Country: Ethiopia
Closing date: 18 Aug 2019
IGAD Regional Guidelines for a Rights-Based approach to Bilateral Labour Agreements
Terms of Reference
Context and Justification
In recent decades, labour migration from IGAD countries[1] to other regions has increased exponentially. Structural drivers of labour migration, including a lack of decent employment opportunities at home, demand for workers in specific sectors abroad, and global wage differentials, combined with lowering costs of transportation, greater access to information and communication technologies, and a booming private recruitment sector are some of the factors contributing to diversifying migration corridors. In particular, Arab States, including Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, have emerged as increasingly important destinations for workers from the IGAD region, with the highest numbers coming from Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda.[2]
Demand for workers abroad can reduce pressure on domestic labour markets*,* while providing women and men with opportunities to access formal employment, higher wages, and new skills. Women in particular have had increasing opportunities to migrate for employment due to the rising demand for domestic workers and other forms of care work, especially in the Arab States. Other major sectors in the Arab States employing migrant workers from the IGAD region include construction, garment manufacturing, and other low-skilled services. [3]
These are however sectors characterized by poor working conditions and weak government oversight. This leads to increased risk of exploitation and abuse of migrants, ultimately reducing development returns on migration. In addition to decent work deficits encountered abroad, workers can be subjected to abusive and exploitative practices starting from the recruitment stage, as many recruitment agents operate outside of regulatory frameworks.
Several governments in the IGAD region, increasingly aware of these challenges, and of the limits of unilateral measures such as implementing migration bans,[4] have sought to conclude bilateral labour agreements (BLAs)[5] with major destination countries to better regulate labour migration flows and improve working conditions for their nationals abroad. [6]
When solidly rooted in international human rights and labour standards and well implemented, BLAs can strengthen labour migration governance and the protection of migrant workers. Yet recent ILO research indicates that BLAs have been underutilized to advance the protection of migrant workers’ rights.[7] In some cases, if the BLA are not well negotiated or do not align with international instruments, agreements can actually weaken protection embodied in international standards and national laws, or lead to differential treatment according to migrant workers’ nationality. This may be a reflection of the unequal negotiating power between origin and destination countries, as well as limited knowledge or capacity to take into account key labour and employment issues. Origin countries may in effect find themselves in competition with each other, leading to a “race to the bottom,” exerting downward pressure on wages and working conditions for migrant workers. Cooperation and the adoption of harmonized positions among countries of origin can potentially reduce the risk of fragmentation and unfair competition.
At the regional level, for over a decade or so, the IGAD Secretariat has made strenuous efforts to develop comprehensive policy frameworks and institutional arrangements to strengthen migration governance. In this regard, among other things, IGAD has developed a Regional Migration Policy Framework, the IGAD Migration Action Plan and established and supported migration governance architecture at national and regional levels. All these instruments emphasise the need for cooperation and coordination among member states and build common understanding and approaches to improving migration governance in the region and beyond.
Currently, IGAD is leading the negotiations towards the development of a free movement protocol, which would, among other objectives, support strengthened frameworks for labour migration governance among Member States. In addition, the Secretariat has also recognised the increasing number of its Member States who are facing challenges related to migration of their nationals to other regions, including the Arab States.
In this context, developing guidance for the region on rights-based BLAs to ensure that Member States are in a position to conclude agreements on the basis of equality of treatment and opportunity among all workers was identified as one of the key priority areas of intervention to be supported under the EU-funded technical cooperation project “Free Movement of Persons and Transhumance in the IGAD Region: Improving Opportunities for Regulated Labour Mobility.”
The development of the guidelines is also intended to contribute to the broader global knowledge base by identifying key challenges and good practices in developing and implementing BLAs in practice.
Objective and expected outputs
The objective of the consultancy is to develop regional-specific guidelines on rights-based bilateral labour agreements for the IGAD region in the form of a practical guide. The guidelines will be based both on the international rights framework and concrete country experiences in developing and implementing BLAs.
Working under the supervision of the ILO Chief Technical Adviser and Technical Officer of the Free Movement in the IGAD Region project, with technical backstopping provided by ILO MIGRANT Branch in Geneva, the consultant will:
· Review the ILO’s existing research and technical guidance on BLAs, and guidance embodied in international instruments (e.g. ILO Conventions No. 97 and 143, among others) and ILO guidelines, such as ILO’s Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration.
· Prepare a background paper outlining key challenges, lessons learned and emerging good practices encountered through an analysis of recent experiences in BLA development and implementation in the region. This will involve consultations with selected stakeholders in IGAD countries and the IGAD secretariat, and if possible, main destination countries, as well as ILO technical specialist and project staff, and a review of relevant literature.
· Based on the key issues identified in the background paper, propose an annotated outline for the guide.
· Draft the IGAD regional guide on rights-based BLAs, incorporating comments and feedback received from the ILO, IGAD and key stakeholders.
· Present the initial findings in a regional consultation workshop: The consultant will participate in a regional review and validation workshop to gather stakeholder inputs on the guide.
· Finalize the regional guidelines
Potential areas to cover in the Guide (to be adjusted based on stakeholder consultations):
· Brief overview summarizing key challenges in labour migration governance for IGAD countries with respect to migration outside of the region, with a special focus on Arab states
· Outline of key elements to include in a comprehensive rights-based bilateral labour agreement
· Overview of relevant rights frameworks, including international human rights instruments and international labour standards, continental and regional frameworks
· Specific rights of particular relevance found in international instruments and how they can be addressed in BLAs (e.g, wage issues, recruitment fees, freedom to change employers, etc)
· Preparing for a BLA: information to gather on the destination country (eg, existing legal framework), the current migration situation prior to entering into negotiations (existing migration flows, profiles of migrant workers, main issues faced by workers, etc), inter-ministerial coordination, composition of negotiating teams, etc.
· Developing a BLA text: what instruments and issues to include in the BLA such as equal treatment and non discrimination, protection of migrant workers, especially vulnerable workers, fair recruitment principles, employment contracts and working conditions, wage protection, housing, skills development, social protection, etc
· Examples of good practice provisions, drawn where possible from agreements involving African and other countries
· Gender considerations to take into account and examples of gender responsive elements/articles to incorporate into BLAs
· BLA negotiations on an equal partnership basis
· Implementation and monitoring of BLAs including issues of transparency, awareness, follow up mechanisms, joint committees, resources,
· Evaluation of BLAs
· Templates, which may include terms of reference for joint monitoring commissions, and key points to cover when drafting standard employment contracts based in international labour standards.
Key deliverables
· Inception report: the consultant will submit an inception report which outlines the methodology for the background report, identification of BLAs to analyse, data collection tools, preliminary list of literature and resources, and detailed implementation time line.
· Background paper: analysis of concrete experiences in developing and implementing BLAs by countries in the region, including identification of key issues to address in the guidelines.
· Submit first Draft Guideline: the consultant will submit the first draft guideline for review and comments of the ILO and key stakeholders;
· Submit Revised Draft Guideline: the consultant will submit a revised draft guideline incorporating comments and inputs from ILO and other key stakeholders
· Present the Guideline in a regional consultation workshop: the consultant will present the guideline in a regional consultation workshop;
· Final Guideline: after incorporating the comments the consultant will submit a final version of the guideline to the ILO
Timeframe
The consultancy is expected to be completed in a maximum of three months between August and November 2019.
Profile of the consultant
· Advanced degree in law, social sciences, economics, or equivalent
· 7-10 years of work experience in migration-related policy development, technical assistance, and/or research
· Solid knowledge of labour rights, employment issues and gender issues
· Knowledge of or experience in countries of the IGAD region and/or migration in Arab States desirable
· Previous experience in developing similar guidelines and policy documents at national or regional level, ideally in relation to bilateral labour agreements
· Fluent in English
Reference materials
The consultant should draw on and adapt existing ILO research and guidance on BLAs, which can include, but is not limited to, the following:
· international labour standards relevant to migrant workers (such as the 9 UN human rights instruments including ICRMW), including but not limited to the ILO 8 fundamental Conventions and declarations, the migrant workers instruments and the ILO standards relating to private employment agencies, protection of wages, social security and particular categories of workers such as domestic work (see normlex data base).
· ILO (2017). Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape, Report IV, International Labour Conference, 106th Session, 2017. International Labour Office, Geneva.
· ILO (2016) Gender sensitivity in labour migration-related agreements and MOUs, based on a report by Lin Lean Lim. International Labour Organization, Geneva.
· ILO (2016). General principles and operational guidelines for fair recruitment, adopted by the Meeting of Experts on Fair Recruitment, Geneva, 5–7 Sep. Geneva, Internaitonal Labour Office. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---declaration/documents/publication/wcms_536755.pdf
· ILO training toolkit on Establishing Fair Recruitment Processes: https://readymag.com/ITCILO/1131618/
· ILO and IOM joint training toolkit on developing and implementing bilateral labour arrangements in Africa, forthcoming (modules to be provided
· ILO and IOM (2019) forthcomingTool for the Assessment of Bilateral Arrangements on Labour Migration
· King-Dejardin, A. (2018). The Social Construction of Migrant Care Work. At the intersection of care, migration and gender, Working Paper, International Labour Office, Geneva.
· Wickramasekara, P. (2018). Core elements of a bilateral agreement or a memorandum of understanding on labour migration, International Labour Organization, Dhaka
· Wickramasekara, P. (2018). Good Practices and Provisions in Multilateral and Bilateral Labour Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding, International Labour Organization, Dhaka https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---ilo-dhaka/documents/publication/wcms_638923.pdf
· Wickramasekara, P. (2015). Bilateral Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding on Migration of Low Skilled Workers: A Review, Report prepared for the Labour Migration Branch, International Labour Office and the World Bank KNOMAD project, Geneva.
[1] The IGAD region is comprised of Djibouti, Eritrea (membership suspended), Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.
[2] UNDESA (2015) Trends in international migration stock: The 2015 revision; Atong et al (2018) Africa Labour Migration to the GCC States: the Case of Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. ITUC Africa.
[3] ILO (2017) https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---arabstates/---ro-beirut/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_578736.pdf
[4] A number of countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have experimented with bans on labour migration to Arab states, which were subsequently lifted. Experiences from Asia suggest that bans on migration to specific countries tend to lead to an increase in irregular migration to those countries, implying greater risks for migrant workers
[5] The term “Bilateral labour agreement” is used generically to apply to legally-binding bilateral agreements and to Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), as well as other framework agreements or protocols for cooperation on labour migration.
[6] E.g,, Kenya has concluded agreements with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE. Ethiopia has concluded agreements with Jordan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia; Uganda has concluded an agreement with Saudi Arabia.
[7] See Wickramasekara, 2018, Cholewsinski, 2015
How to apply:
Submission of proposals
Interested Consultants are invited to submit financial proposals together with their CV/profiles and a writing sample to: addis_procurement@ilo.org until 18 August, 2019