In February 2023, GREATVISORY will start implementation of a study on new forms of work and platform work in the SEMED region as opportunities for youth and women’s employment.

The Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region (SEMED) has witnessed a gradual increase in online based employment opportunities, though the level of these developments is uneven between the different countries. New forms of employment with labour on demand approach are becoming widespread, affecting young people and, in particular, new entrants on the labour market. The trend is also enhanced by overall low market stability and new economic models, which use internet global networks as their prime environment and arise in parallel to traditional sectors, in particular services.

In response to the challenges in the region, the EU has launched a multitude of initiatives aiming at supporting governments, social partners and civil society to foster the creation of more and better jobs and support inclusiveness and participation of youth and women to the labour market. The New Agenda for the Mediterranean sets key priorities for the cooperation with the region, where employability of young people and women remains on top of the agenda. A number of flagships have been launched following the official adoption of the New Agenda for the Mediterranean. Notably, during the UfM Ministerial meeting on Employment and Labour, held in Marrakesh (MA) on 18th May 2022, the European Commission officially launched a new Team Europe Initiative on Jobs through trade and Investment, where innovation, new forms of work, digital and green transformations are key transversal areas. Within this TEI, the EC is also about to launch an initiative in support to young people (youth package) that includes one component on inclusion of youth in civic and social life, through CSOs advocacy, and a second component on NEETs, with the objective to raise awareness of the Youth Guarantee and possibly pilot some similar initiatives in the concerned countries. Social economy, social entrepreneurships and decent jobs creation, including gender gap, remain key pillars of the new UfM Ministerial Declaration.

In this context and considering these priorities and actions already in place, the ETF seeks to update and consolidate the knowledge on recent labour market developments with focus on new forms of work in the region and shed light on key implications for employment and skills development policies, also to feed into the above EU .

As a response to the needs of ETF, PPMI and GV will investigate:

1. The importance of new flexible working arrangements, in particular online freelancing and platform work, in the overall labour market, by analysing the scale and the nature of labour and skills demand, organisational models, profiles of online and platform jobs, profiles of online and platform workers and the career and in-work skills development options.
2. Opportunities and challenges driven by the new forms of employment and their implications for the regulatory and institutional setting, aiming at decent job creation, inclusiveness, and skills formation, development and utilisation, notably for youth and women.

In the study GREATVISORY will be responsible for providing a regional and country-specific analysis, covering the following:

1. Reviewing, documenting and analysing new trends
2. Mapping country-specific strategic and policy approaches
3. Identifying policy implications

We will cover the following countries: Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Palestine, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Israel.