Promoting Employment Generation in Government Programs: A Roundtable Discussion on the Community-Based Employment Program

Event Title:
Promoting Employment Generation in Government Programs: A Roundtable Discussion on the Community-Based Employment Program

Venue:
Occupational Safety  & Health Center

Date and Time:
19 September 2013 / 1:00 P.M.

Purpose:
 To gather insights from implementing agencies and other stakeholders on the existing practices related to CBEP projects

Background:
     Poverty reduction, especially in rural areas, continues to be a major challenge faced by the Philippines. The current administration, as well as the previous ones, has implemented a number of schemes to address the chronic problem of poverty.

The Community-Based Employment Program (CBEP) is one of the government’s priority programs aimed at generating employment and reducing poverty in the countryside. It is a social protection program which is designed to have a positive impact on the poor by providing them with jobs, therefore, increasing their incomes.

Under CBEP, various government agencies will enroll infrastructure and/or non-infrastructure projects that will provide employment to skilled, semi-skilled and low-skilled workers in target communities where the projects will be undertaken. It also includes emergency employment such as livelihood programs for displaced workers and victims of disasters. The DOLE, as the Chair of the Steering Committee, is tasked to coordinate and monitor the employment generated by these projects.

The program has been implemented for more than two decades . However, there has been no comprehensive research or study conducted to date. While CBEP is being regularly monitored in terms of employment generation, there is still very little known about the issues encountered in designing and implementing the projects.

To further understand CBEP, including its employment-generating capacity, a roundtable discussion (RTD) will be held to solicit insights from agency implementers and other concerned stakeholders. The results of the RTD will serve as inputs to a policy paper on CBEP. The paper, which will discuss the origins, issues and challenges in CBEP, will ultimately seek to provide policy recommendations on making CBEP more relevant to the attainment of inclusive growth.

Objectives:
     1. To review existing practices in designing and implementing CBEP projects;
2. To identify the decent work challenges and other issues confronting CBEP projects;
3. To examine the contribution of CBEP in generating employment and increasing the incomes of poor households;
4. To solicit insights and draw recommendations from stakeholders toward maximizing the potential of CBEP to contribute to the promotion of inclusive growth through generation of quality and productive employment.

Output:
Development Event Proceedings

Participants:
Government, Academe, Labor

Partners:
None

Contact Information:
For more information on this event please contact the Employment Research Division, event secretariat at 5273447