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The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report has not been received. It must therefore repeat its 2001 observation, which read as follows.

The Committee notes the information contained in the Government’s report, which was received in November 2000.

1. Article 1 of the Convention. The Committee notes with interest that the draft Employment Policy has been submitted to the Presidential Economics Council. The Government states that the centrepiece of every policy is the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), and that some programmes already have been implemented. Two of the central programmes include providing microcredit. The youth entrepreneurs scheme targets young university graduates. To date it has trained 1,200 participants in entrepreneurship and provided loans to 795. The Entandikwa credit scheme targets the poor, and has so far supported 180 rural microcredit institutions and increased access to credit of marginalized people, in particular, women, youth and persons with disabilities. The Committee notes these schemes with interest. It would appreciate receiving further information on the impact of microcredit on employment promotion, and requests further details on other employment promotion programmes implemented.

2. The Committee also notes with interest that the Government has established, with ILO assistance, a special unit within the Ministry of Finance and Planning, to oversee implementation of labour-intensive and labour-based programmes. A large programme on implementation has been completed and the ILO is assisting in the impact evaluation. The Government also has drawn up a plan for modernization of agriculture, which is expected to generate employment, including the agro-processing industries. It has undertaken a project on poverty reduction through skills and enterprise development, with funding from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and assistance from the Office. The UNDP is funding US$12 million. Furthermore, Uganda is part of the Jobs for Africa Poverty Reduction Strategy in Africa of the ILO, and has completed a study on investment for poverty reduction employment and prepared a draft country action programme which outlines a number of projects and programmes.

3. Article 2. The Committee notes that the economy has been growing by an average of more than 6 per cent per year, and the Government has been effective in applying debt relief to reducing poverty, from 55 per cent of the population in 1992 to 35 per cent in 2000. It would appreciate further information on how the objective of employment promotion is taken into account in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper prepared by the Government as a condition for debt relief within the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative of the World Bank and the IMF. The Committee also notes that implementation issues concerning the employment policy are now under consideration. It requests further information on how the employment policy and implementing programmes will be kept under review. Please also provide information on the measures taken to collect and analyse statistical data concerning trends in the size and distribution of the labour force, and the nature and extent of unemployment and underemployment, to facilitate its evaluations.

4. Article 3. The Committee notes with interest that the draft employment policy was developed with extensive input from representatives of employers and workers and of other interested groups such as rural and informal sector workers. It would appreciate continuing to receive information on the nature of consultations on employment promotion, including consultations on evaluations and revisions, and on how these views are taken into account, as required by the Convention.

The preparation of a detailed report, including the indications requested in this observation, will certainly provide the Government and social partners with an opportunity to evaluate the achievement of the objectives of full productive and productive employment of the Convention. The Committee recalls that the assistance of the Office is available to comply with the reporting obligations and for the technical implementation of an active employment policy in the sense of the Convention.