The 13th International Labour Organization regional labour-based seminar for labour-based practitioners will take place at Speke Resort Hotel Munyonyo, Kampala on November 31-December 4.

The theme for the seminar is: "Employment intensive approaches in the construction sector: a catalyst for achieving prosperity for all."

The regional seminar is held after every two years and it was last held in Durban, South Africa in October 2007. These seminars provide opportunity for participants to share views, experiences and review developments in the employment intensive approaches.

The upcoming seminar intends, among others, to support the regional and global commitments to promote labour-intensive investments in Africa and Asia in the delivery of infrastructure as one of the tools in poverty reduction.

Participants will be able to exchange ideas and experiences, identify and address key issues of concern, and they will be appraised of new policies and developments, as well as.

But why the concentration on employment intensive approaches especially in the roads sub- sector?

During the African Union (AU) heads of states and governments extraordinary summit on employment and poverty alleviation, held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in September 2004, the leaders analyzed the potential of infrastructure investments, economic and environmental programmes and social service delivery in creating decent productive employment opportunities for the unemployed.

It was acknowledged here that unemployment and under employment in Sub-Saharan Africa is the highest in the world and is threatening the development of the African region.

Equal access to employment is a basic human right and gives dignity to individuals and communities and it is key to social cohesion and economic and political stability.

The leaders, therefore, recognized the need to increase allocation of resources to infrastructure by both governments and development partners. They resolved, among others, to operationalise government employment, infrastructure policies and programmes towards employment creation and poverty reduction; engaging target groups like communities, youth, women, persons with disabilities and others through their participation in identification, planning designing and implementation of infrastructure and services that will have high impact on improving their lives.

Giant strides are already being undertaken by Uganda Government to alleviate poverty through its numerous programmes. The Prosperity For All Programme aims at tackling poverty at the household level. Under this programme, households are being facilitated to meet the basic needs and to afford basic goods and services for material and social comfort.

One of the key objectives of Prosperity For All Programme is to create employment for the poor to enable them earn the targeted minimum income of UShs20 million ($10,000) per household per year.

The Rural Roads Programme, funded by DANIDA under the District Urban and Community Roads (DUACR) department in the Ministry of Works and Transport, has gone a step further to facilitate poverty eradication programmes through its dedication to labour-based construction methods on roads where communities living along them are employed. Several kilometres of roads have been constructed throughout the country using labour-based methods.

Community roads and accesses leading to health centres, schools, markets and connecting villages to one another have been opened up fostering further growth and development.

DANIDA's support to Mount Elgon Labour-based Training Centre has also had significant impact on the training of labour-based contractors and consultants. Two consulting firms and over 80 local contractors have been trained in labour-based technology.

District local government staff from the engineering and community-based services departments from 41 districts throughout the country, and trainers, have received training at the centre.

Hosting the seminar in Uganda will enable the country to share knowledge on the use of employment-intensive methods in construction and maintenance of infrastructure facilities. It will provide a forum for the local construction industry to further the use of employment-intensive methods.

The author is Senior Public Relations Officer Ministry of Works and Transport.