Addressing exclusions in the Maldivian labour market

Our challenge is that various groups of the population are excluded from the labour market. 

Given the significant percentage of young people in the country’s population, it is undeniable that they represent the hopes and aspirations for the future. without support and facilitation from a distant and unresponsive state. Although Maldivian youth live in the wealthiest country in South Asia, with a similar per capita GDP (measured in PPP terms) to Mexico or Argentina, Maldivians in the working age group are faced with many of the pressures of post-industrialist society. It seems to be the case that efforts to improve the well-being and empowerment of young people have lagged behind economic growth. Such absence of meaningful socio-economic participation and engagement is evident from the fact that twenty nine percent of the youth (between 18-35 years) remains without been engaged in any employment, education, or training (NEET) out of which 41% are women, and 15% are men, alluding to the increasing unpaid care burden of women after marriage or starting a family (Household Income and Expenditure Survey, 2019and the number of NEET below 22 are similar for men and women. A higher NEET rate for women after 22 years alludes. Job opportunities are less in rural islands compared to the volume of jobs created and available in the Greater Male’ Region and in other urban centres of the country. This is reflected by the fact that one third of the youth population, aged 18-24 years live in Male’, the capital city. Higher education enrolment is low in the Maldives compared to other Middle-Income Countries (International Organization for Migration, 2018). According to the latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), overall unemployment is at 5.3% (4.8% among women and 5.6% among men). Also, 29 percentage of youth (between 18-35 years) belongs to Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEETs) population, out of which 41% are women, and 15% are men (Household Income and Expenditure Survey, 2019).       In the absence of appropriate labour governance mechanisms, such as a minimum wage and a strong labour regulatory institution creates a race to the bottom in terms of wages and working conditions, which further exacerbate the unemployment trends for Maldivian young people. Deficits in soft skills development and critical thinking in the education system and poor investment in professional skilling programs, including a negative attitude towards technical and vocational training programs, leaves the country with a labour force ill equipped to meet its development needs. Additionally, poor inclusivity in the employment landscape, gender stereotypes, issues related to harassment, unpaid care burden and the gender pay gap remains as hurdles to vulnerable groups like women’s and PWD’s participation in the labour force.  Educational attainment of youth in agriculture, engineering, manufacturing, and construction are low compared to the fields of social science, business and law, and education. The disjuncture between the needs of the industries and educational programmes feeds into the gaps in the labour market with young local graduates being continuously marginalised due to lack of relevant qualification and experience.      Such labour trends put the Maldives in a fiscally compromised situation (high outflow of foreign currency in the form of remittances) and has significant implications for the long-term development of the country as it has just completed its first demographic transition almost five years ago. The issue of addressing the various exclusions in the Maldivian labor market is a complex issue with linkages to education policy, migration policy, labor governance as well as the many sectoral policies that has driven the expansion of various sectors including tourism and construction. 

The UNDP Maldives Accelerator Lab’s value proposition is not so much in the actual intervention as much as the process of coming up with the intervention which leads to a greater shared understanding of the problem, what is already being tried and the opportunity that it provides to test certain assumptions.     The issue of exclusions in the labour market is a space where a number of actors are doing different things at scale. However, the efficacy of those interventions and the learnings from those interventions have not been captured or shared in a systematic way. As part of its effort to co-create a portfolio of experiments on this issue, the UNDP Accelerator Lab has put together an Advisory Committee, consisting of various stakeholders who are also working on their own interventions and efforts to address the same issue. By convening all of these different stakeholders to be part of the process, the Accelerator Lab will be providing an opportunity for stakeholders to provide input to the design of an experiment, providing stakeholders working on this, an opportunity to test several assumptions that are implicit in their own interventions and also to share lessons learnt, share information about what they are all doing respectively.     Given that the Maldives has completed its first demographic transition, and the closing window for the country to capture a demographic dividend from its now young and working population, is closing rapidly. Furthermore, those that are not engaged in productive employment or livelihood are costing the system. The prosperity of the country’s socio-economic future will largely depend on its ability to engage its young people in meaningful livelihood, and skill them to cater to the needs of current and future jobs.

Many groups in our population are excluded from the labour market. Can investments in soft skills increase their chances of securing and retaining employment, and what are those specific skills that could make them more competitive?  

Can improving soft skills in young people help in securing and retaining employment? 

Behavioural Insights: To assess the effectiveness of customised nudges on the participants’ behaviour  Minimal Viable Product (MVP): Develop an online learning course to enhance soft skills  Participatory Design: Involve end-users in the design and development of the learning modules. 

Surveys: information on skilling and skilling gaps and preferences for the type of soft skills people want to invest in developing     User journey: insights on effective design of learning platforms    Behavioural nudge messaging: Influence of customised messaging on behaviour of users.  Direct interviews: Provide feedback on the online learning course from the participants who successfully complete the modules. insights on individual user journeys with the learning course and its efficacy  Tracking data: Gather data on sign up, usage patterns and completion   

What are some of the barriers preventing certain groups' participation in the labour market?

Collective Intelligence: Gather information, ideas,  and insights from the problem space by involving diverse groups of people.  Data Visualisation: helps visualize and make sense the information and insights gathered Micro Narratives: Gather insights on varied experiences and journeys of individuals. Solutions Mapping: Find out existing initiatives and solutions that are addressing barriers that different groups faces. Systems Thinking: Unpack the multiple systems and systematic challenges that contributes to barriers

Focus groups and direct interviews: Gather qualitative data and insights from various excluded groups to understand the dynamics of why they are not engaged in productive employment.   Ethnographic data: directly observe different groups in an employment setting to see first-hand the barriers they face to contributing meaningfully

The possibilities of growth include:  Provide actionable intelligence on the efficacy of online mode of learning and training. Training and academic institutes like Maldives Polytechnic would be an ideal partner. Stimulating policy change to promote inclusivity and accessibility in the labour market.