KIGALI - The Ministry of Public Service and Labour has established a National Employment and Stakeholder Forum to help promote employment in the country.

The forum comes in the wake of growing global employment challenges and will act as a platform where various players will meet to identify and discuss how to tackle the challenges.

The Ministry of Labour will coordinate the activities of the forum that will comprise other stake holders, including representatives from the private sector, civil society, workers’ unions, faith-based organizations, research and learning institutes and development partners.

Speaking at a conference yesterday, the Director General of Labour and Employment in the Ministry, Anne Mugabo, explained that the forum will also help the stakeholders know each other and avoid duplicating efforts.

"There was no coordination of work between the players and, therefore, we could not know where things were moving well and where they were not. So this forum is expected to address that issue,” Mugabo said.

She added that the forum would play a positive role by contributing to better mutual understanding and cooperation among stakeholders in employment promotion.

The Minister of Public Service, Anastase Murekezi, said that though Rwanda has recorded dynamic economic growth and development, there are significant shortcomings when it comes to decent employment opportunities.

"The majority of Rwandans work in the informal sector, including subsistence agriculture and face underemployment. In order to ensure adequate income generation and decent working conditions, there is need to improve the labour demand, labour supply, and regulation of the labour market,” the minister said.

Mugabo noted that currently, the country is facing challenges in the employment area such as lack of sufficient data on unemployment among the youth and lack of employability skills on the labour market among others.

She, however, said that several initiatives like accelerated programmes on rural economic activities, and the soon to be announced minimum wage and the expected creation of an estimated 200,000 job, as some of the government’s strategies of curbing unemployment.

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