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The Labor Market Thematic Group
in the Social Protection Hub
in conjunction with
the Human Development Sector of Europe and Central Asia
cordially hosted the seminar on
Policy and Strategies for Designing Labor Redeployment Programs
to Ameliorate the Social Impact of
Economic Restructuring and Privatization
Wednesday, November 10
9:00 am - 1:00 pm
J6-044
Background
The Seminar provided a synopsis of experience on selected labor redeployment programs financed by the Bank since 1990, summaries of research on the design and impact of these programs, and feature presentations by representatives from Poland and Turkey who are currently managing the implementation of Bank-financed labor redeployment programs in high rural unemployment and privatization contexts.
Labor Redeployment Programs
Investment in these programs, often referred to as "active labor market programs," has been somewhat controversial in the Bank and in other circles due to lack of consistent evidence indicating positive impacts and problems with design and targeting of the programs. However, many countries and agencies, including the Bank and EU, are increasingly funding these programs for both social and economic reasons. There is an increasing body of knowledge on how to improve the design and impact of these programs in different contexts including, for the general unemployed, to assist labor dispaced during privatization, and as the result of civil conflict.
Sponsorship
The Seminar was jointly sponsored by the Labor Thematic Group in the Social Protection Hub (HDNSP) and the Human Development Sector of Europe and Central Asia (ECSHD), which has been extensively involved in financing and evaluating these programs since 1990, following the major economic and political changes in the Region that began in 1990.
Participants and Speakers
This Seminar was intended for operations staff involved in designing and implementing related sector work/projects, which include labor redeployment programs in support of economic restructuring, privatization, and following civil conflict.
Speakers included representatives from the Polish Ministry of Labor, Turkish Privatization Administration, IMC UK (providing technical assistance to related EU and Bank projects), J. Benus from IMPAQ (which has been involved in a number of net impact evaluations of such programs), Gordon Betcherman (HDNSP, World Bank) who just completed a worldwide review of such programs, and David Fretwell (ECSHD, World Bank) who has been extensively involved in related sector and project design and management since 1990.
You can access some of the seminar papers below.
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