Payment by Results, the program that will revolutionize employability in Colombia's capital

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Nov 09, 2022, 16:24 ET

Through the Secretariat of Economic Development, the Office of the Mayor of Bogota is launching the Payment by Results program, an initiative that will put 22,000 people in the labor market; Of which between 12,000 and 18,000 will be women.
Invest in Bogota, the city's investment promotion agency also joins the efforts of the Secretariat of Economic Development by creating a strategy that allows generating employment and closing the gaps of bilingual human talent and for IT companies.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Although the unemployment rate has been recovering in Bogota after the drop-in economic activity caused by the pandemic, it is still above double digits (11.2%) and several vulnerable populations find it even more difficult to access the labor market, as is the case of women.

Therefore, with a budget of COP 30,000 million the Secretariat of Economic Development launched a financing strategy called Payment by Results. This program was designed as a competitive process with providers authorized by the National Employment Service, alone or in alliance with entities with experience in a vulnerable population to place 22,000 people in the labor market, of which at least 12,000 will be women.

The model used in this strategy contemplates the payment of an incentive to these employment operators, for each person they place in the labor market, and not only for the management, as is usually the case.

Invest in Bogota, the city's investment promotion agency also joins the efforts of the Secretariat of Economic Development. Isabella Muñoz, executive director of the agency, comments that "in June a multi-sector macro employment roundtable was held in Corferias. As a result, 82 companies participated, and 24,126 vacancies were offered for more than 9 thousand attendees. With these job fairs, we connect supply and demand in the city's labor market, with special emphasis on closing gaps for women, young people, people with disabilities, and sexually diverse populations."

Upon learning of these results, Bogota developed a results-based contracting approach with greater impact on resources allocated to employment policy, intending to achieve job placement with the implementation of scaled mechanisms that fit the city's needs.

The Payment by Results program was developed with Fundación Corona and resources from the Inter-American Development Bank Innovation Lab (IDB) were channeled to design a results-based financing (RBF) strategy to meet the job placement goal.

Considering the experience of Fundación Corona, IDB Lab, and the Swiss Embassy, an advisory committee was formed that generated feedback with recommendations for the District Secretariat of Economic Development of Bogota for the 2021-2024 strategy.

This committee has compiled learnings that strengthen the operational and legal capacity to achieve the 2022 job placement goal and to implement learning tools that will increase the operator's management in 2023.

This program has become one of the most ambitious projects in terms of employment that the Secretariat of Economic Development has had, highlighting the goal set, the population approach, and the joint work with the private actors of the ecosystem, and it is also innovative in Latin America and the Caribbean for focusing on job placement.

SOURCE INVEST IN BOGOTA