African Public Employment Service celebrates 20th Anniversary at birthplace

By DOH JAMES SONKEY
After playing a midwife role to the creation of the African Association of Public Employment Services (AAPES) on October 29, 1998, Cameroon’s capital last September 17 to 19, 2019 at the Mont Febe Hotel hosted the International Conference of the World Association of Public Employment Services (WAPES) and the 20th Anniversary celebration of AAPES.
The double event was jointly organized by Cameroon and Mali on the theme “youth employment and migration, what challenges and opportunities for public employment services.”
Welcoming the various delegations, the Honorary President of WAPES, Cameroon’s Director General of the National Employment Fund, Moute a Bidias Camille said “the conference was initially to be hosted by Mali, but Mali decided to honour Cameroon by handing the hosting over to us.”

Expressing gratitude to President Paul Biya for authorizing the hosting, Moute a Bidias Camille explained that “employment issues have remained at the heart of concerns of the government of our countries for several years. In fact, with the successive economic crisis recorded and the instability of the socioeconomic contexts that followed, there has been a recurrent deterioration of the employment situation in the countries that were already in the phase of economic development mainly in Africa.”
Opening the conference, Malian Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, Jean Claude SIDIBE underlined that “In sub Saharan Africa for instance, despite major efforts deployed by governments through policies and measures to create productive enterprises to boost inclusive economies by strengthening the industrial structure in order to increase employment opportunities, the unemployment rate keeps rising, stagnating especially for young people.”
He stressed that “the narrowness of our labour markets is pushing and will continue to push our young people to seek survival solutions including professional migration.”
Minister Jean Claude SIDIBE said their target is to raise national and international awareness on the role of public employment services in promoting employment and labour migration among young people, strengthen south-south and north-south cooperation in this area, develop departure migrants’zone through the promotion of growing sectors in order to offer employment opportunities to young people at their local levels.
Other top personalities like AAPES President, Ibrahim AG Nock who doubles as Malian Director General of National Employment Agency and the Executive Secretary of WAPES, Eve-Marie Mosseray representing WAPES President, Abdelmonnime El Madani who doubles as Director General of Moroccan National Agency for the Promotion of Employment and Competences was also present.
As an international and technical non-profit making organization, AAPES is a branch of the World Association of Public Employment Services created in 1988 to serve as a formal platform for the exchange of best practices in the field of employment services.
At the closing last September 19, 2019, participants adopted recommendations to facilitate the employment of African youths in order to cub the phenomenon of migration in the continent.