Bhutan

Support to Strengthening Human Resource Information Base in Bhutan

Background
Bhutan has only recently been faced with the reality of unemployment. The national Labor Force Survey (LFS) reports confirm that unemployment rate in the country has increased from 1.4% in 1998 to 2.5% in 2004. During the same period, youth unemployment has more than doubled from 2.6% to 5.5%, resulting in the age group of 15.24 years constituting the majority of the total unemployed people.

The Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB) established the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources (MoLHR) in June 2003, with the mandate to formulate and implement policies and programmes related to employment, human resources development, and labour, which are directed towards improving the working and living standards for all people engaged in the world of work.

Although the MoLHR is engaged in several activities targeted to enhance the employability of young job seekers, the single most set back has been the lack of adequate and effective labour market information, particularly on the demand side. Such information is most useful in minimizing the mismatch in the labour market.

Objectives

The objective of the project is to strengthen human resource information base by establishing a reliable database on both supply and demand side of the labour force. In this respect the project will support the RGoB in the following areas:

• Policy development pertaining to employment issues;
• Developing an updated human resource development master plan; and
• Capacity development and advocacy of key stakeholders

Achievements & expected results

The Bhutan National Human Resource Development Report (BNHRDR) 2007 has been published, and is made available online.

 The BNHRDR 2007 recommends several micro-scale business proposals that can potentially be implemented in rural areas to generate employment opportunities for Bhutanese job seekers. 

The BNHRDR provides an opportunity for the collaboration of all stakeholders towards addressing the youth unemployment problem and identifies training needs for future human resource development programmes both for the private and corporate sectors.