PES from all around the world met in Tallinn
PES from all around the world met for the 12th World Congress of the World Association of Public Employment Services (WAPES). From April 25 to 28, 2022, the General Assembly of WAPES and its World Congress took place in Tallinn, Estonia. For all 80 members and partners, this was the first on-site meeting in two years.
Initially scheduled for 2021, this federating moment of our network was postponed to April 2022 due to health constraints related to the COVID 19 pandemic. To meet everyone’s possibilities to attend the event we chose for a hybrid event.
Nearly two years of work, preparation and remote meetings have allowed to succeed in realizing this event, despite the pitfalls we encountered. This could be realized thanks to the effective involvement of Eesti Töötukassa, the Estonian public employment service, and the teams of the Executive Secretariat of WAPES and the Presidency.
New Managing Board 2022-2025
Tuesday April 26 was dedicated to the General Assembly. The members elected the new governance for the period 2022-2025. First and foremost the mandate of Morocco (ANAPEC) as head of the Managing board was renewed. Then the directors and Vice Presidents for the same period were elected. The results are as follows:
- Asia Pacific: South Korea (VP), Japan
- Europe: France (VP), The Netherlands, Bosnia Herzegovina, Estonia, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland (Treasurer)
- Africa: Mali (VP), Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast
- MOPA: Tunisia (VP)
- Americas: USA (VP), Uruguay.
4 PES will join the board for the first time: Bosnia Herzegovina, Estonia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uruguay. We welcome them! The Republic of Congo is making a comeback to this body which is essential for the proper functioning of our association. Mauritania and Benin will occupy the positions of external auditors.
A hybrid congress
On 27th and 28th of April conferences and sharing of good practices took place. For the first time, these conferences were also available online, broadcasted in three languages. This enabled more than 220 participants, representing 50 nationalities, to participate.
The theme of these two days was: Challenges for Public Employment Services and innovative actions in a rapidly changing labor market.
The purpose of our world conference was, through the sharing of prospective visions, reflections, and proven experiences, to allow everyone to find inspiration and topics for reflection in order to orient policies, strategies, and concrete operational actions in the spirit and values of the WAPES 2015-2025 Long Term Strategy.
The slogan of the Congress was “PES In(novative) Action”, to signify the mobilization of PES and the use of innovation in the different areas of activity in order to face, with resilience, all kinds of crises (health, economic, environmental, humanitarian…), and to react agile to the rapidly changing needs of the labor market.
The 12th World Congress of WAPES testified the mobilization of PES with all challenges involved through: 3 plenary conferences, 2 Round Tables and 2 series of 3 parallel workshops (to access the program it is here)
For the first time, we opened a “Marketplace” space of discovery and exchange which allowed us to present the services and technological innovations of private or public partners such as: WWC group, Skills Lab, Eesti Töötukassa, OIT/ILO, Geographic Solution, WAPES…
What next?
After more than 2 years without a face-to-face meeting, this event has been a real success, both by the quality of the interventions, and by the technological innovations implemented to make it possible. We invite our members and partners to visit the members’ area on our website www.wapes.org or to download the WAPES application (Android or Apple) on their smartphones and tablets in order to view the videos of all the presentations (available by the end of the month), the presentations used by the speakers and to stay in touch with the members of our network in order to share their best practices. If you are unable to connect, please contact us.