The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved US$25 million to improve job placement opportunities in the formal sector for people seeking employment in Honduras.

According to the IDB, the operation aims to strengthen job seekers’ employability skills and enhance the coverage and quality of the public employment service offer and reintegration services for the returned population. 

The programme will support strengthening the skills of people seeking employment, emphasising groups that find greater barriers to job placement, such as women, young people, people with disabilities, the returned population, and Indigenous and Afro-Honduran peoples. In this sense, the programme will coordinate actions with the productive sector to identify training needs by sector and identify internship opportunities and learning schemes in companies. 

The initiative includes pilot education and technical professional training for people with disabilities, incorporating their specific needs. In addition, it contemplates campaigns to stimulate female participation in non-traditional jobs, which are more demanded by the productive sector and have better remuneration. 

To promote the labour integration of the returned population, the programme will provide attention to 15,000 returned people of working age, carry out professional training activities and certificate labour competencies, and take action to improve the conditions of the returned population in hiring processes. 

Likewise, the project includes rehabilitating and equipping three model offices of the comprehensive employment system (SIE in Spanish), including universal accessibility standards for people with disabilities and energy efficiency.

In addition, the loan will strengthen SIE’s computer systems and develop a centralized platform that offers job matching services between employers and job seekers. The strengthening of the SIE will benefit more than 64,000 job seekers. 

The US$25 million IDB funds comprise $13 million in regular funds, $7 million in concessional funds, and $5 million in non-reimbursable funds. They have a five-year disbursement period.