Sida's work with employment
Limited work opportunities, low incomes and poor working conditions trap many residents of low-income countries in poverty. They cannot afford education and health care and do not always have access to social safety nets. Sida works to ensure that people living in poverty have secure employment and that more people, especially women and young people, can earn a living.
Why does Sida work for employment?
Hundreds of millions of people in the world lack employment and livelihoods
Many people living and working in low-income countries often do not have enough income to support themselves. They also often lack social protection systems and basic rights. 241 million of the world’s workers live in extreme poverty.
The global labour market is bleak
Most countries, especially low- and middle-income countries, have not recovered to pre-pandemic employment levels. The situation has been exacerbated by subsequent crises with escalating conflicts and high inflation slowing down global economic development.
More people working in the informal sector
Around 2 billion people, 60% of the global labour force, work in the informal economy, often in precarious work, with low pay and poor conditions. This particularly affects women and young people.
Examples of what Sida has contributed to
Functioning labour markets and job creation
Sida helps to create jobs with good terms and conditions and functioning labour markets. In Mozambique, Sida’s long-standing support to MozTrabalha has been crucial to the implementation of the country’s labour market policy.
Green jobs for the climate transition
Green jobs are increasingly important in the global transition to a more sustainable economy. Sida’s support to sustainable agricultural practices among farmers’ cooperatives and farms in Tanzania has contributed to production increases of between 20-50 per cent. It has also opened up access to new markets for thousands of farms producing flowers, fruits, vegetables, spices, herbs and garden seeds.
More women and youth in employment
In Zimbabwe, Sida supports a project that improves income, working conditions and resilience to crises and stress for vulnerable urban and rural women. In Zambia, Sida is supporting a new vocational training programme that is a collaboration between Volvo, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the Northern Technical College. The curriculum ensures that the programmes are matched to the needs of local industry. Most of the students come from rural areas and an increasing number are women.
Sida's work with employment
In Sida’s partner countries, most people with jobs work in the informal economy. These jobs are often low-paid, insecure and without regulated working conditions such as working hours and form of employment. This makes it difficult for people to improve their lives and afford schooling for their children, health care and medicines, and access to social security. An important part of the aid is to create opportunities for people who are currently excluded from the economy to gain access to livelihood. This improves living conditions for women, young people and other vulnerable groups. Ensuring that people have secure jobs with wages that they can live on, is also important for preventing conflicts and maintaining peace.
Many of the people in Sida’s partner countries lack sufficient income and access to jobs with good conditions. The ability to earn a living is a prerequisite for lifting people out of poverty and improving their own lives and those of their families.
Sida supports projects that contribute to more people having access to livelihoods and jobs with good working conditions, especially for women and young people. Here are some examples:
In Burkina Faso, Sida supports the UN’s specialised agency for agriculture, forestry and fisheries (FAO) to improve food security and increase livelihoods for small-scale farmers by restoring eroded farmland, upgrading water dams and increasing agricultural productivity through sustainable farming methods. This benefits, among others, internally displaced people and the economic empowerment of women.
About FAO’s work in Burkina Faso on the organisation’s website
In Kenya, Sida supports partnerships between private and public organisations (Public-Private Development Partnership (PPDP) programme). Through employment and self-employment, young people from marginalised areas in Narok and Nakuru counties have found gainful employment with decent conditions.
A large percentage of the world’s workers lack employment contracts, security and rights in their workplaces. They also have wages that are too low to live on. This is especially true for workers in low- and middle-income countries. Sida supports projects that improve and strengthen people’s rights and conditions in the labour market. Here are some examples of projects Sida supports:
In many low-income countries, workers have little opportunity to influence their working conditions. In Bangladesh, Sida is supporting a project in which the government and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) are working together to empower workers in the textile industry. This enables more workers to organise themselves in trade unions and thus influence and improve their conditions.
An efficient and effective employment service is key to enabling more people to enter the labour market. In the Western Balkans, Sida’s support has contributed to progress through the integration of digital tools in employment services and cooperation with the Swedish Public Employment Service. Key milestones include the development of a new website for the employment service in Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cooperation with the World Bank, and the integration of employment service systems in Kosovo.
People who are not in formal paid employment are often excluded from social security schemes such as health insurance and pensions. Many also have more limited access to healthcare and education, and fewer resources for their children – which in turn makes it harder to escape poverty.
Sida helps to strengthen social protection systems for people outside the labour market. Here are examples of projects that Sida supports:
Many people in Rwanda live in poverty and access to social security is important for those who live in extreme poverty and are most vulnerable (women, children, people with disabilities and the elderly). Through Sida’s support to Rwanda’s national social protection system, thousands of children and pregnant women have accessed cash grants and support for nutritious food. Nearly 6,500 households had a family member access flexible part-time work in 2023–2024.
The current situation in Afghanistan has made it difficult to support long-term job development and livelihoods. Sida is therefore reorganising to meet basic needs. Through so-called “cash for work” where people who lack access to their own livelihood receive cash support in connection with the performance of simple community services, which provides access to income and livelihood.
Sida’s support for interventions with employment as a main objective amounted to SEK 1.7 billion in 2024. Many other areas of Sida’s work, such as agricultural development, private sector development, education and energy, also contribute to increasing employment. The focus of the work is governed by the Government’s Strategy for Sustainable Inclusive Economic Development, but also by several country strategies. The summary describes how Sida works with employment.
Report on trade, employment and poverty reduction – an evidence-based overview
Updated: December 10, 2024