Feb 2024
The value chain analysis combines desk research, firm data collection, and interviews with key informants. The aim of this analysis is to develop an action plan to support the sector in improving the capacity and competencies needed to enhance the sector’s competitiveness and realize its export potential. The analysis follows ILO’s TRAVERA (Trade and Value Chains in Employment-Rich Activities) and STED (Skills for Trade and Economic Diversification) methodologies and draws on core elements of ILO’s MSA (Market Systems Approach to decent work). In this consultancy, both methods are aligned into a coordinated TRAVERA-STED approach.
The TRAVERA study focuses on the employment content of different segments of the export value chain and provides an understanding of the different economic agents, their functional relations, and their business environment. Moreover, TRAVERA identifies new opportunities for but also constraints to the expansion of production and exports of the respective sub-sector. The final report provides guidance to stakeholders for the development of effective policy responses.
The STED study builds on existing work by ILO and others on the national skills development and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system to focus on the existing and emerging skills needs, skills gaps, and occupations specific to the selected sub-sector/value chain as well as on key systemic constraints of skills supply side. The study addresses policy recommendations for stakeholders to help workers acquire the skills needed by exporting firms so that these firms can increase and diversify their export revenues.
Research involves a desk review, analysis of data from the TRAVERA-STED survey, and structured interviews with key informants from relevant (national/sectoral/value chain) key stakeholders, including education and training providers, as well as national TVET authorities. It builds on ILO’s market systems approach to decent work that takes into account all the interacting actors and factors which shape the outcomes of the selected value chain. This includes context- and sector-specific supporting functions that inform, support, and shape the quality along the value chain as well as the legislative and regulatory environment, including policies, voluntary standards, and social norms that guide day-to-day attitudes and conduct. The findings of the market system analysis inform the recommendations developed in both the TRAVERA and the STED report.
