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World Bank approves an additional $150 million in funding for Azerbaijan

30 July 2024 10:59 (UTC +04:00)

The World Bank's Executive Directors' Board has today approved an additional $150 million in funding to expand the ongoing Employment Support Project in Azerbaijan, APA reports citing World Bank.

The project's aim is to promote self-employment opportunities for the most vulnerable groups of the population, with a special focus on internally displaced persons, women, youth, and long-term unemployed individuals.

Over the past three years, more than 15,000 beneficiaries, including over 5,000 women, have received toolkits to start their own businesses. Based on the assessment of beneficiaries, more than 70% of AMDL participants have continued their businesses for at least 24 months after receiving the assets provided by the project. Building on this success, the newly approved funding will expand existing employment programs and services, develop and test additional mechanisms to serve more people, and promote business sustainability within the AMDL framework.

"Azerbaijan is making efforts to improve labor market outcomes for vulnerable groups. However, problems such as skills mismatch, high informality and high unemployment among women still remain," said Steffi Stallmeister, Country Manager of the World Bank for Azerbaijan. "This project helps to solve these problems to ensure a more inclusive, private sector-led economic growth in the country."

Additional funding will continue support for Azerbaijan's Self-Employment Program by covering new sectors such as manufacturing and services to promote diversification of economic activity and resilience to shocks. In addition, this funding will help pilot an improved cash grants mechanism that will allow beneficiaries to use cash to expand their businesses.

Additional funding for AMDL will also enable the Azerbaijan State Employment Agency to expand its range of services and programs for job seekers. Through this new support, the Agency will implement additional active labor market measures such as on-the-job training, wage subsidies, an apprenticeship program, vocational training development, and reimbursement of certification costs for selected occupations. These programs are expected to stimulate the employment of job seekers, including women and other vulnerable population groups, and increase their opportunities to work in production and service sectors.

Mirey Ovadiya, head of the World Bank team developing the project, said, “With this new funding, we will test the viability of active labor market measures to support skills development and incentives for jobseekers and employers. With this approach, Azerbaijan can create more productive and sustainable jobs for the future."

AMDL is expected to contribute to the implementation of Azerbaijan's key development priorities, such as increasing human capital capacity, as well as strengthening the effectiveness of employment services, skills development and inclusion. In addition, the project is also in line with the World Bank Group's goal of promoting more productive and inclusive workplaces highlighted in the Country Partnership Framework for Azerbaijan (2025-29), which is currently under discussion with the Government of Azerbaijan.