Employment and employability sector support programme

The employment and employability sector support programme is funded under the Indicative Cooperation Programme “Development-Climate-Energy”, conceived as Luxembourg's response to support the socio-economic and environmental development policies and strategies of Cabo Verde during the period 2021–2025.

The present programme is aligned with the priorities of Cabo Verde, as defined by the National Strategy for the Promotion of Dignified Employment. Through this support, Luxembourg intends to contribute to Cabo Verde's efforts to achieve the sustainable development goal 8: «promote sustained, shared and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all».

The programme is a continuation of Luxembourg's previous interventions in Cabo Verde. It aims to increase the supply of jobs and the employability of candidates and, consequently, the number of sustainable (self-)created jobs in Cabo Verde. In this context, the programme supports the Ministry of Finance and its Directorate of Employment, which oversee the vocational training and employment sector, thus involving institutions and actors, municipalities and local authorities, the business sector and other relevant stakeholders in order to strengthen the links between vocational training and labour market needs. Particular attention will be paid to the rational, innovative and decentralized response to the challenges of integrating trained and competent people into the labour market for sustainable economic and social development.

The programme expects to achieve its medium/long term objective, mainly through:

• the development and the promotion of quality training offer, accessible to all, in line with the labour market;
• the promotion of an equitable and inclusive socio-professional integration of the trained;
• strengthening the steering of the employment and employability sector by the Cabo Verde government, with a clear division of roles between the different actors; and
• increasing the number of sustainable jobs and self-employment. This is conditioned both by an increase in the number of job opportunities and an increase in employability.

This intervention will primarily benefit young people (aged 15–35) among whom the priority groups will be women and the most vulnerable (including those who are not in education, employment or training – NEET). Gender equality and women's empowerment, social inclusion issues and human rights are priorities for Luxembourg and its foreign policy. Those will be the main lines of intervention of this programme. Another essential cross-cutting theme concerns the implementation and adaptation of digital management and planning tools aimed to modernise the sector's institutions. Interventions in this framework will focus on:

• improving sectorial management;
• modernising vocational training institutions;
• promoting distance learning;
• developing digital skills;
• and supporting digital entrepreneurship.

With this in view, the intervention constitutes an essential instrument to contribute to good governance of the sector and to allow Luxembourg to continue to take the leading role among Cabo Verde's technical and financial partners.