Problem description

The current Covid-19 pandemic has a devastating impact on businesses, institutions and organizations across a range of economic sectors, threatening their operations and creating liquidity issues. According to ILO, full or partial lockdown measures are now affecting almost 2.7 billion workers, representing around 81 per cent of the world’s workforce. Millions of them are vulnerable to income loss and redundancy, specially those working in the informal economy. The OECD in its “Women at the core of the fight against Covid-19 crisis” observes that women, due to the greater caring responsibilities, have more difficulties finding alternative employment and income streams following a lay-off situation. 

Seasonal businesses, such as in agriculture, which depend on national and international seasonal workers are deeply affected by the lockdowns imposed in many countries. Workers inihibition to travel may cause serious problems for activities dependent on these workers, such as plantations or harvests. For example, in Bangladesh rice harvesting is under pressure due to lack of labour. Internal migration has been halted due to the lockdown and that compromises regional food security. Contrastingly, certain sectors face a strong increase in demand (e.g. food production, supermarkets, delivery services, IT services), but are unable to cover their human resources due to limited freedom of movement. In the short-term this affects, for example, grocery stores that have an increased need to refill their shelves, health centres that need more medical staff, but also cleaning staff due to the increased hygiene regulations, and IT companies due to increased demands for digital solution. 

Also, in medium- to long-term, mismatch between labour qualifications (supply) and labour demand is expected. Specific industries such as delivery services or online based platforms are expected to increase in the post-Covid economy. The demand for qualified professionals for these industries will meet shortage of supply of technical expertise, posing potential problems for the development of the private sector, specifically in developing countries. Further, the expected medium to long term economic crisis will overall impact the employers’ possibilities and willingness to invest into workforce development or provide in-company training. Many of them already halt recruitment, closing the small window of opportunity for VSD graduates. The shifts in the labour market make transition to work even more important; missing certificates, reduced job opportunities ask for increased matching efforts. The labour market furthermore demands revision and adaptation of existing curricula and teaching/learning materials. 

Possible Solutions for SDC projects

In order to find solutions, many of SDCs project partners and beneficiaries will depend on support. For example:

1. VSD projects can in the short-term support the fast-track upskilling of apprentices in health professions or ICT so that they can e.g. work in a hospital, and support the validation of acquired knowledge and experience later or support the adaptation of trainings, e.g. from retail to online retail. 
2. Labour market projects can support businesses in sectors affected by lack of human resources by matching supply and demand of labour (online job portals, radio/TV channels, print media). Support can be given in diverse forms:

•  Supporting the development of matching services (depending on the context, online job portals may be preferable)
•  Publicising matching platforms so that they are increasingly used by both the unemployed as well as the business searching for human resources,
•  Linking platforms with skills development for short term online training, 
• Encouraging in particular women’s participation to avoid uneven share of family responsibilities