Background research and evidence generation: * Sociology (Virginie Diaz): analysis of the social contracts in the region and the role of employment and social protection strategies; * Economics: analysis of the development models in the region, and their effects on growth and employment (François-Xavier Bellocq and his team); * Employment and social protection data: (Thomas Melonio and Bertrand Savoye) (ii) Knowledge management and policy discussion: * The information of local policies through international best practices (Bertrand Savoye + yet to be recruited social protection expert) * Policy discussions with experts, national decision-makers and civil society in the fields of employment (Hervé Dubreuil, Maurizio Cascioli, Thomas Melonio, Jean-Christophe Maurin), health and social protection (Bénédicte Brusset). * The conception of e-manuals and training modules (Dominique Rojat). (iii) Upstream collaboration on operations: * The mutualisation of project evaluations or joint evaluations (Bertrand Savoye) * Coordination on technical assistance and needs-assessments (country teams)

2. Modes of collaboration in EM5 2.1 It is useful to clarify the role of EM5 on issues of employment and social protection: - EM5 is not an additional initiative on jobs and social protection in the MENA region, but rather a platform for the information accumulated through existing initiatives to add to the common knowledge pool. It can be described as

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Cf. analysis of the tensions between short term and long term policies in the wake of the Arab Springs.

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(i) an informal network of experts and decision-makers, (ii) a repository of regional and international experience, (iii) as well as a space for policy discussion.

- The CMI is a platform for interaction: it does not lead research, commission studies or fund projects, but rather (i) provides the opportunity for partners to join up and lead these actions; (ii) provides the framework for the knowledge generated by these activities to be circulated.

- EM5 is not an operational programme: it is an initiative for upstream collaboration to inform policy (i.e. national and donor programmes) by providing donors and decision-makers with best practices, better evidence and thus better policy options. This does not exclude – in fact the interaction and exchange of information makes more likely – the collaboration of partners around projects (such as the cofinancing of programmes or the delegation of funds); however the purely operational collaborations are outside of the perimeter of EM5.

- EM5’s activities can be in three categories: (i) Background research (qualitative and quantitative): economic analysis, sociological studies, statistics and baseline data gathering, etc. (ii) Knowledge management and policy discussion: exchange on national, regional and international best practices and discussion of available policy options – as done in the Tunis workshop. (iii) Upstream collaboration on operations: coordination of technical assistance, collaboration around operations’ manuals, evaluation of pilot programmes, etc. The actual development operations that follow from collaboration of this third type are not part of EM5 per se.

2.2. Actions in the preliminary phase of EM5 (October, November, December 2011): During the preliminary phase, it is important that potential partners of the programme exchange information and stay informed of the progress. The email loop where general information on the programme will thus be quite large during this phase. As more specialised communities of practice form around subcomponents of EM5, the flow of general emails will reduce and the online EM5 community of practice2 will be the place where partners seek news and information about EM5 activities.

It was suggested that Tunisia could be a pilot-country within EM5: given the special situation in Tunisia, given that the first workshop was held in Tunis, and given the interest of the EC delegation in Tunis, it makes sense to concentrate research and policy-dialogue efforts on Tunisia in the preliminary phase of the programme – in order to achieve concrete collaborations that could then be “regionalised”. This does not exclude actions beyond Tunisia (such as the idea of a workshop in Algiers late 2011).

It was decided that, flexibility would be sought: EM5 will not be endowed with a mutualised budget (except if partners decide otherwise). Partners will bring to the table the resources that they can mobilize (whether financial or human, i.e. expertise) to co-finance joint actions (workshops, manuals, etc.). By the end of December 2011, partners will have ‘pledged’ a certain amount of resources for various activities of EM5. When possible and necessary, EM5 partners could apply for MDTF funds to top-up resources brought in by the partners3.

There is a strong need for “mapping exercises”: (i) mapping of ongoing or forthcoming donor initiatives on social protection and employment on the one hand, (ii) mapping of social and employment programmes in countries such as Tunisia (high degree of fragmentation / dispersion). This could be one of the first steps of collaboration in the preliminary phase of the programme, using a CMI online “community of practice”.

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La structuration de ce groupe de travail et l’investissement pour le faire fonctionner de manière optimale, se feront de manière pragmatique au fur et à mesure des besoins identifiés.

For the Workshop held in Tunis, each partner was responsible for covering the costs for the travel and board of the experts they mobilized.

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3. Next steps: -

Early October: first steps: (i) each partner fills in the timeline to insert activities that could be brought into the EM5 framework. (ii) Each partner designates an “EM5 focal point” for the preliminary phase of EM5 (informal discussions regarding the activities and modalities of collaboration in EM5). (iii) Each partner shares a first contact list of experts who wish to be part of the EM5 community of practice (this list will be uploaded on the community of practice).

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11th October: CMI oversight committee. The concept note will be circulated to representatives of MENA countries at the Oversight Committee, and Mats Karlsson will say a few words about the programme.

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Mid to late October: VC with representatives of MENA countries at the CMI. The objective of this VC would be to present the concept-note, collect their feedback and discuss the modalities for the participation of the countries concerned (idea of an EM5 focal point per country, initially someone who knows CMI well).

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October: setting up of an EM5 online community of practice (CoP) with a blogroll, a calendar of upcoming events as well as shared folders per subcomponent of the programme. This pilot CoP will initially not be moderated4 ; it will essentially serve as a repository of information from the partners (contact details; studies; forthcoming events…).

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November: each partner uploads on the community of practice information regarding large initiatives and upcoming events on employment and social protection. AFD will try to find an intern to transform this information into a legible map that will be circulated to all partners.

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November or December: (i) workshop of employment experts from partner organisations in Marseille for a review of several recent or forthcoming publications on employment (World Bank’s “Jobs” report, ILO publication on Tunisian employment sector, etc.); (ii) in parallel, meeting of EM5 focal points to decide on the activities and modes of collaboration of EM5 (to be summed up in a 2 to 4-pager).

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(TBC by ILO & WB) December: employment workshop in Algiers

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January: Official launch of EM5.

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January : Employment workshop in Cairo (AFD offers to lead in close collaboration with partners)

+ If the partners confirmed their interest, a first study could be commissioned as part of EM5, on the economics of social transfers in Tunisia and/or the region5. Several modes of collaboration can be envisaged for this study: (i) (ii) (iii)

Upstream discussion between partners on terms of reference, and downstream discussion of the findings ; (i) + joint steering committee (i) + (ii) + division of labour, each partner being responsible for one subcomponent of the study (i.e. analysis of social transfers through price subsidies, through health benefits, through allowances, etc.).

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Ultimately, the objective is to have a functioning community of practice with a designated moderator. This moderator could operate from the CMI. A World Bank study on this is planned and budgeted for 2012; the EC, AFD and World Bank social protection teams will liaise to discuss modalities of collaboration around this theme.

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