World of Work in Montenegro: Paving the road to recovery

In 2021, Montenegro begun two important transitions, one related to designing and implementing policies and strategies to overcome the negative effects of the pandemic, and one related to the establishment of a new coalition government that marks the first transfer of powers in 30 years.

The Government of Montenegro has reiterated the need to review and re-engineer existing institutional capacities, particularly within the Ministry of Economic Development and the Employment Agency, and to implement changes in employment and labour market policies. The experience of other economies suggests that it is possible, with sufficient political will and adequate technical knowledge, to transform institutions and create efficient policy delivery mechanisms. 

The direct beneficiaries of the project are decision-makers and staff from selected labour market institutions with a mandate to pave the way to inclusive and job-rich recovery. More specifically, the project will work primarily with the Ministry of Economic Development (MED), the Employment Agency of Montenegro (EAM), and the Social Council (SC). 

The end-beneficiaries of the project are working-age women and men who would benefit from better policy measures to support jobs and incomes during the crisis. More specifically, the project will generate measurable results for women, young people, long-term unemployed, persons with disabilities, and employers.

The project will (i) Improve the quality and use of data/evidence; (ii) Upgrade the quality of decision-making with respect to employment and transition to formality; (iii) Boost the quality of policy measures for job creation. It will focus on three main deliverables for the Montenegrin institutions: 1) New tools to elaborate and analyse employment and labour market data; 2) Innovative policy proposals for job-rich recovery, based on evidence, including around the youth guarantee, and the activation of women and persons with disabilities; and 3) Piloting new measures for job creation, with a focus on excluded unemployed, and informal/seasonal workers.