North Africa: Ideas to support growth

Source: AUC / OECD 2018
The labor market creates few highly skilled jobs, capable of instilling economic dynamism. 28.8% of young people (aged 15-24), which is twice the global average, only 16.6% of young women are active compared to 46.8% of young men. lives in poverty

With volatile domestic investment and insufficient productivity gains, growth in North Africa is generally unstable, and employment and inequality remain major challenges, despite the dynamism of the labor markets in the region. in some countries and the reduction of inequalities It is also necessary to ensure a climate of political stability and a regulatory framework to ensure strong growth. "Dynamics of Development in Africa 2018, Growth, Employment and Inequalities", l The first edition of the Annual Economic Report of the African Union Commission, produced in collaboration with the OECD Development Center, details in one chapter all these factors.
Here are some recommendations:

– Creating value-added sectors: The real challenge is to move towards these sectors that make it possible to employ young and skilled workers. This can be achieved by consolidating the development of the manufacturing sector and increasing the exportable supply to emerging markets, particularly in Africa. Such an option can not only open up new growth opportunities for medium-sized companies, but also reduce dependence on commodity prices and tourism. While replacing the sluggish demand among traditional partners.
The case of the automobile sector, with car assembly platforms in Morocco and Algeria, is an example to be followed in other sectors, such as household appliances, electronics, textiles and others.

– Developing PPPs: The medium-term objective is to set up a real industrial sector that is not feasible without foreign capital. Admittedly, investment codes are already favorable to FDI and the contribution of states has been decisive in the automotive sector. This dynamism and political determination will encourage the development of public-private partnership (PPP) agreements to facilitate the creation of new industries or the relocation of foreign industries.
In Morocco, the Industrial Acceleration Plan 2014-2020 (PAI) aims to increase the industry's contribution to the country's GDP by 23% by 2020 and to create 500,000 jobs. The adoption of sectoral strategies specific to the territories can create more quality jobs in line with the needs of the local and national labor market. The regionalization reform in Morocco is a progress to consolidate.

– Better Targeting Women's Employment : Courageous policies that promote labor market flexibility will be important for women's integration into the labor market. For example, it would be necessary to facilitate families' access to childcare services at lower cost by supporting the provision of public crèches to enable women to consider full-time work as a profitable activity.
Similarly, longer maternity leaves also have beneficial effects. Currently, their duration in most countries of North Africa is 90 days. As the demographic transition is complete, an extension of maternity leave to six months can be done at will, with a reduction of 20 to 30% over the last three months. It is also a question of encouraging women's entrepreneurship.

– Accompanying young people: This can be done through the establishment of business incubators for young graduates from 20 to 30 years old. Indeed, young people from vocational training and who wish it should benefit from support to create a company in their field of training. The report also advocates retraining for long-term unemployed young people. Complementary training will make them competitive again in the job market. This presupposes an initial development of technical and vocational training streams.