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Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
Future of Work in Angola: a CO Portfolio Approach
Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
BIG BET
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Our challenge is that the CO works in a very siloed way. In order to answer the challenge of Work and Employment in Angola, all units need to work together for a common agenda and increased impact. As a Deep Demo CO we will be supporting the CO in developing a Portfolio focused on the Future of Work.
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
Work and Employment are priorities in the National Development Plan specially when associated with the Diversification of the Economy. Unemployment Rate is at 34%; Youth (15-24 years) unemployment rate is at 59%; informal employment rate is 81%; female informal employment is 90% and youth informal employment is 94.3%. Work and Employment are priorities of the Inclusive Growth, poverty reduction or sustainable development unit. However, it is heavily connected with other priorities from other CO units, for instance, there is strong evidence for the relation between health and productivity, there is a need to invest on green jobs that are aligned with environmental goals and of course we cannot approach a strategy for work and labour without looking into Governance. At this stage, although many CO projects from different units have somehow touched upon Labour and Work related issues, they have done so individually. This is not creating the desired impact and resources and capacities are not maximized.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
https://www.ine.gov.ao/Arquivos/arquivosCarregados//Carregados/Publicacao_637745721534282470.pdf
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Unemployment is high, specially between youth. Weak signs of social unrest have emerged as a consequence of lack of expectations and frustration around work opportunities. Available government programs and initiatives are sectorial and still not able to act on the causes of the issues and its impact in the society. The Diversification of the Economy is a national priority for the next years, job creation in the productive sectors is a key element to consider when looking at socio-economic development.
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
It is worth to invest in these challenge because job creation and the diversity of the economy are the main Country priorities and there is space to bring change. Accelerator Lab brings new approaches that help look at the issues in a more efficient way. UNDP is very well positioned in the Economic development agenda in the country and has already solid partnerships with Ministry of Labour and Ministry of the Economy with many ongoing projects in areas such as the support for the reconversion of the informal economy, vocational and professional training and skills, entrepreneurship, professional internship programs, innovation for the productive sector.
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
UNDP Angola is unpacking what does Future of Work (FOW) mean for Angola. How can we think about job creation looking at what is happening on the ground and looking ahead into the future. How can Work be leveraged for the Diversification of the Economy.
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
All Country Office Units
What sector does our partner belong to?
United Nations
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
For developing the Portfolio
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
Strategic Innovation Unit
What sector does our partner belong to?
United Nations
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
We will try to keep interacting with SIU to expand on our systems thinking framework and design the Portfolio.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
A strategic design and knowledge partner to be defined
What sector does our partner belong to?
Private Sector
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
To Design and Manage the CO Portfolio during 2022
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
We want to learn what are the current employment dynamics in the country and identify the trends and signals of change of future of work in Angola.
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Sense, Explore
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
These methods will contribute to have diversified quantitative and qualitative data at different scales, macro and micro.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
These methods will allow us to gather socio-economic data about work and employment.
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
How are ongoing CO projects answering work and employment related issues?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Sense
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
A CO office-wide Sensemakimg exercise with 10 selected ongoing projects will allow us to understand what is it already being covered and what gaps exist. The exercise will also help identify potential synergies between different projects, that can be potentialised allowing for a best use of resources and capabilities, increased impact, expansion of existing projects or creation of new ones, exploring new areas of work. This is the starting point to design the Portfolio.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Pro-Docs are very technical and fail to show the reality of the projects and the impact of the activities. The Sensemaking exercise allows to collect valuable insights that cannot be taken out of Project Documents.
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
New proposals on the Pipeline suggest that there is opportunity for a greater involvement of UNDP Angola CO on the National Employment and Work Agenda in the years to come, specially aligned wit the Diversification of the Economy Strategy. If an initial Portfolio is designed and tested, the CO will be able to show partners from the Public and Private sector that a more integrated and holistic approach is worth investing in. The CO will have a full understanding of the resources and capacity required to act, looking at it from a multi-stakeholder perspective that also considers the future of work both from a local lens as well as a global perspective.
END OF ACTION LEARNING PLAN: Thank you! The form saves automatically and your submission has been recorded. You may now exit this window.
1No poverty
8Decent work and economic growth
10Reduced innequalities
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