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About us

Dua’s mandate includes conducting dialogue with and encouraging dialogue between individual municipalities, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR), the labour market partners in the local government sphere (municipality and county council level), other central labour market partners, agencies, regional actors and others on how labour market policy initiatives to benefit young people and newly arrived migrants can be developed and made more effective at local level.

Dua is also to gather and spread knowledge about and best practice on labour market policy initiatives and forms of collaboration, and identify obstacles, problems and shortcomings in cooperation between the State and municipalities when implementing labour market policy. In its work, Dua is to pay particular attention to the importance of gender equality at work and seize opportunities to combat gender segregation in the labour market.

Dua’s work is to be run in close dialogue with Arbetsförmedlingen. The aim is to integrate new forms of working, developed as a result of the work of Dua, in Arbetsförmedlingen’s ordinary activities. In its work, Dua is also to specifically consult the Swedish ESF Council, the government agency responsible for managing the European Social Fund.

A reference group has been linked to Dua, comprising representatives of different political parties.

A final report on Dua’s mandate is to be submitted by 28 February 2021.

Dua’s mandate is regulated in three instructions laid down by the Government (dir. 2014:157, 2015:68 and 2017:20). The mandate regarding reaching decisions on government grants is regulated in greater detail in Ordinance (SFS 2015:502) on certain cooperation on young people and newly arrived migrants.

Specific information on work with local agreements

The foremost tool of Dua in encouraging cooperation is local agreements between, in the first instance, municipalities and Arbetsförmedlingen.

Since autumn 2015, 287 of Sweden’s 290 municipalities have entered into local agreements with Arbetsförmedlingen on cooperation to reduce youth unemployment. The agreements concern how joint initiatives regarding young people aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training are to be organised and run. The agreements are based on a joint survey of the size of the target group, its composition and needs and locally set goals. 

According to additional instructions laid down in February 2017, Dua is also to foster cooperation between actors that are important in ensuring that newly arrived migrants find their feet in the job market. As part of this dialogue with Arbetsförmedlingen, SALAR and the individual municipalities, Dua has produced a model for how cooperation can be deepened. The model is based on local routes to work for the individual. In late spring 2017, Dua conducted 25 regional dialogues with representatives of municipalities and Arbetsförmedlingen offices, at which municipalities were invited to start working in line with the model together with Arbetsförmedlingen. At these dialogues, Dua also provided information about opportunities for the municipalities to apply for government grants to initiate deeper cooperation to aid newly arrived migrants in finding work.