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The World Bank's East Asia-Pacific region received a trust fund from the Korean government to promote skills development and job creation in the region including in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar,Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam over a period of three years, starting in June2014. The three-year grant program has a broad objective to promote effective policies and programs in skills development and job creation. It aims to: 1) Develop a knowledge base on skills supply, demand and systems by conductinganalytical work with innovative methodological approaches; 2) Provide a forum on National Competency Standards as well as National and RegionalQualifications Frameworks within ASEAN+3 countries; and 3) Promote dissemination and learning exchanges on promising policies and programs inskills development and job creation within and beyond the East Asia-Pacific region,including examples of best practices.Specifically, in Component (2) of the program it was identified that there is aneed to take stock of the current country level progress and challenges with regard to development of national competency standards and national qualifications frameworks (NQF). Further, there is a need to understand the various types of standards currently being used in different countries and their definitions, comparability, and the process and stakeholders involved in the development of such standards. Finally, it is important toevaluate to what extent they truly reflect the requirements of today and tomorrow's labour market demands.This synthesis report brings together research undertaken in 12 participating EAP countries (Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines,Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) who responded to a survey related to national qualifications systems, including the barriers and issues facing implementation of quality assurance strategies such as NQF development, existence and implementation.

Education --- Educational Sciences --- Improving Labor Markets --- Social Protection and Risk Management

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Good jobs are in short supply in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Sustainable, better employment opportunities must come from higher labor demand from a dynamic and internationally competitive private sector, the result of an advanced economic transition from a state controlled to a market led economy. This note focuses on job creation from the perspective of enterprise sector dynamics in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The purpose is to understand, better, the dynamics of job creation, where and how firms and jobs are created, and the most important constraints to job creation from the firm perspective. Drawing on several sources of data, including firm registry, data on entrepreneurship, labor force surveys, and policy indicators, the note contributes to the job diagnostics necessary to devise relevant policy to increase job opportunities in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and is intended to provide guidance to researchers and policymakers in other countries wishing to understand better the role of the private sector in employment. Despite some significant business climate reforms, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has not seen private sector dynamics or 'entrepreneurship' improve sufficiently. In sum, the transition of workers and jobs from low productivity sectors to higher productivity sectors has stalled in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Prior to the economic crisis, countries which had advanced more in the transition process saw higher productivity growth than the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, more inflows of workers into the services sector, and substantive net job creation. In the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, in contrast, labor reallocation is still incomplete. One fifth of the population remains in low productivity agriculture and one third is informally employed. Between 2007 and 2011 the formal private sector created only 12 percent of all new jobs.

Business Environment --- Enterprise Development & Reform --- Improving Labor Markets --- Job Creation --- Labor Markets --- Labor Policies --- Private Sector Development --- Social Protection and Risk Management --- Social Protections and Labor

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Kazakhstan is a unique country in a unique part of the world. Its uniqueness is important, as it shapes the opportunities and economic realities faced by the country, as well as the political responses to those challenges. Since independence in 1992, Kazakhstan has made rapid progress in transitioning to an upper-middle income country. This sustained growth has enabled Kazakhstan to achieve rapid reductions in poverty. This note draws on a large body of recent and ongoing analyses carried out by the World Bank, the Government of Kazakhstan, and other partners. The strategy, in turn, aims to enhance the impact of the government's policies, programs, and projects on the availability, diversity, quality, and sustainability of jobs. The remainder of the note is structured as follows: Section 2 provides a detailed review of the state of jobs in Kazakhstan, reviewing recent progress and analyzing the nature of the challenges around self-employment; Section 3 introduces a framework for thinking about a jobs strategy in Kazakhstan, and provides an initial overview of the current situation and government response along each of its dimensions, as well as some potential policies for consideration; and Section 4 concludes.

Employment --- Finance --- Improving Labor Markets --- Labor & Employment Law --- Labor Markets --- Law and Development --- Poverty Reduction --- Rural Development --- Rural Labor Markets --- Social Protection and Risk Management --- Social Protections and Labor --- Youth

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After a decade of crisis and stellar economic growth over the past five years, Cote d'Ivoire has now set its sight on becoming an emerging economy. Improving prospects for productive employment will be essential for socially sustainable growth and poverty reduction. The "Cote d'Ivoire Jobs Diagnostic: Employment, Productivity, and Inclusion for Poverty Reduction" report provides a comprehensive and multi-sectoral empirical analysis of employment challenges and opportunities to inform strategies and policy actions in Cote d'Ivoire. The report aims to expand policy discussions on employment from a focus on the number of jobs and unemployment to a broader attention on the quality, productivity and inclusiveness of jobs. It makes the case for a jobs strategy with a sharper poverty lens that would focus on raising labor productivity in agriculture and informal off-farm employment to foster structural transformation, while, in parallel, pursuing longer-term goals of expanding the thin formal sector.

Agricultural Productivity --- Education --- Employment --- Improving Labor Markets --- Job Creation --- Labor Market --- Labor Markets --- Poverty Reduction --- Rice --- Rural Development --- Rural Labor Markets --- Skills Development and Labor Force Training --- Smallholders --- Social Protection and Risk Management --- Social Protections and Labor --- Vocational & Technical Education

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Over the past decade, Bangladesh has achieved strong economic growth and impressive poverty reduction. The country's great strides in human development, reflected in the lowered fertility rate, improved health and epidemiological outcomes, and progress in education, among others, are paving the way for its continued development and economic growth. Despite much progress, however, poverty and vulnerability remains a great challenge. In particular, persistent gaps across different populations exist often due to the labor market conditions experienced by marginalized workers (including unskilled laborers, females, youth, and migrants). In light of such dynamic changes in Bangladesh, the role of comprehensive Social Protection and Labor (SPL) policy to facilitate poor and vulnerable households to adequately respond to and manage various risks, is greater than ever. The recently endorsed National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) proceeds in this direction by adopting the lifecycle approach. This Social Protection and Labor Review report complements the NSSS with discussions on specific issues and policy recommendations. The report reviews the landscape of the sector, identifies key challenges to be overcome, and provides options for policy intervention. Overall, the review emphasizes the need for policy direction to shift from individual programs towards an overall strategy for households; from fragmented safety nets towards a comprehensive system; and from (ex-post) disaster reliefs towards (ex-ante) promotion of productive income generating activities. Therefore, the report greatly underscores the importance of strengthening labor market intervention and developing social insurance while addressing implementation challenges related to existing social assistance programs. In contrast to the multitude of various social assistance programs, Bangladesh currently lacks effective measures to promote labor market employment and productivity and adequate social insurance to hedge various risks. In the short term, the report suggests that policy efforts need to be made to introduce active labor market programs to provide greater employment opportunities, particularly for disadvantaged populations. Strategies to develop a pension system that can cover workers regardless of their type of employment are also needed. These measures will serve as building blocks for broader policies for more, better, and inclusive jobs, and a comprehensive social insurance system, which will contribute to the country's goal of achieving middle income country status by 2021.

Gender --- Improving Labor Markets --- Inequality --- Labor Law --- Labor Market --- Labor Markets --- Labor Mobility --- Labor Policies --- Labor Standards --- Poverty --- Poverty Reduction --- Social Insurance --- Social Protection and Risk Management --- Social Protections and Labor