CDESS, in a consortium with Budapest Institute, was contracted by RCC to provide expert support to benchlearning among Western Balkan 6 Public Employment Services. The purpose of this assignment is to contribute to enhanced cooperation and implementation of a “benchlearning” initiative among Public Employment Services of the Western Balkan economies, drawing on the experience of the EU PES network.Here, ‘benchlearning’ refers to the process of creating a systematic and integrated link between benchmarking and mutual learning activities, that consists of identifying good performances through indicator-based benchmarking systems and of using findings for tangible and evidence-informed mutual learning activities.The benchlearning activities will be conducted with a view to supporting at a later stage the organization of mutual learning events and producing practitioners’ guides/toolkits on selected areas.
The assignment is implemented as part of a larger RCC’s project “The Employment and Social Affairs Platform” (ESAP). This project is a regional project financed by the European Commission and jointly implemented by RCC and ILO in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The project, which began its implementation in 2016 and lasts for 3 years, aims to strengthen regional cooperation and institutional capacities of national administrations, employers’ and workers’ organizations, enabling them to develop and effectively implement labour market and social policy reforms in their EU enlargement process.