Part Two: Framework for Action

II Managing Human Resources Development
A. Policy, Planning, and Programming
B. Institutional Strengthening
C. Research and Information
D. Monitoring and Evaluation
E. Regional Support

42. This framework for action consists of two sets of proposals. The first comprises 30 proposals in promotion of the three components of human resources development: investment in human resources (13 proposals), utilization of human resources (8 proposals) and enhancement of the quality of life (9 proposals). The second set comprises 32 proposals for the effective management of human resources development: policy, planning and programming (5 proposals), institutional strengthening (6 proposals), research and information (7 proposals), monitoring and evaluation (4 proposals) and regional support (10 proposals). It is expected that countries will set their individual priorities in implementation of these proposals in accordance with their respective development situations.

I. PROMOTING HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

A. Investment in human resources

(1) As perhaps their single most significant means of supporting human resources development, Governments should strengthen their efforts towards the realization of universal basic education, where this has not yet been achieved, and in facilitating access to secondary education for all who qualify.

(2) Recognizing that effective pursuit of the ideal of education for all requires the collaboration of all sectors, Governments should define clear procedures and standards to promote the establishment and strengthening of private and other non-governmental educational institutions.

(3) In order to provide an effective basis for lifelong education in a rapidly changing economic and social environment, curriculum development should be undertaken on a continuous basis to enhance the quality of education at all levels.

(4) Strong literacy and numeracy skills, emphasizing the acquisition of problem-solving abilities rather than rote knowledge alone, should be imparted by basic education programmes to provide a foundation for the skills required in a world advancing rapidly under the influence of modern science and technology.

(5) The relevance of secondary education programmes should be enhanced through an increased focus on skills for independent learning and the application of scientific principles, critical thinking and effective communications, stressing the application of knowledge to local problems and conditions.

(6) Adult education programmes should be promoted to teach basic literacy and numeracy skills and elementary science to all persons with little or no formal education, especially women, as a critical means of improving their employment prospects and enhancing their quality of life.

(7) Continuing education programmes should be designed to support lifelong education, particularly to facilitate the upgrading of underutilized human resources and enhance the capacity of individuals to adapt to rapidly changing social and economic circumstances.

(8) Women's educational self-help networks should be supported to provide women, especially those wishing to enter the labour force, with access to basic education and training.

(9) Vocational and technical training should be made relevant to both current and prospective employment conditions by applying a broad and flexible approach to human resources development that fosters the capacity of skilled labour to adjust to changes in labour demand.

(10) Vocational and technical curricula should be broadened to inculcate entrepreneurial values and should include exposure to the full range of skills required for the operation of small-scale enterprises.

(11) Work-study programmes, work attachments and apprenticeship schemes should be incorporated in vocational and technical training programmes to increase their relevance to actual employment conditions.

(12) Business firms should be encouraged, through incentives and technical support, to expand and improve their on-the-job, employment-related training capacity as well as provide opportunities for continuing education for their employees in outside training institutions.

(13) Innovative training approaches and instructional techniques should be developed to upgrade the employment and self-employment skills of the poor, particularly those in the informal sector, who would not ordinarily seek formal training opportunities even if these were available.

B. Utilization of human resources

(14) Recognizing that increased employment stems largely from policies that promote labour-utilizing investment, Governments should promote a positive investment environment, with preference give to employment-oriented investment in both the public and private sectors.

(15) Macroeconomic distortions that inhibit the full and productive employment of all those ready, willing and able to work should be modified or removed.

(16) Governments should improve the efficiency of the labour market by devising mechanisms to disseminate information about job opportunities to job-seekers and information about job-seekers to employers, and should promote the involvement of the private sector and community and non-governmental groups in such activities.

(17) Policies that support the informal sector and small-scale and cottage industries, which tend to be relatively labour-intensive, should be adopted specifically to increase employment opportunities for the poor.

(18) Programmes should be developed to promote self-employment and entrepreneurship, particularly in the informal and service sectors, through the provision of a supportive legal framework, appropriate infrastructure and services, and access to credit, as well as training in business skills.

(19) Special consideration should be given to the means of enhancing the employment contribution of small-scale and cottage industries, and industrial regulations and administrative procedures should be rationalized to facilitate the formation of linkages between enterprises in the informal and formal sectors.

(20) Urban planners should develop supportive facilities and provide essential services to enterprises in the informal sector, as that sector has the potential to employ large numbers of the urban poor.

(21) The possibilities of appropriate land reforms should be re-examined and the extension of economic infrastructure and delivery of economic services to rural and isolated areas should be pursued to create a more supportive environment for the full and productive utilization of human resources in rural areas, where a large share of the poor are typically located.

C. Enhancement of the quality of life

(22) In the allocation of public expenditures, greater recognition should be given to the fact that expenditures on the quality of life are also investments in human resources. Particular efforts should be made, on that basis, to increase the share of government budgets allocated to quality-of-life expenditures and, during periods of fiscal stringency, structural adjustment or economic reform, to preserve that share.

(23) Governments should encourage employers to take into full account the positive influence on productivity of improvements in the quality of life of the workforce and to take appropriate action, particularly in relation to working hours, working conditions and occupational health and safety.

(24) In view of the fact that improvements in the status of women contribute significantly to the quality of life of the population at large, human resources development programmes should give priority to improvements in the status of women, especially women in the workforce.

(25) Social service delivery programmes should be designed to provide adequate social infrastructure and effective service delivery in areas of greatest need, including isolated rural villages and urban slums, with effective back-up support from higher levels.

(26) Social services should be delivered to the poor through the coordinated action of the public, private and non-governmental sectors, and the delivery of those services should be rationalized through realistic programming, in-service training, and other means of ensuring that the designated target groups receive the intended benefits.

(27) The responsiveness of social service delivery systems to the needs and interests of the poor should be enhanced through the strengthening of links between the government agencies involved and other concerned institutions, particularly voluntary agencies, people's associations, community organizations and private enterprises engaged in the delivery of basic services.

(28) Affirmative action programmes should be targeted more effectively to the poor by adopting a demand-oriented approach that focuses on increasing public awareness of programme benefits and reducing socio-cultural and other constraints to participation.

(29) The capacity of institutions engaged in scientific research and development to improve the quality of life should be strengthened so that the benefits of the new technologies can reach the people, including the poor.

(30) Effective strategies should be devised to ameliorate the potentially negative impact on families of domestic and international labour migration, especially the migration of women. In particular, agencies providing services such as health care, education and counselling should adapt their delivery strategies to the special needs and circumstances of families affected by migration.

II. MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

A. Policy, planning and programming

(31) Each Government, as part of its national development strategy, should set clear-cut goals in respect of each of the Plan's three components of human resources development and should identify appropriate policies and programmes for attaining those goals within a specified period.

(32) Within the context of its national development strategy, each Government should pursue macroeconomic policies that promote human resources development, paying particular attention to the need to ensure that those policies have a beneficial impact on the poor.

(33) The comparative advantage of private enterprise, NGOs, the community and the family as vehicles for human resources development should be utilized by Governments in their development of a multisectoral strategy for such development.

(34) Gender-sensitive approaches to human resources development policy formulation, planning and programming should be adopted. In particular, women's active participation in decision-making, including national policy formulation and planning, should be encouraged through special programmes to enhance women's human resources development at senior and managerial levels.

(35) Governments should consider the potentially positive impact of the devolution of administrative and financial responsibility and authority, accompanied by training of local-level personnel and rationalization of the institutional arrangements under which they function, in enhancing the effectiveness and outreach of human resources development programmes.

B. Institutional strengthening

(36) Governments which have not already identified a national focal point for human resources development should designate an appropriate institution or body to coordinate multisectoral policy-making, planning, programming and monitoring of human resources development.

(37) To enhance its effectiveness, each national focal point for human resources development should be strategically linked to the highest policy-making levels of government and provided with operational and budgetary autonomy.

(38) Concerned government agencies, NGOs and private enterprises should be provided with ready access to the national focal point for human resources development and with the means of active participation in its coordinating activities.

(39) Each national focal point for human resources development should prioritize the recommendations in the revised Plan in the light of its country's specific national conditions and needs and should take action to ensure that those prioritized proposals are acted upon effectively.

(40) Government agencies involved in human resources development policy formulation and programme implementation at subnational levels should be encouraged to adopt a participatory approach to human resources development that involves both beneficiaries and non-governmental enabler groups.

(41) Governments should establish standard procedures to facilitate cooperation with NGOs, including community groups, as a means of ensuring their effective coordination and participation in the implementation of human resources development at the grass-roots level.

C. Research and information

(42) Among the broad range of policy issues on which research should be conducted to advance human resources development, the following should receive priority attention:

(a) The interface between macroeconomic development policies and human resources development processes, to identify the human resources development implications of different policy options.

(b) The means of increasing the responsiveness of the workforce to changing labour market conditions, including the scope for private skills training.

(c) The effects of different skills training regimes on labour productivity, and the links between skill development, productivity and compensation.

(d) The role of gender in education, particularly in science and technology education and vocational and technical training, and the formulation of strategies to enhance women's access to these critical areas of human resources development.

(e) The role of gender in the workplace, particularly in relation to gender differentials in the higher echelons of government service and the private sector, as a basis for the development of affirmative action programmes to increase women's participation in human resources development.

(f) The role of NGOs in enhancing the quality of life of the poor through successful approaches to the planning and delivery of essential services targeted at low-income groups.

(g) The role of the private sector in supplementing government efforts to develop and implement more adaptable, demand-oriented training programmes, especially targeted at the poor.

(43) Down-scaled research and development focusing on the technological and managerial upgrading of small-scale, labour-intensive, local resource-based enterprises should be encouraged as a means of enhancing economic opportunities for the poor.

(44) The differential costs and benefits, particularly the social and other non-monetary costs and benefits, of specific aspects of human resources development for particular disadvantaged groups should be identified through interdisciplinary and qualitative research strategies, to assist in the development of more effective means of raising their human resources status.

(45) The activities of the many agencies involved in the collection of human resources development data should be standardized and the dissemination and utilization of those data should be improved to facilitate regional analysis.

(46) Data processing facilities for human resources development should be upgraded and training of qualified personnel for human resources development information processing and analysis should be conducted.

(47) The information dissemination capabilities of the mass media should be fully used to generate public awareness of the critical role of human resources development, with particular attention to its role in poverty alleviation.

(48) Human resources development information and training materials should be disseminated in readily accessible form, in local languages where appropriate, to enabler and target groups at the grass-roots level.

D. Monitoring and evaluation

(49) Appropriate aggregate, sectoral and target group-specific indicators should be designed to permit the monitoring and evaluation of changes in each of the three components of human resources development, and to identify the precise impact of human resources development programmes.

(50) Reporting systems should be instituted to provide regular information flows from the grass-roots level to the centre to facilitate human resources development monitoring, and evaluation mechanisms for feedback from the centre to the grassroots should be set up to permit responsive adjustments.

(51) The reports of human resources development programme monitoring and evaluation exercises should contain quantified statements on progress achieved, using the indicators developed, and should be disseminated widely in order to increase awareness as well as transparency of the entire human resources development effort.

(52) Private sector involvement in human resources development, particularly in education and training, should be monitored to ensure complementarity between public and private programmes and to provide a basis for appropriate public sector policy and planning adjustments.

E. Regional support

(53) The ESCAP Network of National Focal Points for Human Resources Development, under the coordination of the ESCAP secretariat, should be strengthened and extended to include all ESCAP members and associate members.

(54) A human resources development trust fund should be established within ESCAP for regional and national projects and activities in implementation of the Plan.

(55) In order to enhance the effectiveness of the national focal points for human resources development, all concerned United Nations bodies and agencies working on such development in the region should keep the national focal points fully informed of their in-country activities.

(56) A review of the activities of the national focal points for human resources development should be undertaken by the ESCAP secretariat as a basis for providing guidance on their further development.

(57) A study of the special human resources development circumstances and needs of countries in the region with economies in transition should be undertaken and technical assistance requirements in the areas identified should be provided.

(58) Technical cooperation among developing countries (TCDC) should be encouraged among training institutions in the region to promote skills training, with particular attention to the development of employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship skills among the poor and to the expansion of on-the-job training programmes.

(59) Government agencies and other concerned institutions in countries that have implemented human resources development programmes successfully should be encouraged to invite representatives of other countries in the region, on a TCDC basis, to participate in in-country seminars, training courses, study tours and other relevant events to share their achievements on a regional basis.

(60) The ESCAP secretariat, in collaboration with UNESCO, should explore effective measures to promote the regional development of distance education, including modalities such as intraregional exchanges among national institutions, including the possible establishment of a regional open university, with a view to extending human resources development opportunities to a wider public.

(61) The ESCAP secretariat should implement regional and subregional training programmes for government and non-government personnel designed to enhance their awareness of the special needs of the poor and upgrade their capabilities in conducting human resources development programmes for particular subgroups of the poor, including the absolute poor, the unemployed, women, youth, disabled persons and minority groups.

(62) The ESCAP secretariat should focus attention on the particular human resources development needs of working women in the region and undertake projects designed to assist women in developing leadership, managerial and entrepreneurial skills to promote their full participation in public office, government service and private enterprise.

Overview
Background
The Jakarta Plan of Action:
Part I: Analytical Framework
Part II: Framework for Action
Part III: Arrangements for Implementation

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