Term of Reference to assess the capacity and practices of overseas private employment agencies in Ethiopia At International Labour Organization

Background and Justification

The Public Employment Services (PES) that are available in different parts of the country and the Private Employment Agencies (PrEAs) can be considered as major actors in providing employment services in Ethiopia. The services provided by PrEAs are partly matching offers of local and overseas employment without being a party to the employment contract, and making a worker available locally or overseas to a third party by concluding a contract of employment with such a worker or doing both. Overseas PrEAs are licensed and supervised by the Ministry of labour and social affairs. Following the ratification of the ILO Convention No. 181 on Private Employment Agencies, Ethiopia promulgated its first Private Employment Agency Proclamation No. 104/1998, based on the principles laid down in the Convention. This was later replaced by the Employment Exchange Services Proclamation No. 104/1998, which was substituted in 2016 by the Overseas Employment Proclamation No. 632/2016 with the aim to protect the rights, safety and dignity of Ethiopians migrant workers. The most recent Overseas Employment Proclamation No. 1246/2021 was just adopted in May 2021, with the aim to create overseas employment opportunities in diversified sectors, countries and skills now replaces this.

Over the last decade, Ethiopia has taken a series of measures to build functional labour migration governance to protect migrant workers in Ethiopia and abroad. Some of the noteworthy steps taken by the Government of Ethiopia, include, developing legal frameworks, establishing institutional structures, capacity building of relevant stakeholders, negotiating and signing of bilateral agreements with major destination countries. Stipulating the roles and responsibilities of key labour migration actors in the legal instruments is also an important milestone in Government efforts to improve labour migration governance. The roles and responsibilities of private employment agencies (PrEAs) stipulated in the Overseas Employment Proclamation 1246/2021 is one good example of such action.

Recognizing overseas PrEAs critical role in labour migration governance, the Ethiopian Overseas Employment Proclamation 923/2016 in the past and currently 1246/2021 clearly defined the roles and responsibilities of Overseas PrEAs. The PrEAs are instrumental in the recruitment of migrant workers, in the process of finding employment opportunities and in the protection of the rights, safety and dignity of migrant workers in all phases of migration. PrEAs have the responsibility of protecting and safeguarding the rights of migrant workers at all stages of the migration process, from country of origin, to transit and destination.

Given the immense role played by PrEAs in labour migration governance, it is critical to examine the capacity and practices of the overseas private employment agencies. It is important to assess if they have the capacity and operational set up to conduct their business in line with Proclamation 1246/2021, other relevant national legislations, ILO Private Employment Agencies Convention 1997 (No. 181) and the ILO General principles and operational guidelines on fair recruitment and definition of recruitment fees and related costs. To this end, the ILO country Office for Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia through the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development funded project of “Improved labour migration governance to protect migrant workers and combat irregular migration in Ethiopia” is seeking to hire a qualified consultant or consulting firm to assess the capacity and practices of overseas private employment agencies to have a nuanced picture of the situation, come up with concrete recommendations, and develop a strategy for collaboration between ILO, MoLSA and the PEAs with a concrete set of action to implement.

Objective

General Objective

The general objective of this assessment is to examine the capacity and practices of the overseas private employment agencies to have a clear picture of the situation, come up with concrete recommendations, in terms of required capacity building as well as develop a strategy for collaboration between ILO, MoLSA and the PrEAs with tangible set of action to implement. The assessment is expected to provide concrete recommendations to ensure that PrEAs can adapt their practices to comply with national legislation and international law and guidance; ensure that migrant workers are protected and have better access to quality/decent employment, and inform policy level interventions in operationalization of the proclamation towards ensuring decent work.

Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of the assessment are to:

• Undertake review of the needs and gaps on recruitment issues in Ethiopia, as well as existing standards and tools on fair recruitment and define what fair recruitment looks like for PrEAs in Ethiopia
• Identify the external and internal challenges in fair recruitment, and the pre-existing enabling factors, both exterior and interior to the PrEAs.
• Produce qualitative and quantitative data related to PrEAs capacity such as institutional structure, governance, technical capacity, Human Resource, Office setting, equipment and furniture, partnership, fees etc.
• Produce qualitative and quantitative data related to PrEAs capacity in regards to protection of migrant workers, relationship with their respective counterpart in destination countries, and due diligence.
• Assess if PrEAs are operating in line with Proclamation 1246/2021, other relevant national legislations, ILO Private Employment Agencies Convention 1997 (No. 181) and the ILO General principles and operational guidelines on fair recruitment and definition of recruitment fees and related costs.
• Provide a comprehensive analysis of existing capacity of Overseas PrEAs and come up with concrete recommendations, in terms of required capacity building as well as a strategy for collaboration between ILO, MoLSA and the PrEAs.
• Develop self-assessment tools for PrEAs to enables them assess and improve their recruitment practices.
• Pilot the self-assessment tools with a group of PrEAs. The sessions will be used to present the toolkit, carry out interactive trainings, and solicit qualitative input on the tools. The trainings will cover labour and recruitment laws, the new 1246/2021 proclamation on overseas employment, recruitment violations detected in the Ethiopian recruitment sector, ethical recruitment and ways to reduce recruitment-related risks, including through the application of best practices and the tools developed.
• Based on the assessment, draw concrete recommendations that would inform policy level interventions in operationalization of the proclamation towards ensuring decent work for migrant workers.

Methodology

The assessment should use both primary and secondary sources, covering both qualitative and quantitative data available on overseas PrEAS capacity and practice in Ethiopia. A combination of methodologies will be used to ensure adequate, reliable, representative and valid data is collected for the assessment. Further to the methodology proposed below the consulting firm can propose additional methodology as required:

• First, a desk review will appraise the existing evidence and analysis on Overseas PrEAs and labour migration in Ethiopia. This will make use in particular of the analyses conducted by the Ethiopian Jobs creation commission and other recent studies by the ILO and other actors.
• Interview of PrEAs, migrants, returnees and other relevant stakeholder will be implemented. The interview will sample an equal distribution of micro (1 to 4 employees), small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 49 employees) and large, if available (above 49 employees) PrEAs. The consulting firm will adapt the data collection tool already developed by the ILO, which focus on: available HR, due diligence, office setting, awareness on the proclamation and ILO General Principles and Operational Guidelines for fair recruitment, management structure, partnership with their counterpart, protection of migrant workers, communication etc;
• Focus group/key informant discussions with PrEAs Association, Federation of Overseas PrEAs, migrants, returnees, will be conducted to shed light, interpret and qualify the key findings of the above interview.

Expected Results

The outcome of this study is expected to inform the Government and relevant actors in Ethiopia for evidence based policymaking and programme implementation especially in regards to the capacity and practices of overseas PrEAs. It will further guide the PrEAs to align better with the current proclamation and ILO Guideline on fair recruitment, as well as improve the protection of migrant workers. The assessment will inform the development of a strategy on improving coordination between ILO, MoLSA and other relevant actors. It will also help in identifying the shortcoming of PrEAs in regards to creating decent employment opportunities and based on this shortcoming develop a capacity building plan for PrEAS.

Deliverables

• Inception report that will include a detailed methodological note explaining the understanding of the ToRs, presenting a proposed methodology, key resources/materials to be used, survey instruments draft outline of the report and detailed work plan.
• A copy of the full dataset (in Stata, SPSS or another system) containing the data collected.
• A draft report with details methodology on how the results were computed (i.e. estimation model if necessary) with a statement of statistical data quality and coverage.
• The final report that has taken into account comments and inputs given by different stakeholders.
• Presentation of the report in a validation workshop.
• Self-assessment tool for PrEAs.
• Training and training report for PrEAs.
• Final report incorporating all inputs received from the workshop.

Duration

• Week 1 : Submission of the inception report
• Week 2 & 3 : Compile and review relevant information related to the subject matter
• Week 4 – 6 : Data Collection & Analysis
• Week 6 : Submit draft report
• Week 7 : Input on draft report from ILO and MoLSA
• Week 8 :Presentation of the assessment in the national validation workshop
• Week 9 : Based on comments received from the validation w/shop submit final report

*10 Weeks spread over a period from 12 July – 12 August 2021

Ownership and Disclosure of Data/Information

All documents, project data and information obtained in connection with this assignment shall be treated confidential and shall not without the written approval of ILO be made available to any third party. All the documents provided by ILO, both soft and hard copies are to be returned to ILO upon completion of the assignment. All documentation and reports written as, and as a result of this assignment or otherwise related to it shall remain the property of ILO. No part of the package shall be reproduced except with the prior, expressed and specific written permission of ILO.