Paraguay will implement policies for access to quality jobs with IDB support

The Inter-American Development Bank approved a $30 million loan to finance a program in Paraguay, which objective is to develop and implement policies that support workers seeking employment to access quality jobs within the post COVID-19 job reconversion framework.

The program specific objectives are to increase the coverage of the Labor Intermediation System (SIL, in Spanish) of the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security (MTESS, in Spanish) and improve the skills of job seekers by updating the labor training networks of the National Service of Professional Promotion and the National System of Training and Labor Training with a gender perspective.

The program provides, among other actions, incentives for labor insertion, particularly for young people, for which economic transfers will be financed including apprenticeship programs for young people, adjustment and design of additional meshes for the apprentices and training of instructors’ dual system in companies that are part of it.

It will also finance activities to improve and expand the Public Employment Service; the implementation of a system for monitoring and evaluating employment policies and a online services website available to citizens; and the refurbishment of the MTESS infrastructure to include the EDGE certification and facilitate access for people with disabilities.

Similarly, the program will seek to expand the capacity of the Ministry to improve the monitoring of information on job quality and its capacity to collect, systematize and manage information, as well as to implement the digitization of procedures currently carried out manually.

In order to improve the skills of job seekers, the program will seek to consolidate the capacity of the National System of Training and Professional Training (SINAFOCAL) and the National Service for Professional Promotion (SNPP) to analyze the labor market and the demand of the employers, using information from the Labor Market Information System.

Additionally, systems for consulting employers on their skill needs will be established, and the infrastructure of the SNPP's technological institutes will be equipped and adapted to adjust to the new meshes and facilitate access for people with disabilities. Likewise, a pilot training for non-traditional occupations focused on women will be implemented, supporting their insertion, and job training for women by financing targeted economic support for food and childcare subsidies.

It is estimated that the beneficiaries of the program will be at least 40,000 job seekers with guidance and labor intermediation, and around 17,500 beneficiaries with training courses with new mesh, infrastructure and / or equipment, of which 500 are expected to be women who have access to courses in non-traditional occupations.

The IDB loan of $30 million has a repayment term of 24 years, a grace period of 6½ years, and an interest rate based on Libor.