Honduras Will Improve Workers' Job Placement with IDB Support

-The program will benefit almost 40% of job seekers registered in the comprehensive employment service seeking training.  

-This is the first IDB loan to include the returned population so that they can re-enter the workforce in their country of origin.  

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved $25 million to improve job placement opportunities in the formal sector for people seeking employment in the country. The operation aims to strengthen job seekers' employability skills and enhance the coverage and quality of the public employment service offer and reintegration services for the returned population.  

The program will support strengthening the skills of people seeking employment, emphasizing groups that find greater barriers to job placement, such as women, young people, people with disabilities, the returned population, and Indigenous and Afro-Honduran peoples.  

In this sense, the program will coordinate actions with the productive sector to identify training needs by sector and identify internship opportunities and learning schemes in companies.  

The initiative includes pilot education and technical professional training for people with disabilities, incorporating their specific needs. In addition, it contemplates campaigns to stimulate female participation in non-traditional jobs, which are more demanded by the productive sector and have better remuneration. 

To promote the labor integration of the returned population, the program will provide attention to 15,000 returned people of working age, carry out professional training activities and certificate labor competencies, and take action to improve the conditions of the returned population in hiring processes.  

Likewise, the project includes rehabilitating and equipping three model offices of the comprehensive employment system (SIE in Spanish), including universal accessibility standards for people with disabilities and energy efficiency. In addition, the loan will strengthen SIE's computer systems and develop a centralized platform that offers job matching services between employers and job seekers.  

The strengthening of the SIE will benefit more than 64,000 job seekers.  

The $25 million IDB funds comprise $13 million in regular funds, $7 million in concessional funds, and $5 million in non-reimbursable funds. They have a 5-year disbursement period.