r4d researchers pay site visit to Ethiopia

The r4d Employment Project aims to find out whether there are policy instruments that could create and sustain good jobs within a developmental context by connecting local enterprises to international markets, stimulating technological upgrading, and restructuring the regulation and functioning of labour markets. Research is focused on six developing countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, South Africa and Vietnam.

The project aims not only to produce scientific knowledge relevant for policy-makers but is also committed to creating data sources for use by other researchers. For this reason the workshop will bring together experts on data collection with a specific focus on firm-level data, PhD students and scientists involved in the project. The goal is to pool all the know-how gathered within the project about data collection and comparability.

Organised as a public event, the workshop on Constructing Comparable Datasets in a Developmental Context with Firm-Level Data is open to all students and staff of Addis Ababa University. Two lectures that outline the challenges and requirements of data collection within a developmental context are followed by presentations and a question and answer session.

Ahead of the workshop, a roundtable discussion on Development and Employment: Projects, Problems, and Prospects took place on 19 October.

This brought project scientists and various stakeholders together to discuss three separate areas: employment quality and quantity, technology and labour, and integration and jobs.

To round off the site visit researchers are calling in at a number of Ethiopian businesses in the formal and informal sectors to gain a first-hand impression of Ethiopian industry. These visits will allow an opportunity to talk to employees and managers, examine equipment and observe working conditions.

The Swiss team includes WTI Managing Director Joseph Francois, researchers Christian Häberli, Patrick Tomberger and Doris Oberdabernig, and Ruya Gokhan Kocer from the University of Geneva.