The purpose of the workshop was to further disseminate the workers’ education manual and facilitate the exchange of ideas amongst trade unionists on their role on productivity improvement.

For the trade unions, this workshop was also an opportunity to develop their capacity to effectively participate in concerted national efforts for creating more employment avenues and enhanced mechanisms for social dialogue and collective bargaining.
A total of 16 delegates from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Senegal and representative of ITUC-Africa and OATUU attended this workshop.

Overall, the workshop established the need and importance for trade unions to be involved in discussions and policies around productivity improvement at national level. It was established that enhanced productivity is mutually beneficial to both workers and management. It was also established that for workers, improved productivity will lead to increase in wages and overall better conditions of work, whereas for employers a more motivated workforce would contribute to generating more gains for the enterprise and continuously advance economic growth of the country.

The ILO’s Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ILO/ACTRAV) has collaborated with the Japanese Trade Union Congress (JTUC/RENGO) in conducting annual regional training programs on productivity improvement in Africa since 1997 and since 2012 these workshops focused more on the development of a workers’ education manual that was derived from the experience of the interactions between African trade unions and JTUC/RENGO over the years.