ILO launches a two-year capacity building partnership with the Ethiopian Investment Commission on ‘enhancing the impact of investment on employment and decent work creation in Ethiopia’ for the Ethiopian Investment Commission and Regional Investment Bureaus

News | 09 June 2022
Addis Ababa, 09 June 2022 – In response to the baseline study of the investment promotion system in Ethiopia, the ILO in partnership with the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) today launched a two-year capacity building engagement for investment professionals at the EIC and Regional Investment Bureaus (RIBs).

The first session of the capacity building engagement starts with a two-day training from 9 – 10 June 2022 at the EIC. The objective of the two-day training is to build the capacity of investment professionals towards enhancing the impact of investment on employment and decent work creation in Ethiopia. The capacity building support will be delivered through follow-up training sessions and direct technical support to EIC and RIBs over a period of two years.

H.E. Lelise Neme, Commissioner, EIC, in her opening remarks appreciated the timely partnership with the ILO to build the capacity of investment professionals to attract investment in the agro-processing industry.

Alexio Musindo, Director, ILO CO-Addis Ababa, at the opening of the training, reaffirms the need to partner with EIC to realize ILO decent work agenda in the country by creating employment with decent jobs, increased productivity, and improved working conditions through investments.


Through the ILO ProAgro project, a close partnership is foreseen between the ILO and the EIC and respective RIBs for targeting investors, negotiating incentive offerings, and supporting the retention and/or expansion of existing investors. While the focus remains on the agro-processing sector, the learnings can be transferred and absorbed for negotiations across different sectors to create more quality and sustainable employment promotion within Ethiopia’s investment promotion policies, practices, and support ecosystem.

The training course that will be provided during the two days will cover the fundamentals of the investment cycle and terminology, which is the foundation for all subsequent courses to be implemented by the ILO ProAgro project. This initial phase of the capacity building initiative will help to assess the contents of the training modules to meet the capacity gap of experts from CIE and RIBs. Discussion and feedback during the training will help identify training priorities and to tailor the course curriculum to the specific requirements of EIC and RIBs’ staff.

The ILO ProAgro ‘Promotion of Decent Work in Agribusiness’ project in Ethiopia, funded by BMZ Special Initiative on Job Creation in Africa combines policy support and social dialogue, skills development, value chain development, and entrepreneurship training, with the ultimate objective of creating decent job opportunities for women and young men in the agribusiness sector in Ethiopia.