The central theme of the workshop is ’Towards the consolidation of workers’ power through research and education". This is an opportunity for ITUC-Africa to present the Institute to about 30 trade unionists and researchers coming from more than 10 African countries.

African trade unions are expected to take up the challenge of playing a more active role in influencing social and economic policies at all levels.

However, many trade unions lack capacity. More particularly they do not have the necessary technical skills to engage effectively in social dialogue with state and non-state institutions on issues affecting workers. Given that the number of people that can help trade unions to carry out research and education in a labour and pro-poor perspective is limited, this challenge becomes more complex.

ITUC-Africa’s Strategic Plan (2012-2015) focuses on research and education as part of the priority area related to capacity-building.

It is against this background that ITUC-Africa has established this Research Institute. The Institute will assist the affiliates in building their own research and education capacity as well as linking up with existing labour research institutes and coordinating regional labour research projects. It will also help develop research capacity and train researchers to ensure that trade unions become strong enough to advocate for labour policies, programmes and projects.

For three days, participants will discuss the criteria for admission in this Institute and the proposed training modules.

Information will also be provided during the workshop on the ways in which the Institute’s programmes can be formulated, implemented and supported in the short and long run.