World of Work - International Labour Organization · 2014-06-10 · DECENT WORK COVER STORY Decent work for Africa's development: 4 WORLD OF WORK, NO. 49, DECEMBER 2003 alf of Africa’s

At the Second African Regional Confer-ence in Addis Ababa in 1964, then ILODirector-General David A. Morse spoke ofAfrica “reaching a consensus”. And at theend of the meeting, Morse noted that “theforce of Africa” had exerted itself “moreclearly and effectively insofar as there isgreater unity”.

Today, as the social partners from acrossthe continent again gather in Addis for the10th regional meeting, the countries partic-ipating – nearly a third of the ILO’s 177member States – are finding a new sense ofunity within the formation of the AfricanUnion (AU) and the New Partnership forAfrica’s Development (NEPAD).

Things were not always thus. Before thevery first African Regional Conference in1960, the ILO had far fewer independentAfrican member States. Only after the greatrush to independence in the early 1960s didthe bulk of newly formed states take theirplace in the United Nations and its agencies.

After this massive influx, the response ofthe 1964 Conference was to call for “two-way traffic” between Africa and the ILO,with the latter intensifying its operational

activities on the continent. The plan calledfor the ILO to adapt its priorities to Africa’sneeds – extending and translating hard-won gains in the industrialized countries tothe developing world.

The ILO met this challenge by workingwith the new African member States. Asocial dimension was integrated intoemerging political systems – labour legisla-tion, ministries and administrations,employers’ and workers’ organizations, andtraining institutions. And since then, theILO has continued to work throughoutAfrica to help reduce unemployment,underemployment and discrimination –now adding greater impetus to the eradica-tion of poverty.

The ILO Decent Work Agenda seeks tocapitalize on the new foundation of soli-darity represented by the AU and NEPAD.These developments are discussed in arti-cles beginning on page 4, as well as in otherparts of World of Work. They underscorethat despite the challenges, the ILO, togeth-er with its African member States, has comea long way since 1964.

World of Work magazine is publishedfour times per year by the Departmentof Communication of the ILO in Gen-eva. Also published in Chinese, Czech,Danish, Finnish, French, German,Hindi, Hungarian, Japanese, Norwegian,Slovak, Spanish and Swedish.

EDITOR

Thomas NetterGERMAN EDITION

Hans von RohlandARABIC EDITION

Khawla Mattar, ILO Office, BeirutSPANISH EDITION

In collaboration with the ILO Office,MadridPRODUCTION MANAGER

Kiran Mehra-KerpelmanPHOTO EDITOR

Marcel CrozetART DIRECTION

MDP, ILO TurinCOVER DESIGN

Luca Fiore, MDP, ILO TurinEDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Sam Nuttall

This magazine is not an official documentof the International Labour Organiz-ation. The opinions expressed do notnecessarily reflect the views of the ILO.The designations employed do not implythe expression of any opinion whatsoeveron the part of the ILO concerning thelegal status of any country, area or territo-ry, or of its authorities, or concerning thedelimitation of its frontiers.Reference to names of firms and com-mercial products and processes doesnot imply their endorsement by theILO, and any failure to mention a par-ticular firm, commercial product orprocess is not a sign of disapproval.Texts and photographs may be freelyreproduced with mention of source(except photo agency photographs).Written notification is appreciated.All correspondence should be addressedto the ILO Department of Communica-tion, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland.Tel: +4122/799-7912Fax: +4122/799-8577www.ilo.org/communication

Readers in the US should send theircorrespondence to the InternationalLabor Office, Washington Branch, 1828L Street, NW, Suite 801, Washington,DC 20036.Tel: +202/653-7652Fax: +202/653-7687Printed by ILO TurinISSN 1020-0010

2 WORLD OF WORK, NO. 49, DECEMBER 2003

I L O I N H I S T O R Y

Consensus and cooperation:The “force of Africa”

The Second African Regional Conference, in Addis Ababa, in 1964, brought together representatives fromthirty-five African countries.

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A universal challenge: Social security for the world

Women seafarers: Fighting against the tide?

Carving out a place in global markets:For Indonesia's traditional woodworking industry,globalization poses new challenges

Union “dot orgs” come of age

"We created jobs…":The forest peoples of Mayurbhanj

C O V E R S T O R Y

Decent work for Africa's development: Signs of hope 4

Created in 1919, the International Labour Organization (ILO) brings together governments, employers and workers of its 177 member States in commonaction to improve social protection and conditions of life and work throughout the world. The International Labour Office, in Geneva, is the permanentSecretariat of the Organization.

G E N E R A L A R T I C L E S

F E A T U R E S

Seeking decent work

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Planet Work 25

News

• Jobs in Brazil: The route out of poverty

• Youth employment: Brazil joins network

• In Paris, a historical address

• In Bangkok, tourism jobs remain question mark

• Chemical industry: Strong job growth in East Asia

• Feeding the world, but… What is their fate?

ILO symposium on agriculture

Around the Continents

ILO in the Press

Media Shelf

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Half of Africa’s population, over 300 millionpeople, live in extreme poverty on the equiv-alent of US$1 a day or less – the highest intra-regional poverty level in the world. Strategiesfor reducing such poverty through a job cen-tred development agenda are the main itemson the table at the ILO 10th African RegionalMeeting, on 2 to 5 December, in Addis Ababa.In this issue, World of Work looks at the keychallenges facing a continent on the road todecent work.

Page 4

D E C E N T W O R K

C O V E R S T O R Y

Decent work for Africa's development:


alf of Africa’s population, over 300 mil-lion people, live in extreme poverty on

the equivalent of US$1 a day or less – thehighest intra-regional poverty level and

the widest gap between rich and poor in the world.

Strategies for reducing such poverty and closingthis gap through a job-centred development agen-da are the main items on the table at the ILO 10th

African Regional Meeting, on 2 to 5 December, inAddis Ababa. What are the key issues facing Africatoday and what can be done about them?

Africa today is a continent in search of decentwork. It is shouldering a huge poverty burden and

battling the barriers of an unfair system of inter-national economic rules while tackling the massivechallenges of job creation and poverty reduction.

And yet, there are signs of hope. Africa’s nationsare forging a new dynamic development processfounded on their own collective endeavours. Com-

munity-based projects are improving skills,spawning small enterprises, extending microinsur-ance and microfinance, eliminating child labour,

and ending gender and other forms of discrimi-nation. Ratifications of the eight fundamentalConventions of the ILO are remarkably high. And

in manufacturing, for example, inroads are beingmade against discrimination which shuts womenout of the workplace.

“The tripartite constituents of the ILO in Africa

are meeting at a time when the nations of the con-tinent are creating institutions that promise to setin motion a dynamic process of development

founded on their own collective endeavours,” saysILO Director-General Juan Somavia in his report,“Decent work for Africa’s development”, 1 prepared

for the Addis meeting. “We need to make sure thata decisive step is taken in Africa’s struggle to gaincontrol of its own destiny, realize the full potential

of its people and natural resources, and break outof the trap of widespread and debilitating poverty.”

The launching of the African Union (AU) in

2002, and the New Partnership for Africa’s Devel-opment (NEPAD) in 2001, are among suchdynamic new initiatives. The ILO report notes that

the decision by the AU Heads of State and Gov-ernment, in Maputo in July, to convene an Extra-ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Govern-

ment on Employment and Poverty Alleviation inAfrica, in 2004 in Burkina Faso, holds the promiseof connecting the new regional initiatives to the

daily experience of Africa’s working families. African employers, unions, and employment

and labour ministers who will gather in Addis

Ababa for the ILO 10th African Regional Meeting,know better than anyone the challenges of creatingopportunities for women and men to work pro-

ductively and earn a decent livelihood for them-selves. What is the situation they face today?

The face of povertyin Africa today

In contrast to other parts of the world, Africa’s

poverty level is high and getting higher. Acrossall points in time, close to half the region’spopulation – or about 300 million people – live

in extreme poverty on US$1 a day or less. The per-centage of poor people in sub-Saharan Africa is closeto twice that of the world average of 24 per cent. (In

North Africa, some 2.8 per cent of the population, orabout six million people, live below the poverty levelof US$1 per day or less.)

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1 "Decent work for Africa's

development", 10th African

Regional Meeting, Addis

Ababa, December 2003,

Report of the Director-

General, ISBN 92-2-

114841-6. For a full copy of

the report, see www.ilo.org,

or contact the

ILO Department of

Communication

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5

development: Signs of hope

Unemployment in formal sector jobs is increas-

ing, from 13.7 per cent in 2000, to 14.4 per cent in2002. This sector has been unable, over an extend-ed period of time, to create long-term, sustainable

employment, a challenge which will grow enor-mously since the regional labour force is expectedto double in 25 years from its current 34 per cent of

the population. What’s more, sub-Saharan Africahas the second-fastest growing labour force in theworld (2.6 per cent, on average, per year). These

factors bring forward issues relating to low-incomejob security, poor conditions of work and similarconcerns.

The report highlights that “unemployment is aserious problem in most African countries. How-ever, equally if not more disturbing is the high inci-

dence of underemployment characterized by lowproductivity and inadequate income. Poverty inmost African communities is less the outcome of

unemployment than it is of the inability of work tosecure decent wages. This is particularly the case inthe informal economy, the agricultural sector and

rural economies.”The report also warns that the concentration of

productive activity in rural areas should not be

overlooked, and that rural-based employment and

labour market initiatives may be bypassed in thehaste to concentrate solely on urban-based activity.

Rural poverty is particularly acute among

women and girls – many of whom work in theagricultural sector. Despite evidence that sub-

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BUILDING ON THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL'S REPORT, "WORKING OUT OF POVERTY"

"Working out of poverty", is based on three funda-mental points:

• First, the poor do not cause poverty. Poverty is theresult of structural failures and ineffective eco-nomic and social systems. It is the product of inad-equate political responses, bankrupt policy imagi-nation and insufficient international support.

• Second, poverty is expensive. It hinders growth,fuels instability, and keeps poor countries fromadvancing on the path to sustainable development.

• Third, there is another face to poverty. People liv-ing in conditions of material deprivation draw onenormous reserves of courage, ingenuity, persist-ence and mutual support to stay on the treadmill ofsurvival. Simply coping with poverty demonstrates

the resilience and creativity of the human spirit. Inmany ways, the working poor are the ultimateentrepreneurs.

Eradicating poverty is the biggest social challengewe face today, but it is also the biggest economicopportunity. Employers, workers, labour ministriesand community leaders know better than anyone thechallenges of creating opportunities for women andmen to work productively and earn a decent liveli-hood for themselves.

From Working out of poverty, Report of the Director-General, International Labour Conference, 91 st Ses-sion 2003, International Labour Office, Geneva, ISBN 92-2-112870-9

Rural poverty in

Ethiopia: together

this family makes

the equivilent of

US$1.50 a day

6 WORLD OF WORK, N O. 49, DECEMBER 2003

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T H E D E C E N T W O R K D I V I D E N D

C O V E R S T O R Y

Saharan Africa has a fairly large proportion of

women in the labour force – in fact, higher than theinternational average – women and girls are fre-quently trapped in the lowest paid, least skilled and

most precarious occupations.Youth unemployment is another major concern.

It is very high, representing nearly 80 per cent of

the unemployed in some countries, while thefemale share of youth unemployment is consistent-ly higher in all countries. In countries where data

are available, it is estimated that only 5 to 10 percent of new entrants into the labour market can beabsorbed by the formal economy, while the bulk of

new jobs is generated by the informal economy.Overall, about 55 per cent of Africa’s population isunder 18 years of age.

One of the most serious challenges to Africanpolicymakers today is the epidemic of HIV/AIDS.Within some countries, the overall labour force

participation is beginning to shows sharp declines.In South Africa, male labour force participationrate went down from 79.1 per cent in 1995, to 63.3

per cent in 2002, in Lesotho, it declined from 85.2per cent in 1995, to 69.2 per cent in 1997, while inBotswana, the drop was from 83.5 per cent in 1995,

to 60.1 per cent in 1999. If these trends continueand spread, the prospects for reducing povertycould worsen dramatically.

Seeking solutionsn order to halve poverty by the year 2015, asset out in the United Nations Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs), Africa’seconomies will need to grow by 7 per cent a

year, nearly double the current rate. According to

the United Nations Economic Community forAfrica (ECA), growth levels picked up from 3.2 percent in 2002, to about 4.2 per cent in 2003. How-

ever, except in a handful of countries, it will bevery difficult to reduce open unemployment,underemployment and poverty, unless growth

perspectives improve dramatically

“Although poverty has many facets, lack of

access to income is one of the main determinantsof household poverty and inequality,” the ILOreport says, noting that millions of Africans are

caught in a “household poverty trap”, spending upto 70 per cent of their income on basic “livelihoodsecurity”; i.e., food.

In response, recent political developments, suchas the creation of the AU and NEPAD, together withglobal initiatives, have paved the way for a reorien-

tation of the development strategies, with a newfocus on productive employment and decent work.

“Together we must continue to build support

for our basic premise that decent work is the mainroute out of poverty,” the ILO report says. “Over thecourse of next year, the ILO and its tripartite con-

stituents have the opportunity to help shape theAfrican Union Extraordinary Summit of Heads ofState and Government on Employment and Pover-

ty Alleviation.”“African social partners and governments

should make employment a priority item on the

development agenda,” said the ILO meetingreport. “In the fight against poverty they need tomake a long-term commitment to take common

initiatives on all levels for a continuous increase inproductivity. The foundations of a decent workapproach to strategies for the reduction of pover-

ty must be laid – and this is an urgent task. Prior-ities include employability, entrepreneurship,equal opportunity and employment generation,

and can best be achieved through participatoryconsultation on national development policy-making.”

The ILO report says progress on four key objec-tives will provide a way of breaking out of the cycleof poverty:

"Walking pharmacy"

entrepreneurship on the

streets of Niamey, Niger

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• Ending the discrimination and social exclusion

which marginalizes millions of African familiesand hamstrings economic development

• Raising the productivity and earning power of

work on the farms and in the small businesseswhich are the heart of Africa’s production system

• Uniting to win a better deal for the continent in

the world trade and financial system• Strengthening the mechanisms of social dialogue,

representation and accountability at the work -

place, at the national level and in the emerging newstructures for regional development cooperation.

“Employment is at the core of the ILO mandate,”Mr. Somavia says. “In all economies, the labourmarket remains the key access point for accumulat-

ing income. Employment in the form of more andbetter jobs; i.e., decent jobs, should be an integralpart of any development strategy for Africa.”

Social dialogue inAfrican development

trengthening social dialogue is a strategicobjective of the ILO and contributes tothe formulation, implementation, moni-

toring and adjustment of policies relatedto the world of work, including employment fordevelopment. Social dialogue enhances the capacity

of countries to choose their own path towardsgrowth and development. A number of Govern-ments have found that social dialogue with employ-

ers’ organizations and trade unions can help achievea convergence of expectations about economicdevelopments. Below are two examples of social dia-

logue programmes in Africa

Since 1995, the ILO has worked with its South

African constituents to gain access to justice forhundreds of thousands of ordinary workers, whowere historically excluded from fair and effective

redress for wrongs committed in the workplace. Inthe immediate aftermath of the apartheid era, thishelped to ensure that the advantages of democracy

were translated into fairer workplaces and the cre-ation of a stable labour relations environment.

The ILO helped to establish the Commission for

Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA)of South Africa, as an independent institution ofdispute settlement. Apart from the impact on the

lives of the individuals who benefited directly from

these services – notably domestic workers, farmworkers and other casual workers – the establish-ment of a dispute resolution system, which had the

confidence of both business and labour, con-tributed to deepening democratic governance andpromoting social, economic and political stability

in the new South Africa.The ILO, working with the representatives of

government, business and labour in South Africa

set up the institutional structures (Head Office inJohannesburg and offices in each of the nineprovinces), trained over 100 full-time and 300

part-time conciliators and arbitrators, developedan electronic case management system and dealswith over 120, 000 cases each year. For example, the

incidence of strikes over wages was reduced bymore than 60 per cent in its first year of operation.

The CCMA of South Africa is now a model for

building similar institutions of dispute settlementin seven other countries in the Southern Africaregion (Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho,

Mozambique, Angola and Zimbabwe). The ILO isnow building on its experience in South Africa towork with the social partners in these countries to

develop the capacity, expertise, knowledge andskills to manage labour market conflict andenhance the prospect of peace and stability.

The Regional Programme for the Promotion ofSocial Dialogue in French-speaking Africa (PRO-DIAF) was launched in 1998, and is funded by the

Belgian and French Governments. It helps a widerange of francophone countries strengthen tripar-tite cooperation structures at national and sub-

regional levels, enabling the Government and itssocial partners to evaluate social dialogue and tri-partite cooperation systems, and making improve-

ments, changes and reinforcements where they aredeemed necessary.

PRODIAF also focuses on institutional and

organizational aspects of tripartite consultationand negotiation mechanisms, strengtheningresearch activities and creating a network of

African social dialogue practitioners/experts.Between 1998 and 2003, the PRODIAF worked

with 22 African countries on over 80 exploratory

missions, national studies on social dialogue andtripartite cooperation, and sensitization and capac-ity building workshops. The interest expressed by

major donors, such as the European Union withinthe context of the ACP/EU Cotonou Agreements,augurs well for the future of the programme.

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C O V E R S T O R Y

>>Gender and poverty:Finding a way out

oday, poverty remains particularly acutefor African women and girls – many ofwhom work in agriculture or in rural

areas. Although sub-Saharan Africa has alarge proportion of women in the labour force – infact higher than the international average – women

and girls are frequently trapped in the lowest paid,least skilled and most precarious occupations.What’s more, gender discrimination remains a

deep-seated impediment to growth and develop-ment. While the share of women’s wage employ-ment in the non-agricultural sector in sub-Saharan

Africa increased from 18.9 per cent in 1990 to 28.6per cent in 2001, male participation rates across theregion were until recently above 80 per cent

Globally, women have come a long way in thelabour market, now representing half the labour

force in some countries. Still, labour marketsremain strongly segregated and an extremely highnumber of women are locked in jobs few men will

take because of their low status and precariousness.Even for similar work, women typically earn 20 to

30 per cent less than men.Are there solutions? Promoting more and better

jobs for women has been shown to be essential for

fighting poverty. The report, Decent work for Africa’sdevelopment, argues that the emergence of smallenterprises is increasingly generating meaningful

and sustainable employment opportunities – espe-cially for women. The emergence of micro-financeinstitutions (MFIs) also provides much-needed

access to credit and savings outside of traditionalbanking schemes.

One such programme is the support programme

for mutual benefit societies and savings and creditcooperatives (PASMEC), carried out jointly by theILO and the Central Bank of West African States

(BCEAO), involving grass-roots initiatives, such asvillage banks and women’s savings groups. ILODirector-General Juan Somavia’s report entitled,

Working out of poverty, says microfinance is now amacro business in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, with over 300

MFIs serving 4.2 million members, representingone out of five households in the region.

The ILO Programme on Boosting Employ-

ment through Small Enterprise Development(IFP/SEED), and its team working on Women’sEntrepreneurship Development and Gender Equal-

ity (WEDGE), are also working with women entre-preneurs, helping to build confidence and promotegender equality at all levels – from cities to villages.

Says one woman who produces and markets soaps,“While others participating in trade fairs choose tohave their photographs taken alongside influential

men, I am selling my soaps and handing out mybusiness cards to their wives.”

YEN: A matter of youthbout 55 per cent of Africa’s populationis under 18 years of age – and are par-ticularly hard hit by unemployment

and poverty. Youth unemploymentrepresents about 60 per cent of total unemploy-ment in Africa, with the female share of youth

unemployment consistently higher in all countries.The ILO estimates only 5 to 10 per cent of newentrants into the labour market can be absorbed by

T

Better jobs for women:

Stella, applying finish to

windows on a construction

site in Dar es Salaam,

earns the equivalent of

US$2.50 a day

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the formal economy, and that the bulk of new jobswill be generated by the informal economy. As a

result, the “brain drain” of educated and highlyskilled young people from sub-Saharan and NorthAfrica, compounded by South-North migration of

the youth labour force, is depriving Africa of itshuman capital and hope for the future

Youthful energy, aspirations, and capacity forinnovation are assets society cannot afford tosquander. Continued youth unemployment poses

high costs to economic and social development,perpetuates the inter-generational cycle of poverty,and is associated with high levels of crime, vio-

lence, crises, substance abuse and the rise in politi-cal extremism.

Through its role alongside the United Nations

and the World Bank in the Youth EmploymentNetwork (YEN), the ILO views youth employmentas an integral route towards meeting the Millenni-

um Development Goals. With so many young peo-ple living in Africa today, creating jobs for them isessential in tackling the broader agenda on

employment and the fight against poverty.The ILO and its YEN partners, including the

social partners and youth organizations, are work-

ing to provide innovative policy solutions to helpcountries develop national action plans on youthemployment, as called for by the United Nations

General Assembly Resolution on Promoting YouthEmployment.

Egypt, Namibia and Senegal have stepped for-

ward as lead countries2 of the YEN in Africa, andmany other African nations have expressed aninterest in ILO assistance on youth employment.

Senegal has initiated the United Nations GeneralAssembly Resolution on promoting youth employ-

ment, which was adopted with 106 cosponsors inDecember 2002. In Egypt, the ILO is assisting theGovernment to develop its National Youth

Employment Programme, with technical supportand expertise on youth employment policy. TheGovernment of Kenya has created a stakeholder

roundtable on youth employment, comprisinggovernment ministries, workers’ and employers’representatives, and civil society groupings includ-

ing youth organizations. The roundtable is work-ing to harmonize national policies on youthemployment by reviewing existing programmes,

and mobilizing resources and support for entrepre-neurship schemes aimed at young women and men.

The plenary session on Decent Work for Youth

at the 10th African Regional Meeting will discussthe role the ILO social partners can play in broad-ening YEN activities on the continent. Youth

employment will be discussed within the overallframework of the ILO Global Employment Agen-da, setting the stage for acknowledgment at the

highest political level of the importance of tacklingyouth employment in Africa, before the AfricanUnion ExtraOrdinary Summit on Employment

and Poverty Alleviation in Africa, to be held inOuagadougou, in 2004. >>

Youth: Africa's assets

for the future

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2 Along with Brazil, Sri

Lanka, Indonesia,

Hungary and Azerbaijan,

these African nations are

championing the

preparation of national

action plans on youth

employment.



C O V E R S T O R Y

1930 Convention on Forced Labour (No. 29)1957 Convention on the Abolition of Forced Labour (No. 105)1948 Convention on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize (No. 87)1949 Convention on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining (No. 98)1951 Convention on Equal Remuneration (No. 100)1958 Convention on Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) (No. 111)1973 Convention on Minimum Age (No. 138)1999 Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (No. 182)1989 Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (No. 169)1995 Convention on Safety and Health in Mines, (No. 176)1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work2001 Recommendation on Safety and Health in Agriculture (No. 192)2002 Protocol to Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981, (P. 155) and Recommendation (No. 194)2002 Recommendation on Promotion of Cooperatives (No. 193) 2002 Resolution concerning tripartism and social dialogue2002 Resolution concerning decent work and the informal economy

ILO CONVENTIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESOLUTIONS RELEVANT TO AFRICA

he Global Campaign on Social Securityand Coverage for All will be presented toAfrican ministers, and workers’ and

employers’ representatives at the 10thAfrican Regional Meeting on 2 to 5 December2003, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Extending social security coverage on a conti-nent where up to 90 per cent of working people areengaged in informal employment represents a

major challenge in the fight against poverty. Inmany sub-Saharan African countries, less than tenper cent of the working population have any cov-

erage at all. At the same time, HIV/AIDS threatensthe financial viability of already fragile social secu-rity systems.

Experience on the ground demonstrates thatthe situation can be improved. Tunisia increased

health and pension coverage from 60 per cent in1989, to 84 per cent in 1999. South Africa’s tax-financed State Old-Age Pension (SOAP) reaches

1.9 million beneficiaries, about 85 per cent of theeligible population – thereby reducing the povertygap for pensioners by 94 per cent. And in West

Africa, micro-health insurance schemes rooted inself-help or cooperative movements are providingan increasing number of people with basic health-

care coverage.Under the auspices of the campaign, the ILO

will seek to work with governments and the ILO

social partners to define national action plans,support local efforts to extend coverage, sharegood practices, and raise the priority of social

security extension on the development agenda forAfrica.

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TSocial security: Campaign launch in Africa


S O C I A L S E C U R I T Y


S E A F A R E R S W O O D W O R K I N G U N I O N I N D I S C O

A universal challenge:Social security for the world

nly one in five people worldwide enjoys

adequate social security coverage. Facedwith this stark reality, the ILO has initi-ated a new global campaign to encour-

age and assist member States to extend social secu-rity to all of their citizens. The Global Campaignon Social Security and Coverage for All, reflects a

global consensus among governments, employersand workers to take up this challenge. In thisreport, World of Work outlines this new campaign

GENEVA – Social security protection is regardedby the UN as a basic human right. But astonish-

ingly few people actually enjoy that right.According to the ILO, 80 per cent of the world’s

population does not have an adequate level of social

security coverage (see definition, p. 14). More thanhalf the world’s population lacks any type of protec-tion at all. In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the

number of people with access to even the mostrudimentary protection is estimated to be less than10 per cent.

Two years ago, the International Labour Confer -ence (ILC) laid the foundation for a sustained ILOeffort to address this challenge, by calling for a major

campaign to promote the extension of social securitycoverage. During the 91st ILC in June, the GlobalCampaign on Social Security and Coverage for All,

was officially launched by ILO Director-General JuanSomavia in the company of the incoming GoverningBody Chairman, Ambassador H.E. Eui-Yong Chung,

and incoming Vice-Chairpersons, Sir Leroy Trotmanand Daniel Funes de Rioja.

“Social security systems contribute not only to

human security, dignity, equity and social justice, butalso provide a foundation for political inclusion,empowerment and the development of democracy,”

said Somavia. “Well-designed social security systemsimprove economic performance and thus contributeto the comparative advantage of countries on global

markets. We have the will, and now must find theway, to provide more people with the social benefitsneeded to survive and prosper.”

The campaign reflects a global consensus on the part

of governments and employers’ and workers’ organi-zations to extend security coverage to all working peo-ple, particularly in the informal economy, and raise

O

“Social security is an essentialelement of the safety net thatprevents working people and

their families from falling intopoverty. In some cases, extending

social security coverage to theunprotected can actually lift

families out of poverty”

Juan Somavia

© ILO/P. Deloche

Bringing social security

to the unprotected

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S E A F A R E R S W O O D W O R K I N G U N I O N I N D I S C O

awareness worldwide about the role of social security ineconomic and social development. The campaign willseek to develop a broad partnership involving interna-

tional organizations, donor countries, social securityinstitutions and civil society organizations.

It is based on ILC-defined principles and

approaches, which emphasize that there is no singlecorrect model of social security, and that priorityshould be given to policies and initiatives which can

bring social security to those who are not covered byexisting systems. Social security should also promote,and be based on, the principle of gender equality.

Finally, each country should determine a nationalstrategy for working towards social security for all.

People without social security coverage are usual -

ly found in the informal economy in developingcountries, rather than in the formal sector. Even indeveloping countries with high economic growth,

increasing numbers of workers – most often women– have less than secure employment, such as casuallabour, home work and self-employment, lacking

social security coverage.

This has an enormous impact on their lives and onwork itself. What little earning power the impover -

ished have is further suppressed by marginalizationand lack of support systems – particularly when they

are unable to work because of age, illness or disability.It was once assumed that an increasing proportion

of the labour force in developing countries would

end up in formal-sector employment covered bysocial security. However, experience has shown thatthe growing incidence of informal work has led to

stagnant or declining rates of coverage. The mostvulnerable groups outside the labour force are peoplewith disabilities and old people who cannot count on

family support, and who have not been able to makeprovisions for their own pensions.

Despite the widespread lack of coverage, cam-

paign officials say a number of middle-income coun-tries have successfully expanded coverage of theirsocial security systems in recent years. For example,

Costa Rica has achieved full health coverage througha combination of health insurance and free access topublic health services. India’s National Old-Age Pen-

sion Scheme, financed by central and state resources,reaches one fourth of all elderly about half of pen -sioners who live in poverty. And, in Brazil, social

assistance pensions lift about 14 million people outof extreme poverty.

Ambassador Chung noted that a newly intro -

duced social security scheme helped his country, theRepublic of Korea, adjust more smoothly to the Asianfinancial crisis of the late 1990s. In particular, a newly

introduced unemployment insurance programhelped the country cope with a quadrupling of thejobless rate.

“Our example shows that social security is neithera luxury nor a burden on the government,” saidChung. “On the contrary, it contributes to productiv-

ity, social cohesion and acts as a lubricant for theeconomy in times of crisis or great change. In thehigh-paced era of globalization, these are the build -

ing blocks of sustainable economic and social devel-opment.”

The Global Campaign seeks to address the chal-

lenge of helping middle-income countries continuetheir progress, while helping least developed coun-tries determine what types of schemes are best suited

to extend coverage. The campaign will seek to lever -age the support of the ILO tripartite constituents – aswell as other organizations – to initiate and sustain

efforts to help countries develop and expand socialsecurity systems through a process of experimen-tation and social dialogue.

As a key element of the campaign, the ILO is testingnew approaches to open up access and monitoring

he 2001 International Labour Conferenceemphasized that social security should pro-

mote and be based upon the principle of genderequality – not only with regard to equal treatmentfor men and women in the same or similar situ-ations, but also concerning measures to ensureequitable outcomes for women. For example, manysocieties benefit greatly from unpaid care work,particularly that which women provide to children,aging parents and infirm family members. Yet, withregard to social security, these family caregiversare often disadvantaged later in life simplybecause their work occurred in the home and notas paid employment. The ILC also noted that meas-ures to improve access to employment will helpwomen gain social security benefits in their ownright, rather than as dependents.

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GENDER EQUALITY AND THE EXTENSION OFSOCIAL SECURITY


initiatives by its member States to extend cover-age. Moreover, it is seeking to apply its long expe-rience in promoting social dialogue and tripartite

involvement to address the special challenges ofexpanding social security in countries wherecoverage is weak and participation in the infor-

mal economy is high. Upcoming projectsinclude:

• An initiative focusing on three countries –Honduras, Mali and Sri Lanka – where the ILOwill promote approaches based on social dia-logue between governments and workers’ andemployers’ groups to develop plans for imple-menting social security reforms aimed atextending social security coverage.

• A project aimed at Portuguese-speaking coun-tries in Africa – Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome & Principe– which is designed to help them better under-stand which groups of people are excludedfrom their social security systems, and deviseways to bring them under full coverage.

• A project aimed at developing a better under-standing of community-based social securityplans which have emerged in developingcountries, to devise ways to support them andenable them to grow, and to determine theirpotential for becoming part of wider, integrat-ed national plans. This project – carried out bythe ILO STEP programme – targets poor andexcluded groups in the informal economy, as well aslow-income formal-economy workers whose socialsecurity coverage does not meet their needs.

• An initiative, in cooperation with the Pan AmericanHealth Organization (PAHO), to better understandand attempt to reverse the decline in health-care

coverage in Latin American and Caribbeancountries, where about 140 million people do nothave access to health services.

Social security is the protection which a societyprovides to individuals and households to ensureaccess to health care and to guarantee income

security, particularly in cases of old age, unem-ployment, sickness, invalidity, work injury,maternity or loss of a breadwinner.

SOCIAL SECURITY: A DEFINITION

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People without Social security are very often found in

the informal economy


nce only figureheads on the world’socean-going ships, the entrance of

women into the seafaring trade is asmall, but growing phenomenon. Yet, as

women work their way onto the world’s great

ships, salt and the sea are only part of the chal-lenges they face. As a new landmark ILO studypoints out, discrimination, sexual harassment and

deep skepticism over their strengths and capabili-ties can be equally challenging

“My dad was in the Royal Navy. I was broughtup in a coastal area, so the sea was sort of part ofmy life...”

“My father’s at sea, my uncle’s at sea, my grand-fathers were at sea...”

“I’m not interested in office jobs. I’m not inter-

ested in administrative work and all that...”The musings of a young adventurer, gazing out

at the endless horizon and dreaming of boats tak-

ing them far away? Yes, but with a slight twist. Thestatements are from women who have followedtheir male forebears to the seafaring trade, in effect

crossing a “gender gap” that was once wider thanany ocean.

These and more comments highlight a new ILO

study, “Women Seafarers: Global employmentpolicies and practices”, 1 the first to focus on con-temporary women seafarers at a global level.

The book covers every aspect of a woman sea-farer’s life – from employment rights to maternityrights. It finds that though making inroads on the

sea lanes, women seafarers face not only the gen-eral challenges of weather, hard work and roughseas, but also inordinate amounts of discrimina-

tion, sexual harassment and parental disapproval –as well as often being relegated to low-paying jobswith limited opportunities for promotion.

“In the past 50 years women have come to beemployed in steadily increasing numbers aboardthe world’s merchant ships and cruise liners,” says

Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, Director of the ILOSectoral Activities Department. “If this study helps

improve the conditions of work of even a fewwomen, it will be a success. We, of course, hope itwill lead to greater participation – and better qual-

ity jobs – for women at sea and in the maritimeindustry as a whole.”

According to some of the women interviewed

for the study, those days of balmy working con-ditions may be some time off. Women seafarersreported comments like their place being “in the

kitchen” rather than on deck, that women weren’tsuited for the sea because they “all argue with eachother” (as if men don’t!), being told “blonde jokes”

or given the worst, dirtiest jobs.“The lads I was sailing with spent about four

months doing those awful jobs, and then they were

up on the bridge in a clean environment,” said onewoman who spoke about being tested to see if shehad the “right stuff” for the job. “They will push [a

woman] a lot, lot harder.”Some women reported taking drastic measures to

avoid being harassed, including altering or “de-fem-

inizing” their appearance (one woman engineeractually shaved her head!). Another cited how shehad to punch a chief officer to get him out of her

room.So, why pursue a potentially hostile and turbu-

lent life at sea? Women have long worked on pas-

senger and cruise ships, and since 1945, haveappeared more and more on freight and othercommercial ships. In the interview below, Ms.

Doumbia-Henry explains who the women seafar-ers are, how many are working and where, andwhat the prospects are for improving their lives.

How many women are employed aboard ships?Women represent only 1-2% of the world’s 1.25

million seafarers. However, in the cruise line sector,they represent 17-18% of the workforce. Ninety-four per cent of women are employed on passenger

Women seafarers: Fighting against the tide?

O

As on land, so by sea: Women jo

1 Women Seafarers: Global

employment policies and

practices, International

Labour Office, Geneva, 2003,

ISBN 92-2-113491-1, 25

Swiss francs. The study was

commissioned by the ILO fol-

lowing the

Resolution concerning

women seafarers adopted by

the 29th Session of the Joint

Maritime Commission on

22-26 January 2001, in

Geneva. The research was

conducted by the Seafarers

International Research

Centre (SIRC) and Cardiff

University, in the United

Kingdom.



S E A F A R E R S W O O D W O R K I N G U N I O N I N S I S C O

WORLD OF WORK, NO. 49, DECEMBER 2003 15

hting against the tide?join the ranks of seafarers

© Photo montage: ILO/M. Crozet

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ships (with 68% on ferries and 26% on cruiseships) and 6% are employed on cargo vessels (i.e.,

container ships, oil tankers, etc.). As for jobs, thereare women shipmasters and chief engineers, as wellas other officers. However, generally, women are

working as hotel staff on passenger ships. Of thislatter group, 51.2% of women at sea come fromOECD countries, 23.6% from Eastern Europe,

9.8% from Latin America and Africa, 13.7% fromthe Far East, and 1.7% from south Asia and theMiddle East.

Are they accepted on board?First, as concerns getting the training to go to

sea, there does not appear to be a great problemoverall. In fact, many maritime training institu-tions are actively encouraging women to enrol.

Once on board vessels, women often experienceproblems in being initially accepted, sometimeshaving to “prove themselves”. However, over time

they are usually able to integrate themselves intocrews, and become accepted and appreciated bytheir colleagues.

As concerns promotion on cargo vessels, thesurvey indicates that women feel they have thesame promotion possibilities as men, though this

varies among companies; in some companies theyfeel there is a reluctance to promote them to seniorpositions, in others there may be special efforts to

promote women. As concerns those working in thehotel sector on passenger vessels, the situation isless clear. It appears promotion may often be more

related to ethnicity than gender.

How can companies improve conditions for

women seafarers?Sexual harassment is a reality for many women at

sea. This can range from persistent verbal harassment

and inappropriate comments, to physical assault.However, cruise-sector companies which have estab-lished high-profile sexual harassment policies, seem

to have been able to reducethe number of incidents of

harassment, and toencourage women to seekcompany support in such

situations. There seems tobe less attention to thesematters in the cargo sector.

As concerns other issues,such as maternity benefitsand availability of certain

products required bywomen, it seems we have away to go.

What are some of theadvantages of having

women aboard ships?A great advantage is

that it creates a more nor-

mal social environment.This is particularly important because the nature ofseafaring life has changed in recent years. There is

less time to go ashore and there are less people onboard. Having women as part of the crew can reducethe sense of isolation felt by many seafarers. Further-

more, recent labour surveys of the shipping sectorhave indicated an existing – and growing – shortfallof certain categories of seafarers, particularly offi-

cers. Women are an underutilized source of mar-itime talent which we need to draw upon to make upthis shortfall.

What can be done to improve conditions forwomen at sea and attract them to the seafaring

profession?First, I should note that the maritime community

has a number of parts: companies, trade unions,

seafarers’ welfare organizations, and others. Theyeach may have a role. Companies, for example,could try to place new recruits aboard vessels with


women officers. Sexual harassment policies are, ofcourse, important. Trade unions should take up

these matters and other issues, such as maternitybenefits, when negotiating collective agreements.

We also can’t forget that improving conditions

of women at sea is also related to improving con-ditions of work for all seafarers – male or female.Therefore, any efforts to improve conditions of

work at sea will also benefit women. In this regard,the ILO is in the process of consolidating its manymaritime labour Conventions into a single, con-

solidated standard. The aim is to adopt a standardwhich is widely – if not universally – accepted, andwhich will improve conditions for all seafarers. At

the national level, and at the company level, thereshould be increased emphasis on improving ship -board conditions. By conditions, we mean pay,

accommodation, safety, longer leave periods, etc.

What stimulated the ILO to commission thisstudy?

The ILO is very serious about gender issues, andtakes them into account in all areas of our work.Thus, when we commissioned SIRC to undertake a

study on conditions of work of seafarers as themain discussion document for a meeting in 1991 ofthe ILO Joint Maritime Commission (JMC) – a

bipartite body consisting of representatives of theworld’s shipowner and seafarer representatives –we asked that the study include a gender perspec-

tive. The JMC discussed the report and went a stepfurther by adopting a Resolution calling for a spe-cific study on women seafarers.

What is the ILO doing to follow up on this study?First, we are seeking to have it widely distrib-

uted in the international maritime community.Using the study as a resource document in all ourmaritime activities, we will use it to promote gen-

der sensitive policies in the maritime industry,and also work with the International MaritimeOrganization.

How can people obtain a copy of the book?You can visit the ILO Web site at www.ilo.org.

On the right-hand side, you will see the word “pub-lications”. Click on this and it will take you to infor-mation on the book. Please note that it is possible

to view one of the chapters in the book by visitingthe Web site.

What about the old saying that women are badluck at sea?

An interesting myth, sort of like the myth that

you will fall off the edge of the earth if you sail toofar from port. But this is the twenty-first century,we know the earth is round and that superstitions

have nothing to do with it. The ILO pursues amodern social agenda, with a strong gender com-ponent. Our work on behalf of women seafarers is

a classic example of “mainstreaming” gender intoall elements of a trade. In this case, mainstreamingextends also to all seven seas.

Sub committee of the Joint Mar-itime Commission (JMC) of the

International Labour Organization (ILO)has extended the validity of the currentILO minimum wage for seafarers ofUS$465 to 31 December 2004. That figurebecame applicable on 1 January 2003. Italso agreed to increase this minimumwage to US$500 effective 1 January 2005. In addition to the minimum wage issue,the Joint Working Group of the JMC pro-vided guidance to shipowner and seafar-er representatives and national authori-ties on how this wage should beinterpreted, taking into account hours ofwork, overtime, leave entitlement, andweekly rest day and public holidays.A substantial percentage of the world’smore than 1.5 million seafarers areaffected by changes in the recommend-ed ILO minimum wage for able seafarers.This figure includes catering and hotelstaff on passenger ships and other cate-gories of persons, those working aboardcoastal vessels. Ten nations, includingthe Philippines, Indonesia, China, Turkey,the Russian Federation, India, the UnitedStates, Ukraine, Greece and Japan sup-ply almost 60 per cent of the world’s sea-farers.

With a gross tonnage over two milliontons, three countries emerged as majormaritime nations in 2002: Spain, Cambo-dia and the Cayman Islands. Australiaand Belize are no longer in the list of thir-ty-nine major maritime nations, accord-ing to Lloyds Register World Fleet Statis-tics 2002.The mechanism for setting the minimumwage for able seafarers is provided forby the ILO Seafarers’ Wages, Hours ofWork and the Manning of Ships Recom-mendation, 1996 (No. 187). The ILO mini-mum wage takes into consideration aformula which reflects changes in con-sumer prices and exchange ratesagainst the US dollar in fourty-nine mar-itime countries and areas.The application of Recommendation No.187 is not mandatory. However, govern-ments may nevertheless choose totranslate the contents of this instrumentinto national law. Moreover, the Recom-mendation is used by shipowners andtrade unions in setting wage scales. Themechanism is the only one in the ILO forsetting the basic monthly wage for anyindustry.

ILO BODY UPDATES MINIMUM WAGE FOR SEAFARERS

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S E A F A R E R S



W O O D W O R K I N G

Carving out a placein global markets

lobalization is altering the traditionalwood furniture sector in Central Java,Indonesia, the major employer and

export-earner of this province. Thislabour- and resource-intensive industry is facinggrowing pressure from two sides. First, competitive

strategies from other Asian countries, such as China,Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, which arecheaper and more responsive to global buyers’ needs

for quality, delivery and close customer relations.Second, an unsustainable rate of logging in theIndonesian teak plantations which, if left unchecked,

will undermine this industry’s supply of teak andmahogany in the next five years. The result? CentralJava’s woodworking industry is now at a crossroads

JEPARA, Central Java – In an industry dating backto pre-colonial times and which grew to serve the

needs of carved-wood furniture for the royal families,skilled woodworkers ply their trade in age-old fash-ion, producing handcrafted teak and mahogany fur-

niture for export around the world. The wood furniture industry based in Central Java

today comprises more than 30 furniture clusters,

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For Indonesia’s traditional woodworking industry,globalization poses new challenges

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S E A F A R E R S W O O D W O R K I N G I N D I S C OU N I O N

composed of numerous medium, small and home-based enterprises, and is Central Java’s largest export-earner, representing around 22 per cent of total

export value. It is also a major engine for generatingemployment and income for hundreds of thousandsof people from this province.

The industry profited in the 1980s and early1990s from growth in domestic consumer demandwhich made quality furniture more accessible to

the growing Indonesian middle class. The 1990sbrought an increased role in global markets, boost -ed significantly by a depreciation of the Indonesian

rupiah. Indonesia is now the second largest devel-oping-country exporter of wood furniture toOECD markets, behind China.

The best of Java’s furniture ends up in fash-ionable boutiques selling traditionally hand-crafted teak items. This is the positive side of

globalization – opening new markets and newopportunities for a traditional industry. Butthere’s also a downside. Neighbouring countries

have been quick to join the race for profits,sparking fierce competition with cheaper, mass-produced items, and new designs to meet chang-

ing consumer tastes.Increased competition has spurred demand for

more “Western” designs, including self-assembly

formats. Foreign buyers are also demanding morestandardized quality and strict delivery schedules.Meanwhile, the demand for wood has raised log -

ging in the hardwood forests and plantations tounsustainable levels. (The furniture industry aloneuses at least 1.8 million cubic metres of wood a

year, less than a third of which can be supplied bystate-owned teak plantations. The rest comes fromelsewhere and is often illegally harvested.)

“We will be witnessing the sunset of the furni-ture industry in Indonesia three or four years fromnow – automatically, because simply they will not

have sufficient raw materials,” says Agus Setyarso ofthe Worldwide Fund for Nature.

ILO supports a “high-road” competitive strategy

The focus on low-cost segments of the market andthe increasing competition from producers in China,

Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, have becomea key concern for the Javanese producers. To survivein the new global marketplace, the small furniture

businesses of central Java must restructure to meetthe expectations of European and American clients –improving relations with the international market,

raising product quality, and updating communica-tions and marketing techniques – mindful of declin-ing availability.

In this way, the opportunities and challenges ofglobalization have brought the furniture producers toa crossroads which will affect everyone – from wood-

workers to enterprises to exporters.Professor Hubert Schmitz, of the University of

Sussex in the UK, says there are two ways out of the

dilemma: “They can compete by taking the low road,which would mean paying their workers as little aspossible, disregarding labour standards, disregarding

environmental standards, avoiding taxation and suchmeasures. Or, they can decide to take the high roadwhich would mean upgrading, innovation. Clearly,

the former (low-road) option is both unrealistic andundesirable.”

Local trade unions concur that the high-road

approach is the only sustainable option for CentralJava producers to compete in global markets. “Incompanies that really look after their workers, offer-

ing good, decent working conditions, they canachieve much higher productivity, as well as muchbetter quality of their products,” says Indonesian

trade unionist Rulita Wijayaningdyah, of the Inter-national Federation of Building and Wood Workers.

Trade unionists are increasingly active in Jepara,

pushing to maintain and improve working con-ditions. But they face many difficulties because mostof the skilled carvers are subcontracted, have no job

security and little or no social protection.An “integrated” approach across the ILO is a key

aspect of this work. The ILO Subregional Office in

Manila and the ILO Office in Jakarta have joinedforces with the Employment Creation and EnterpriseDevelopment Department (EMP/ENT), through the

InFocus Programme on Boosting Employmentthrough Small Enterprise Develoment (IFP/SEED),and forestry experts from the Sectoral Activities

Department (SECTOR). The ILO is working with anumber of local and national stakeholders tounderstand the dimensions of these competitive

pressures and their potential impact on employ-ment, and to identify and implement responses tothese changes. Programme activities are being

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developed together with local small and medium-sized enterprises, representative associations ofemployers and workers, district and provincial gov-

ernments in Central Java, and national governmentauthorities in Jakarta.

A key question for Java is how wood furniture

producers can shift into higher quality markets so asto avoid direct competition from low-cost areas.

Searching for an answer to this question has

involved building knowledge of the sector and itsfuture prospects at a number of levels, including con-ducting four studies: an overview of global trade flows

in this industry since the 1990s, an analysis of CentralJava clusters using a global value chain analysis, a sur-vey of global buyers’ perceptions of the leading wood

furniture producers in Asia, and an assessment oftimber availability in Indonesia.

Without such knowledge, it is difficult for com-

panies to know how best to respond to changingmarkets. The firms in a cluster become trapped,believing that producing more at lower cost is suf-

ficient for maintaining or increasing market share.Instead, they should be assisted to identify oppor-tunities for upgrading, and to decrease their

dependency on traditional raw materials, conven-tional designs and standardized markets.

The findings raised through the ILO studies have

been discussed at the local level, and have resulted inthe production of a range of ILO materials designedto provide guidance and information to the enter-

prises on improving productivity, accessing timber,and other subjects relating to globalization.

The ILO is now garnering support and resources

for a second project phase which will seek to imple-ment a new strategy for dealing with the challengesfacing the industry.

In this way, the ILO is aiming to engage all con -cerned – from local and national government to theenterprises, workers, trade unions, environmentalists

and consumers – in the process of building a futurefor the Indonesian wood furniture industry whichbenefits from globalization while providing good

quality employment and working conditions.As stated by André Sundrio of the Jepara Excel-

lence Group, “We must develop a better image of

Jepara together. It’s proven that through better pro-duction, service and business practices that follow therules, we will attract more markets.”

The ILO is workingtowards better workingconditions in the

furniture industry

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Union "dot orgs" comm I being paid what I should be,for the work I’m doing?” is a

question many people ask butoften find difficult to answer.

Now, Internet sites dedicated to workplace issues

can resolve this and other queries. Writer AndrewBibby examines how workers and employers arenavigating the information highway on bread and

butter issues

LONDON – Collective bargaining has tra-

ditionally provided a convenient mechanism forestablishing pay levels, albeitsometimes in a rough-and-

ready fashion. But whatabout the large number ofworkers worldwide who

aren’t covered by collectivebargaining agreements?

One answer, at least

according to the innovativeSwiss union “//syndikat”,may be a little collective self-

help, courtesy of the powerof the Internet.

//syndikat, an on-line trade union organization

which links IT professionals in the notoriouslyindividualistic new technology sector, encouragesboth members and would-be members to check for

themselves how their pay compares with the indus-try average, by using “Salary Checker” software onits Web site. The service is free, the principle – as

with shareware software – being that users canmake a voluntary donation.

The information on Salary Checker becomes

more valuable the more people use it and con-tribute their own data. //syndikat says that, withpay details entered by about 4,500 workers (or

about 6.5 per cent of the total IT workforce in Ger-man-speaking Switzerland), the Salary Checkerdatabase has become statistically representative of

the sector.

The worldwide spread

Similar ideas to //syndikat’s have been tried byunions in Austria and the Netherlands, and the

idea of an IT salary checker is now being extendedto the European level by Union Network Interna-

tional (UNI). “We want to cut away secrecy,” says UNI’s Ger-

hard Rhode. “We think it will be a very useful serv-

ice for increasingly mobile IT workers, bothemployees and self-employed.”

The Salary Checker is one example of efforts by

trade unions to offer services to members by betterharnessing the opportunities of new technology.From the sophisticated global Web site run by the

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions(ICFTU), to myriad smallunion branch Web sites, the

trade union voice is nowwell-established on theInternet. A survey for the

London School of Econom-ics in April 2001, found over2,600 union sites, with the

researchers admitting thatthe actual figure is probablyhigher.

But as companies havealso found, a Web site by

itself may not be worth the time and money spent

on developing it; it all depends on how it is used.One attempt to help unions benefit from best prac-tice is the e-tradeunions.org initiative, which links

about sixty union “webmasters” worldwide.Appropriately enough e-tradeunions.org, whichprovides a forum for information exchange and

mutual support, operates entirely in the onlineworld, via its Web site.

As initiatives like e-tradeunions.org demon-

strate, there is now considerable experience ofinnovative uses of new technology by unions tooffer services to their members. Many unions offer

interactive information and online learning pack-ages to members via their Web sites. One exampleis the Swedish union SIF, which among other serv-

ices provides a career-counselling programme Kar-riärCoach. Another example is the French man-agers’ union CFDT-Cadres which is about to

launch an online stress-management programme.The UK telecoms union, Connect, has developed a

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me of ageWeb-based recruitment service, Opus2, while thegiant German union, “ver.di”, has an online data-

base of resources for teleworkers via its OnForTeservice.

More fundamentally, however, unions are ask-

ing themselves if, and how, new technology couldtransform the very essence of trade unionism.With levels of union organization having fallen in

many countries in recent years, unions are keenlyaware of the need to attract new members, if onlyto replace those who are retiring or leaving work.

At the same time, the unions are aware of the needto adjust to the growth of new sectors (such as IT)and of new ways of working – including technol-

ogy-enabled workplaces, such as call centres, tele-working and “atypical” working, such as self-employment.

The US academics, Richard Freeman and JoelRogers, are among several sympathetic observerswho have suggested that unions could gradually

“morph” into new types of organizations, workingwith individual workers in non-union recognizedcompanies as readily as with traditional members

in organized workplaces. They talk of unionsreaching out to sympathizers via the Web and, in

the process, of the meaning of union membershipbecoming wider and “fuzzier”.

For a sense of how these sorts of “e-union”

might develop, the growth of Web-focused unionsand quasi-unions in the IT sector, like //syndikat inSwitzerland, may provide a model, albeit one

which operates on a very small scale. In the US, anew Oregon-based group ORTech, established thisyear, is modelled on WashTech, the “voice for the

digital workforce” in Seattle and Washington State.WashTech, like a third Web-based group“Alliance@IBM”, is affiliated with the Communica-

tions Workers of America, though both groupsprefer to emphasize their role as organizationsserving the needs of professionals. In Australia, a

similar initiative has led to the IT Workers Alliance.Meanwhile, in India, the IT Professionals Forums,originally focused on Bangalore and Hyderabad,

continue to attract support from young well-edu-cated IT workers. The Forums have recentlyopened new chapters in Chennai and Mumbai.

he World Summit on the Information Soci-ety (WSIS), which gets under way in Gene-

va in December, has – unusually – been organ-ized as a two-stage event, with the secondstage scheduled for Tunis in November 2005.

The summit, called under the auspices of theUN, and facilitated by the InternationalTelecommunication Union (ITU), has set itselfthe task of developing an international actionplan for the forthcoming information age, whatit describes as a revolution – “perhaps thegreatest that humanity has ever known”.

The voice of employers in the WSIS debatesis being heard primarily through the work of theCoordinating Committee of Business Interlocu-tors (CCBI), chaired by the International Cham-ber of Commerce. Among the concerns raisedare those of spam, privacy and cyber security,intellectual property rights, Internet governanceand technology neutrality.

The CCBI argues that development of infor-

mation and telecommunications technologiesshould be left to the private sector and themarkets, and urges the WSIS to be pragmaticand adopt what it calls “a healthy sense ofrealism”. It also defends the current arrange-ments for the allocation of Internet domainnames undertaken by the independent privateorganization ICANN, arguing against transfer-ring this task to an international public body.

From the trade union side there is consider-able disappointment that the implications of theinformation society in the workplace have notreceived greater attention. Aidan White, Gen-eral Secretary of the International Federationof Journalists, which is coordinating unioninput into the summit, argues that union con-cerns have been squeezed out.

With two years before the WSIS process cul-minates at Tunis, there remains, however,ample opportunity for both employers andunions to influence the eventual outcome.

T

WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY


n two-and-a-half years, an innovative ILOproject has helped create well over 2,000 jobs,and pull more than 200 indebted families out

of a debt trap. This three-year ILO INDISCOproject aims at creating decent employment fortribal peoples in the remote forests of Mayurbhanj

in Orissa, India, and is well on its way to becominga replicable model

ORISSA, India – Forty-three year-old Gora-chand Murmu was an agricultural labourer,migrating to faraway places in search of work. Like

all of his neighbours in this tribal village, he had nosavings in the local bank.

Now, through an income-generation scheme

developed as part of a three-year ILO projectunder INDISCO (see box), Mr. Murmu is enjoying

a higher standard of living, and a new sense of self-esteem, social status and economic independence.

“I no longer need to leave my village and

migrate to distant places in search of employ-ment,” he says, “and I have been able to make myfamily feel secure with my new income”. Gora-

chand is not alone. Prior to this project, not onesingle household had a personal savings account.Now, through the project’s income-generation

schemes, several hundred persons are savingmoney at the local Baitarani Gramya bank.

The INDISCO project has triggered a process of

community-owned and driven initiatives towardsdecent and productive employment for these trib-al peoples. Covering a cluster of 40 villages consist-

ing of over 2,000 tribal households, this expandedproject is a sequel to an earlier pilot exercise (1994-

“We created jobs…”:The forest peoples of Mayurbhanj

I

Gorachand Murmu

found a new occupation

and income in rope making,

which has enabled him

to start a profitable business.

Ropes being loaded for

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Calendar of Standard Courses • 2004

International Labour Standardsand Human Rights

Managing a national programme against trafficking and forced labour: labourdimension of trafficking

21/01 • 23/01International labour standards forjudges, lawyers and legal educators

15/03 • 19/03International labour standards, equalityin employment and workers with family responsibilities

Normes internationales du travail,égalité dans l’emploi, et travailleursayant des responsabilités familiales

22/03 • 02/04

International labour standards

Normes internationales du travail

Normas internacionales del trabajo17/05 • 28/05

Promoting gender equality

Arabic - 05/07 • 16/07

International labour standards forjudges, lawyers and legal educators

Normes internationales du travail pourjuges, juristes et professeurs de droit

30/08 • 10/09

International labour standards,productivity improvement andenterprise development

27/09 • 07/10

International labour standards: tools for the globalized marketplace

Normes internationales du travail:instruments pour le marché du travailmondialisé

08/11 • 19/11

In 1965, the ILO and the ItalianGovernment established theInternational Training Centre of the

International Labour Organization inTurin, Italy.

The Centre promotes social andeconomic development throughlearning and training. It draws on thebest thinking, practice andexperience concerning matters suchas fundamental principles and rightsat work, employment and incomeopportunities for women and men,social protection for all, socialdialogue, management of thedevelopment process, and learningtechnology.

The Centre offers training andlearning opportunities and services

to decision-makers, managers,practitioners and trainers from thethree ILO constituencies –governments, workers’ organizationsand employers’ organizations – andfrom their partner institutions, the ILO and the United Nations system. It has partnerships with regional andnational training institutions.

Almost one hundred thousandwomen and men from 170 nationshave benefited from the TurinCentre’s training and learningservices. The annual number ofactivities exceeds 300; the annualnumber of participants exceeds8,000. Around half the activities takeplace on campus and half inparticipants’ home regions. TheCentre extends its outreach by using

information technology, including theInternet, to offer distance learningand tutoring services.

This Calendar lists the standardcourses. In addition, the Centreorganizes comprehensive trainingprojects, advisory services, trainingmaterials design and production,knowledge-sharing platforms andcustomized learning events that meet specific needs of countries in Africa,the Americas, Arab States, Asia andthe Pacific, and Europe.

Courses are held in Arabic, English,French, Portuguese, Russian andSpanish. The titles in this calendarare in the language of the course(except for Arabic and Russian).

2004

INTERNATIONAL TRAINING CENTRE OF THE ILO • TURIN

Employment andSkills Development

Analyse et information sur le marché detravail

23/02 • 27/02Meeting of Directors of VocationalTraining Authorities for network creation

Arabic - 05/04 • 09/04

Gender, poverty and employmentDistance Learning - 19/04 • 19/10

Workshop on fiduciary managementtraining in community-drivendevelopment projects (World Bank/ILOTurin)

26/04 • 30/04

Promotion of employment policies atlocal level

Arabic - 14/06 • 24/06

Labour market analysisArabic - 27/06 • 01/07

Employment and labour market policies in developing countries

05/07 • 16/07Public employment services

06/09 • 10/09

La gestión de la calidad en institucionesde educación profesional: interrelaciónentre las normas de competencia laboral y las normas ISO

27/09 • 08/10

Informação sobre o mercado detrabalho e gestão de sistemas deeducação profissional

18/10 • 29/10

Putting employment at the centre ofpublic investment and povertyreduction processes

22/11 • 27/11

Evaluación de impacto de programas deformación profesional

22/11 • 03/12

L’emploi en point de mire desinvestissements publics et des processusde réduction de la pauvreté – atelier surles politiques et programmesd’investissement à forte intensitéd’emplois (HIMO)

13/12 • 17/12

Enterprise Development

Diploma course in market-orientedsmall business development services(MOSBDS)

Distance Learning - 01/02 • 31/05

Management of microfinanceinstitutions for improved performance

Techniques de gestion des institutionsde microfinance

01/03 • 12/03

Making micro-leasing work formicrofinance institutions (MFIs)

15/03 • 19/03

Making micro-insurance work formicrofinance institutions (MFIs)

15/03 • 19/03Making guarantee funds work for smalland micro-enterprises

Comment les fonds de garantie peuventservir les petites et micro entreprises

22/03 • 26/03SME Cluster Development: Principlesand Practice

“Helping SME clusters in developingcountries meet their potential in theglobalized economy”

UNIDO/ILO ITC joint programme19/04 • 30/04

Improving productivity through goodpractices in human resource management

03/05 • 14/05

Improving productivity through goodpractices in human resource management

Russian - 03/05 • 14/05

Training for BDS providers andpromoters of Women’sEntrepreneurship Development (WED)– Business growth: how to become abetter business adviser

14/06 • 25/06

Strategies for Local EconomicDevelopment (LED)

21/06 • 02/07

Estrategias para el DesarrolloEconómico Local

21/06 • 02/07

Diploma course in market-orientedsmall business development services(MOSBDS)


Desarrollo Económico Local y Empresas Asociativas (ESDEL)


Servicios de desarrollo empresarialorientados al mercado (este cursoculmina con un diploma)

Distance Learning - 01/09 • 31/12International Labour Standards,Productivity Improvement andEnterprise Development

27/09 • 07/10

Socially Sensitive EnterpriseRestructuring: how to mitigate theadverse effects on employment

04/10 • 15/10

Cooperative policy and legislation18/10 • 29/10

Creating an enabling environment forsmall enterprise development

Processus d’élaboration de programmesafin de créer l’environnement favorablepour le développement des PME

01/11 • 12/11Workshop on improving the businessenvironment for small enterprises insouth eastern Europe

15/11 • 26/11

Managing BDS providers for increasedimpact

06/12 • 17/12

Social Protection

Social health insurance16/02 • 27/02

Formation de formateurs et promoteurs en évaluation d’impact des systèmes demicro-assurance santé en Afrique

01/03 • 05/03

2004


Atelier sur les régimes de pension et lefinancement de la sécurité sociale

15/03 • 02/04

Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo en elsector de la construcción

03/05 • 14/05Workshop on social security financing

10/05 • 21/05

Workshop on pension schemes andsocial security financing for Arab States

Arabic - 19/07 • 30/07Taller sobre regímenes de pensiones yfinanciamiento de la Seguridad Social

02/08 • 13/08

Perfectionnement des inspecteurs duTravail pour une meilleure surveillancedes conditions de travail

20/09 • 01/10

Workshop on pension schemes27/09 • 15/10

Occupational Safety and Health Systems and Programmes

04/10 • 15/10

Strategies for the extension of socialsecurity

22/11 • 03/12

Workers’ Activities

Trade union training in internationaleconomics, regional integration andpolitical economy

12/01 • 06/02Formación sindical sobre las NIT y laDeclaración de la OIT relativa a losprincipios y derechos fundamentales enel trabajo y su seguimiento

02/02 • 27/02

Trade union training in employmentpolicies and poverty reduction strategies (PRSP)

08/03 • 02/04Formación sindical en políticas deempleo y estrategias para la reducciónde la pobreza

08/03 • 09/04

Formation syndicale sur le renforcement des capacités en matière d’organisation

05/04 • 30/04

Trade union training in social securityand social protection

03/05 • 04/06Formation syndicale sur les technologies de l’information avec un accentparticulier sur la formation à distance

09/08 • 10/09

Formação sindical sobre o reforço decapacidades em matéria de organização

06/09 • 08/10

Trade union training in OSH and theenvironment, in particular onHIV/AIDS

Arabic - 06/09 • 08/10

Trade union training in informationtechnology

08/11 • 10/12

Employers’ Activities

Corporate social responsibility27/09 • 01/10

Social Dialogue and the Public Sector

Conciliation and mediation26/01 • 30/01

Conciliation et médiation08/03 • 12/03

Conciliación y mediación22/03 • 26/03

Gestão da Reforma da AdministraçãoPública: uma abordagem participativa

26/04 • 14/05

Gestão de recursos humanos na funçãopública

24/05 • 18/06

Managing Public Service Reform28/06 • 16/07

Diálogo social, globalización eintegración regional

26/07 • 30/07

Curso de especialización de expertoslatinoamericanos en relaciones laborales y temas de trabajo

30/08 • 17/09

Training of instructors on thePortworker Development Programme(PDP)

04/10 • 15/10

Gestion des ressources humaines dans la fonction publique: une approcheparticipative

25/10 • 19/11

Conciliation and mediation

29/11 • 03/12

Management of Development

Master’s course on “Management ofDevelopment”

02/02 • 28/05

Equipment procurement management

(World Bank /ILO Turin)08/03 • 26/03

International procurement management

Russian - 15/03 • 26/03Post-graduate course on “InternationalTrade Law”

30/03 • 23/06

Procurement of information systems inWorld Bank-funded projects

19/04 • 30/04Delnet – programa a distancia en apoyoal desarrollo local: curso deespecialización en desarrollo local

Distance Learning - 01/05/2004 • 30/04/2005Delnet – programa a distancia de apoioao desenvolvimento local: curso deespecialização em desenvolvimento local

Distance Learning - 01/05/2004 • 30/04/2005

2004


Delnet – programme in support of localdevelopment: Specialization course onManagement of Local Development


Delnet – programa a distancia en apoyoal desarrollo local: curso deespecializaci ón en desarrollo local conperspectiva de género


Management of technical cooperationprojects

03/05 • 21/05

Works procurement management

(World Bank /ILO Turin)

10/05 • 28/05

Selection and recruitment of consultants in World Bank-funded projects

Russian - 24/05 • 28/05An integrated approach to theprocurement of health sector goods

(World Bank/ILO Turin)09/06 • 18/06

Project management in WorldBank-funded projects: control of project delivery, procurement and financialmanagement procedures

05/07 • 09/07

Works procurement management

(World Bank/ILO Turin)

Russian - 02/08 • 13/08Procurement management in the publicsector

(OECD/SIGMA - World Bank – ILOTurin)

06/09 • 24/09

LL.M. (Master of Law) in “IntellectualProperty”

06/09 • 03/12

Post-graduate course on “Culturalprojects for development”

13/09 • 03/12

Delnet – programa a distancia en apoyoal desarrollo local: curso deespecialización en desarrollo local


Delnet – programme in support of localdevelopment: Specialization course onManagement of Local Development


Delnet – programa a distancia en apoyoal desarrollo local: curso deespecializaci ón en desarrollo local conperspectiva de género


Delnet – programa a distancia de apoioao desenvolvimento local: curso deespecialização em desenvolvimento local

Distance Learning - 01/10/2004 • 30/09/2005Management of technical cooperationprojects

04/10 • 22/10

Equipment procurement management

(World Bank/ILO Turin)11/10 • 29/10

Procurement management in WorldBank-funded projects

Russian - 11/10 • 29/10

Selection and recruitment of consultants in World Bank-funded projects

15/11 • 19/11

Financial management anddisbursement in World Bank-financedprojects

(World Bank/ILO Turin) (dates to be fixed)

Public-private partnership for provision of infrastructure and services

(dates to be fixed)Project management in WorldBank-funded projects: control of project delivery, procurement and financialmanagement procedures

(dates to be fixed)

Distance Education and LearningTechnology Applications

Conception et développement de médiaet environnements de formation

15/03 • 26/03

Formación de formadores porcompetencias

Distance Learning - Enrolment April

Learning media design and development17/05 • 28/05

Gestión de recursos humanos porcompetencias

24/05 • 28/05

Competency-based training of trainersDistance Learning - Enrolment September

Formación de formadores porcompetencias

Distance Learning - Enrolment September

Designing competency-based trainingprogrammes

18/10 • 22/10Evaluar el logro individual decompetencias

25/10 • 29/10

Learning media design and development15/11 • 26/11

Concepção de programas de formaçãobaseados em competências

15/11 • 26/11

Gender EqualityThe Centre is mainstreaming womenand gender issues into all its activities.Other courses and workshops dealingwith gender issues related to specifictechnical areas will be found under thenames of those areas.

Mainstreaming gender equality in theworld of work: a capacity-buildingdistance learning modular course


Gender, poverty and employment19/04 • 19/10

ADMISSION

All regular courses offered by theInternational Training Centre of the ILO, Turin, Italy, are open to candidates with grants or their own sources of funding.These candidates should apply directlyto the Centre for registration.FOR REGISTRATION, PLEASECONTACT:The Recruitment UnitINTERNATIONAL TRAINING CENTREOF THE ILOViale Maestri del Lavoro, 10 - 10127Turin, Italy.Tel.: (39) 011– 6936 671/6936 629 /6936 111

Fax: (39) 011– 6936 767/ 6638 842E-mail: [email protected]

Visit our Web site: http://www.itcilo.it


>>

1999), which demonstrated the importance of par-ticipatory methodologies in tribal initiatives. Thepresent project activities took off in May 2001,

building capacities to manage their own institu-tions, providing microcredit and skills-develop-ment for employment.

“In India, tribal people account for 8 per cent ofthe population, with about 52 per cent of themsubsisting below the poverty line,” says Dilnawaz

Mahanti, the National Project Coordinator ofINDISCO in India. “Socially, geographically, as wellas economically excluded, they are faced with a

steadily depleting livelihood base as a result ofdepleting natural resources on which they aredependent.” Illiteracy and ignorance of the market

potential of their resources make them vulnerableto exploitation by external agents, and forced them

into the debt trap and distress migration in searchof wage labour.

Tribal peoples present a unique challenge

because they are difficult to reach. The major thrustof these projects is to generate employmentthrough skills development and upgrading tradi-

tional skills with simple technologies, mainly basedon natural resource management. “The pro-gramme enables the formation of self-supporting

cooperatives among ethnically homogenousgroups,” says Herman van der Laan, Director of theILO subregional office in India. “This lends a

stronger voice, social protection, and organiz-ational strength to the tribals.”

The main occupation of tribal communities is

agriculture. Most tribals are marginal farmers withan average of one to two hectares of land. Crop fail-ure is frequent in drought years. Deforestation has

left large areas barren, provoking soil erosion andloss of income from forest produce, which is animportant source of income. The project recog -

nizes and builds upon the tribal people’s ownindigenous systems of sustainable land and naturalresource management, striking a balance between

economic utilization and ecological preservation. The tribal people’s cooperatives (which are still

in the making), are on their way to all-round

empowerment, getting themselves equipped tomanage their own enterprises, access support ser-vices and obtain fair prices for products. Revolving

loan funds provide credit. Women are receivingtraining in microcredit and accounting.

The project had a considerable impact on

expanding the women’s income through mobiliz-ation and targeted skills training. “While thewomen’s workload remains heavy, they have gained

a stronger position in the communities by empow -ering themselves towards self-sufficiency,” says Ms.Mahanti. “Such empowerment has helped boost

the morale and esteem of these women, who arenow more receptive to new concepts on literacy,savings, health issues, etc.”

Revolving loan funds have also been used tostart up activities such as pisciculture and animalhusbandry. Some persons are running grocery

shops, cycle repair shops, beekeeping and garmentindustries. Training in sal-leaf cup-making hashelped a large group move into processing the

leaves of the sal tree by using machines acquiredthrough the project. A group of tribal youth wasgiven typing training. “It was through the

NDISCO – Interregional Programme toPromote Self-reliance of Indigenous and

Tribal Peoples through Cooperatives and Sim-ilar Self-help Organizations – is part of the ILOCooperative Branch, and tests approaches topromoting decent employment opportunitiesin partnership with the people. It is funded byAusaid, ILO and Danida. INDISCO was initi -ated in 1993 during the UN InternationalDecade of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.Today, it is present in various countries ofAsia, Africa and Latin America. The pro-gramme was first started in India.

In response to the dismal living and workingconditions of the estimated 300 million indigenousand tribal peoples around the world, INDISCOoffers technical assistance on how to trans-late the provisions of ILO Convention No.169on indigenous and tribal peoples, on theground. The strategy includes supporting pilotprojects, promoting best practices and linkinggrassroot experiences with the broader policyenvironment. The five major elements are:strengthening the organizational capacity,promoting livelihood opportunities, preservingand promoting traditional knowledge, genderand youth concerns, and environmental sus-tainability.

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WHAT IS INDISCO

...continued from page 22

women’s groups of the project that I learnedabout the typing training,”says Saniya Singh ofDurgapur village. “I work as a village guard

because I could not afford to continue my stud-ies.” Saniya now hopes to buy his own typewriterand find a job with some state government office

and earn a decent living.People are now ready for bigger and more

ambitious activities. Emerging from the shadows,

the women of INDISCO project villages are nowequal partners in the decision-making process.Tribal communities identify themselves very close-

ly with their natural habitat and practice their tra-ditional skills in natural resource management.“Our experience”, notes Mr. Van der Laan, “has

been that any strategy for employment generationwith tribal peoples is most likely to succeed if it isbased on upgrading traditional skills with simple

technology, and utilizing available naturalresources”. All activities are implemented in con-sultation with the people, and identified in most

part by them. The ILO is the facilitator and pro-vides the required technical support, striking a bal-ance between blending modern and traditional

systems specific to the region.

Kiran Mehra-Kerpelman


Women are receiving training in microcredit

and accounting.

he ILO is responsible for the only (two)international instruments which deal

exclusively with the rights of indigenous andtribal peoples. ILO Convention No. 169 isunique in that it acknowledges the specificidentities, lifestyles and cultures of indigenousand tribal peoples. In other words, it recog-nizes the right to be different. The Conven-tion covers a number of issues which are ofthe utmost importance to indigenous andtribal peoples. Some of these are: the rightto practice their own culture and traditions;the rights to traditionally occupied lands; theright to natural resources and to participatein the use, management and conservation ofthese resources; restrictions on displace-ment and land alienation; and issues con-cerning education, health and employment.The Convention emphasizes the right ofindigenous and tribal peoples to be con-sulted at every stage of development whichmay affect them. It also highlights their rightto engage actively in the developmentprocess, making decisions on matters ofconcern to them.

ILO INDIGENOUS AND TRIBAL PEOPLESCONVENTION, 1989 (NO. 169)

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P L A N E T W O R K A R O U N D T H E C O N T I N E N T S I L O I N T H E P R E S SN E W S

P L A N E T W O R K A REVIEW OF TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS IN LABOUR ISSUES

■ Africa has the least IT in the world

and the greatest prospects. So says anarticle entitled, “Africa Takes on theDigital Divide”, published on the Web

site allAfrica.com. The article notes thatat its most extreme, African IT isimpoverished; only one in four people

own a radio, one in 13 a television set,one in 40 a telephone, and one in 130 acomputer. Still, things are changing

fast, the article says. By mid-2002, 1.7million Africans had dial-up Internetservices; 1 million in Southern Africa

and North Africa alone. In sub-Sa-haran Africa (excluding South Africa),there were some 1.5 to 2.5 million users

of Internet services, taking advantageof others’ connections, or one in every250 to 400 people (compared to one in

15 in the rest of the world).Clearly, Africa is taking giant stepstowards IT, with the number of land

telephone lines increasing from 12.5million in 1995, to 21 million in 2001.In Senegal alone, the article says, “there

are over 10,000 commercially run pub-lic telephone bureaus, employing15,000 people and generating over 30

per cent of the entire telephone net-work’s revenue.” The bottom line is thatAfrica is beginning to “leapfrog” tra-

ditional lines of development and movestraight into wireless technologies.Mobile phones are becoming the pre-

ferred means of communication, thearticle says, noting that in 2001, therewere an estimated 24 million mobiles

in Africa compared to 21 million fixed-line phones. Says one senior telecom-munications executive in Kenya, with

the number of users doubling every

year, “Africa is now the fastest growingcellular market in the world.” – Source, Africa Recovery, allAfrica.com,

October 2003

■ So, what’s happening on theground? According to the MTN Groupin South Africa, wireless networks in

Africa are growing 40 per cent annu-ally, compared with 10 per cent for fixed-line networks. MTN says that there are

now 35 million cell phone subscribers

on the continent, and by 2005, theremay be as many as 100 million. “Atelecommunications renaissance is

sweeping across the continent and withit an ever increasing demand foradvanced communications services,” a

spokeswoman said, adding that sophis-ticated new mobile networks will facili-tate leapfrogging to first-world levels of

communication solutions and tech-nologies. Private sector leaders hopethat communications may provide a

key to accelerating growth and devel-opment, and to reducing poverty. – Source, Business Day, South Africa,

October 2003

■ African countries such as Ghana

and Senegal are emerging as technol-ogy outsourcing hot spots. With US andEuropean technology firms looking for

low-cost labour to carry out basic officefunctions, such as data input, Africancountries are vying for a piece of the

US$120 billion pie. Good telecomlinks, a stable government and a suit-able labour force are seen as must-

haves for countries to succeed. So far,Senegal in francophone Africa, andGhana among the English-speaking

countries, are taking the lead. Is Africaon the way to creating hi-tech hubs torival those in Asia? That may depend

on the success of enterprises such asone of West Africa’s first-ever call cen-tres in Ghana, which is working on

voice-over-Internet technology. Firmfounders remain confident that thecentre – which sells mobile phone plans

– can be duplicated throughout Africa. – Source, BBC News Online

IT AND THE WORLD OF WORK

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In the Morogoro suburb of Dar es Salaam,

26-year old Deluina Maemu opened her

small shop two years ago, providing an

international phone service...and she's doing

very well.

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F E A T U R E S


■ Meanwhile, rural women in Ugan-da are proving that there’s more tomixed farming than chickens and eggs

and milk. Internet technology andmobile phones are helping rural Ugan-dan women learn new skills and market

their products to wider markets. TheGovernment wants rural inhabitants tobe providers, as well as consumers, over

the Net, and has launched a US$3 mil-lion IT strategy to put telecentres in all56 districts in the country. The overall

challenge is to provide affordabletelecommunications for all. The majorchallenge is poverty – with many peo-

ple surviving at the poverty line equiv-alent of less than 2 US dollars a day.– Source, allAfrica.com

■ And once the wireless networks areestablished, will hand-held wireless

devices be the next big developmentthing? Perhaps, if managers of a largefirm in the UK who have been touting

the use of small, hand-held wirelessmobile devices – similar to personaldigital assistants, or PDAs – are to be

believed. The explosion of such smalldevices, which fit nicely into a pocket

like a mobile phone, has revolutionizede-mail and communications at some

workplaces, and is endangering thebusiness world’s ubiquitous portablecomputers. No longer will managers

need to lug a laptop around as theytravel and wrestle with different dial-ups and networks. The hand-helds and

PDAs, which work like mobile phonesbut are mostly aimed at transmittingand receiving e-mail, are taking over,

allowing employees to communicateanytime, anywhere. The benefits areease of use and constant contact with

the office. But there’s another – shortere-mails which can be easily accommo-dated by the hand-helds and fewer

unnecessarily large attachments.– Source, FT/IT, October 2003

■ None of the IT revolution is goingto come without a price, and one of

them may be the “globalization” ofcultures. According to the Wall Street

Journal, the rapid growth of the call-centre industry in the Philippines andthe influx of outsourcing businesses,

have led many Filipinos to adopt anAmerican way of life – and Americantime. The need for call-centre employ-

ees to adapt to US time zones 12 hoursearlier is creating what the Journalcalled “a subculture of Filipinos with

American tastes, time zones andaccents”. Still, call centres are big andprofitable businesses, and one owner

in Manila says, “Filipinos have gottenused to the work schedule andadapted to the change very easily.” The

headline of the story: “At 2 a.m. inManila, it’s time to break for a middaysnack”.

– Source, Wall Street Journal, October2003

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■ Noise pollution – from mobilesand other electronic devices, bothinside and outside the office – may be

headed toward the title of “singlebiggest problem in the workplace”. Sosays a leading manufacturer of head-

sets and a wireless manufacturer, inSouth Africa. The new study saysnoise pollution can cause stress, frus-

tration and potential physiologicalproblems, and decrease productivity.And, the study says, noise pollution is

expected to increase dramatically dueto new audio equipment, voice con-trols and commands, digital dictation

(such as dictating memos or shoutinga person’s name into a voice-operatedtelephone dialler), Web/voice-casts

and multimedia. One last thing: thetitle of the study. Called “Voice atWork”, it is similar to an ILO study

produced five years ago on freedom ofassociation, entitled, “Your Voice atWork”, and gives new meaning to the

concept of “voice” – perhaps as adevelopment tool? – Source, Press release on the Web: The

Technology News site, www.itweb.co.za,October 2003

■ Stress is causing Britain’s employ-ers a headache. While no one knows forsure where the stress comes from – the

workplace or the home – new figuresfrom the UK Health and Safety Execu-tive show that more than 500,000 peo-

ple reported being affected by stress atwork, and that 13.4 million workingdays were lost due to stress and related

conditions. The Confederation ofBritish Industry’s “annual absence sur-vey” reported that UK companies paid

nearly 12 billion English pounds tocover the salaries of absent employeesin 2002. Meanwhile, a separate study

published by the UK Work Foundationthis year found that 57 per cent ofemployers don’t cost absence, indicat-

ing a lack of data or understanding ofthe problem. One solution to risingabsenteeism: software. A major UK

brewing company found that providingemployees with opportunities to see a

computer-generated profile of howmany sick days they were taking led toa drop in sickness rates. Other responses

include active management of stress-related absenteeism, auditing and read-ing signs and symptoms, personal con-

tact with employees, providing supportearly on, encouraging stress awarenessamong line managers, and developing

rehabilitation plans and clear policies.“Absenteeism needs to be managedfrom a very early stage,” says one busi-

ness consultant. “If an organization hasto have a crackdown on absenteeism,then its managers have been failing to

do their jobs.”– Source, FT.com, October 2003

■ But what about the managers them-selves? In some countries, it seemsglobalization may be the main culprit.

A new study of 480 middle-level man-agers from 96 companies in India andKenya indicates that tension at the

workplace is having a negative impacton the countries’ GNP. The study by theIndian Institute of Information Tech-

nology and Management-Kerala saidmanagement stress could affect healthand individual productivity, and cited a

survey in the United States putting theopportunity cost because of job stressat some 10 per cent of GNP there. Most

stress, the Indian study said, stemmedfrom intense pressure to perform andcompetition in an increasingly global-

ized economy. The study suggests thatmore stress management programmesbe introduced – not only for mid-level

managers, but for all employees as well. – Source, Business Line, India, October2003

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THE CHANGING NATURE OFWORK…

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■ In India , the glass ceiling is stillnearly impenetrable. An Indian maga-

zine recently reported three “she-EO’s”breaking into its list of the most influ-ential in business, but also noted that

women CEOs, COOs (chief operatingofficers) and CFOs (chief financial offi-cers) still make up only two per cent of

managerial strength there. One-third ofwomen executives reportedly leaveorganizations because of a “lack of

intellectual stimulation”, and more than

three-fourths believe they must workmuch harder to prove themselves in theworkplace. Among the factors holding

women back were male stereotyping,exclusion from informal communica-tions and lack of experience. Others

said they simply don’t want to head alarge enterprise – but that has nothingto do with gender.

– Source, Business Standard (India)October 2003

■ Elsewhere, stress, long hours andcompetition seem to be taking anotherroute – in the form of loss of sleep. In

Australia, a new survey by the occupa-tional, health and safety consultancy,Healthworks, found that 78 per cent of

Australian employees reported feelingtoo tired to perform basic work tasks atleast once. Some 40 per cent reported

falling asleep at work one or moretimes, and 63 per cent said they werechronically sleep-deprived. Why so

sleepy? The survey of workers at 425companies found 24 per cent blamedworkplace anxiety and stress, 19 per

cent long working hours and another19 per cent shift work. Other factorsinclude more intense work schedules,

longer hours, fewer staff, increased

responsibility and a faster pace of work(Australia has the second-longest work-ing hours in the OECD). The solution:

more resources, flexible working times,more rest periods and basically gettinga good night’s sleep.

– Source, The Age, October 2003

■ Look out for the porn invasion ofthe workplace. A recent survey ofhuman resource professionals in the US

found that 43 per cent had discoveredpornographic material on employeecomputers. At the same time, another

study showed that 10 per cent of unsol-icited e-mail showing up on workplacecomputers is pornographic. One issue

seems to be who owns office computers– an issue which is apparently lost onemployees. The survey notes that office

e-mail and Internet access are theemployer’s property – not the employee’s.Says one expert, “Recreational Web

browsing should be left at home.” – Source, Family News in Focus, andAssociated Press, October 2003

SHORT TAKE

■ In an article entitled, "Why beautifulpeople will be handsomely rewarded",the Financial Times of London cites newstudies showing that how much youearn may depend on how good you look.Though what constitutes beauty – orbeing well – dressed varies from cultureto culture. Researchers found, in sur-veys taken in the United States andCanada, that "plain people earn lessthan people of average looks, who earnless than the good looking." The nextquestion, obviously, is whose looks mat-tered most – men or women – and theobvious answer is wrong. The surveydetermined that the salary penalty forthe average and plain-looking was big-ger among men than women. Accordingto the survey, men with below-averagelooks earned 10 per cent less than theirmale colleagues. Meanwhile, amongwomen, the penalty for "bad looks" was5 per cent and the premium for goodlooks was 4 per cent. Call it the "looking-glass" ceiling.— Financial Times, and "Beauty andthe Labour Market",www.nber.org/papers/w4518.pdf

BEAUTY AND THE BOSS

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A political issueJobs in Brazil: The route out of poverty

Juan Somavia, ILO Director-General,took this message to Argentina andBrazil: New jobs must be created ifpoverty is to be reduced. To achievethis, major political decisions will berequired

SALVADOR DE BAHÍA, BRAZIL – “Unemploy-ment is the number one political issue of our time,”

according to the Director-General, speaking to rep-resentatives of 34 countries attending the Thir-teenth Inter-American Conference of Ministers of

Labour which took place at the end of Septemberin this Brazilian city.

Mr. Somavia, who visited Buenos Aires and Sal-

vador de Bahía between 22 and 26 September,warned of the need to create more jobs and moreenterprises capable of generating employment,

because that was the way to reduce the povertywhich affects 220 million people in the region.

During his trip, he pointed out that the new

global economy has not created the job oppor-tunities which people need, nor has the quest bysome governments for macroeconomic stability

generated employment.“In both the industrialized and the developing

countries, employment has ceased to be a purely

technical issue. Prevailing realities have made it apolitical challenge,” he said.

The ILO Director-General made an official visit

to Argentina on 22 and 23 September, duringwhich he met the country’s President, NéstorKirchner, Minister of Labour Carlos Tomada, gov-

ernment representatives, and representatives ofworkers’ and employers’ organizations.

In Buenos Aires, he praised the courage of

Argentina’s people in their efforts to deal with aprofound crisis, and said that the Government’scontinuing commitment to developing a produc-

tive economy was very positive. “What is needed isto lay the foundations for strong growth in employ-ment in Argentina.”

Mr. Somavia emphasized the importance of a“shift in thinking” away from the policies of the

past, which focused too heavily on financial issues,towards other issues which reflected the aspirationsof people and their families, who wanted “a chance

to obtain decent employment”.Between 24 and 26 September, the ILO Director-

General attended the Thirteenth Inter-American

Conference of Ministers of Labour, convened bythe Organization of American States (OAS) and theBrazilian Ministry of Labour and Employment, in

Salvador de Bahía. During this meeting, the need togenerate more jobs was highlighted as a fundamen-tal and pressing need.

According to ILO research carried out at the endof the first six months of 2003, Latin America hasan average unemployment rate of 11 per cent. “If to

that figure we add the 80 million or so informalworkers, we find that some 100 million people inLatin America have either no work at all, or work

that cannot be considered decent. This particularlyaffects young people and women,” Mr. Somaviatold delegates. He recalled that “unemployment is

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razilian Minister of Labour,Jaques Wagner, announced

Brazil’s commitment to volunteer as aLead Country of the Youth Employ-ment Network (YEN), at a specialroundtable on the issue held duringthe Director-General’s visit to hiscountry.

Brazil joins Senegal, Namibia,Egypt, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Hungaryand Azerbaijan, in preparing nationalaction plans on youth employment.Mr. Wagner and Mr. Somavia alsosigned an agreement to work togeth-er on tackling youth unemploymentin Brazil. The ILO has offered its sup-port in two ways:

The ILO will provide technicalcooperation support for Brazil’s

Primeiro Emprego (First Employment)programme as a complement to theactivities of the other YEN partners,the World Bank and the UnitedNations, which also support PrimeiroEmprego. The programme hopes tocreate 260,000 jobs for youth, aged 16to 24, and to benefit at least 600,000more with vocational training coursesand assistance in setting up micro-businesses or cooperatives. The ILOwill also develop a vocational train-ing programme aimed at improvingthe employability of young blackwomen from five quilombos, commu-nities which represent descendantsof runaway slave communities fromthe colonial period in Brazil.

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT: BRAZIL JOINS NETWORK

the most blatant form of social exclusion,” but also

warned that innovative solutions would not bepossible without major political decisions beingmade, and added that “we must all face up to our

responsibilities.”Mr. Somavia warned delegates that, “There is no

single prescription, and none that would be effec-

tive in all countries; there is no ‘magic formula.’”But he also stressed that efforts to find solutionscan be boosted by social dialogue, which he said

was “the primary means of ensuring that econom-

ic and social policies are underpinned by a consen-

sus among the main partners involved in the cre-ation of wealth and growth; namely, employers andworkers”.

He told delegates, “The ILO’s tripartite compo-sition – governments, employers and workers – hasgiven rise to a pivotal idea which now guides all our

work: the creation of decent work as a powerfultool for promoting development and combatingpoverty.”

In Paris, a historical addressPARIS – The French National Assembly invited

the ILO Director-General to Paris on 14 October,to share his vision of globalization and its socialconsequences, with the Commissions of Foreign

Affairs, Culture, Family and Social Affairs. Speak-ing to about 30 Parliament members from thecombined Commissions, Juan Somavia said that

they were particularly well-placed to express thefeelings inspired by a globalization characterizedby delocalization, unemployment, precariousness,

and threats to cultural identity and dignity. Rightnow, more than a million people survive on lessthan one euro a day, and almost half the world live

on less than two euros, he said, adding that global-

ization’s principle failing is its structural inabilityto reverse the trend of unemployment and to cre-ate decent jobs. Mr. Somavia proposed building

solidarity similar to that forged by the EuropeanUnion, with structural funds and a “creative con-vergence” between the various economic, social

and environmental policies promoted by inter-national organizations. In order to sustain thisnecessary debate, the ILO has created a World

Commission on the Social Dimension of Global-ization which will return its conclusions at thebeginning of next year.

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A ray of hope? In Bangkok, tourismjobs remain question mark

TURIN - “Un lavoro decente pertutti è la strada maestra peruscire dalla povertà” (“DecentWork for All is the main route outof poverty”). With those words inItalian, the ILO Director-Generalopened the Second EuropeanRoundtable on Poverty andSocial Exclusion, organized bythe Italian Presidency of theCouncil of the European Union(EU) in October, and inauguratedby Italian Minister of Labour,Roberto Maroni. The Director-General encour-aged European employment and social affairsministries, as well as the social partners, tocreate market opportunities for decent work,promote socially inclusive growth and pursue

social dialogue. In the afternoon, Mr. Somavia,during a roundtable organized by the TurinCentre, presented the report, “Working out ofPoverty”, to Minister Maroni and other nation-al leaders.

Government, employer and workerrepresentatives from a total of 17countries* in Asia and the Pacific metat the ILO office in Bangkok on 15-17September, to discuss the ongoingjobs crisis in the region’s vital tourismsector, and to consider employmentand social policies for the future. Par-ticipants heard reports on the currentemployment situation in the sectorand future prospects for revitalizing astagnating jobs market in the wake ofthe global economic slowdown, thelate effects of Severe Acute RespiratorySyndrome (SARS) in some countries,and continuing security concerns

BANGKOK – A new analysis of the current andfuture state of employment in the Asia and Pacific

tourism sector is a mixed bag. On the one hand, itshows that some 3 million jobs in tourism have

been lost since 2001. On the other hand, the ILOsounded hopeful that the worst might be over –barring any unforeseen developments.

An earlier study, “New Threats to Employmentin the Travel and Tourism Industry - 2003”, showsthat worldwide, SARS, together with economic and

security concerns, threatened to eliminate some 5million tourism jobs in 2003, on top of some 6.5million jobs lost in the sector during the 2001-02

crisis. At the Bangkok meeting, delegates heardnew reports indicating that in spite of a strongrecovery of the tourism industry in the Asia and

Pacific Region right after the end of SARS, the year2003 would probably close with little or no growth.The report indicates that the shakeout might end

in 2004, with an expected rise in tourism in someareas which were badly hit by a fall-off in arrivalsduring 2002 and 2003, and with a recovery of high

DIRECTOR-GENERAL PRESENTS “WORKING OUT OF POVERTY” REPORT

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* Australia, Cambodia,People's Republic ofChina, Fiji, India,

Indonesia, Iran, Japan,Malaysia, Nepal,New Zealand, Pakistan,

Philippines, Republic ofKorea, Sri Lanka,Thailand, and Vietnam

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A R O U N D T H E C O N T I N E N T S I L O I N T H E P R E S SN E W S

© ILO/ P. Delochegrowth rates for China.Jobs in the region, howev-

er, would not be retrievedfully in the short term dueto new working arrange-

ments and increased pro-ductivity.

Participants in the ILO

tripartite meeting dis-cussed ways of enhancingthe potential of the

tourism and travel indus-try to create and secure

employment, provide working conditions in

accordance with the ILO Decent Work Agenda,and improve policies and practices regardinghuman resources development in the hotel, cater-

ing and tourism sector, especially in view of possi-ble new crises.

Among the conclusions of the discussion were

that tourism products and markets should diver-sify in order to make the sector less vulnerable tocrises. The development of ecotourism, rural

tourism, hinterland tourism and other productsshould be supported to create or maintain employ-ment and promote the sustainable development of

enterprises.The meeting also indicated that workers need

improved training in order to carry out their work

and improve their careers, or to move elsewhere

within the industry, adding that such workforcemobility should be a win-win situation for

employers and workers alike. Though a resurgence of SARS in 2004 has not

been ruled out, the Asian Development Bank said

in a separate report that the effect would be milder,since most governments were now better preparedto deal with the disease. There is also much confi-

dence in the industry and among its stakeholdersthat security threats will be handled more effi-ciently in the future, and that their perception by

customers, tour operators and relevant institutionswill be more realistic. The fact remains, however,that the travel and tourism industry has not creat-

ed new jobs since the region’s 1997-98 economiccrisis. Hope that this would change seems to befading away. In its place, there was a strong sense of

will among the tripartite partners gathered by theILO, to develop social dialogue institutions whichcould ease the social hardship from any crises to

come, but also make better use of the industry’semployment potential in normal times.

Conclusions from the ILO Tripartite RegionalMeeting on Employment in Tourism can bedownloaded in their entirety from:www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/sector/sectors/tourism.htm#Heading00

Chemical industry:Strong job growth in East Asia

Jobs in the chemical industry inEast Asia have more than doubledover the last two decades, as the sizeof the workforce gradually declinedthroughout the sector in most regionsof the world. A new ILO report* dis-cussed at a recent tripartite meetingon the issue, says a number of factorsare responsible

GENEVA – World employment in the produc-tion of industrial chemicals fell from a peak in1994, slightly exceeding 9 million employees

worldwide, to 7.9 million in 1997. Only in East Asiadid employment increase during the past twodecades, growing from 2.4 million in 1980, to 6.1

million in 1995. China more than doubled its chemi-cal employment over the last 20 years, from about1.8 million in 1980, to about 5.4 million in 1999.

Employment in Europe slumped in five yearsfrom a peak in 1992 at about 1.9 million employ-ees, to about 1.2 million in 1997. The employment

* Best practices in work-flexi-

bility schemes and their

impact on the quality of

working life in the chemical

industries, Report for

discussion at the Tripartite

Meeting on Best Practices in

Work-Flexibility Schemes

and their Impact on the

Quality of Working Life in

the Chemical Industries,

International Labour Office,

Geneva, 2003.

ISBN 92-2-114140-3. Price:

20 Swiss francs. For a report

on the meeting, please see:

www.ilo.org

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situation is particularly bleak in Central and East-ern Europe, where employment in the chemical

industry fell by 29 to 50 per cent in Albania, Bul-garia, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakiaand Slovenia.

The report was discussed at a tripartite meetingin Geneva on 27 to 31 October, which reviewedsuch issues as the balance between employment

security and work flexibility, increased female par-ticipation in the workforce, training and skillsdevelopment, stress and fatigue, and industrial

relations in the sector. The meeting concluded thatflexibility, when combined with multi-skilling andlifelong learning, would benefit both enterprises

and workers by increasing competitiveness and byassuring job satisfaction and continued, qualityemployment. The meeting also concluded that the

ILO core labour standards are important elementsin achieving an appropriate balance betweenemployment and flexibility. The meeting consid-

ered a number of proposals for action by govern-ments and employers’ and workers’ organizations,and the ILO.

Employment situationEmployment in the industry was strongly

affected by mergers and acquisitions, productivitygains, overcapacity, privatization and technologicalchange, the study says. Over 43,000 jobs in the top

20 chemical companies alone were lost betweenSeptember 2000 and August 2001, because ofmergers and acquisitions.

The European chemical industry has shifted tomore profitable specialty products and increased

productivity. This allowed unit labour costs toremain relatively stable, while both labour costs peremployee and productivity have increased by

about 50 per cent in the past decade.The ageing of the workforce is a concern, and

some companies are finding it hard to transmit

skills to younger workers. In the United States, theaverage age of all chemists rose from 41.3 years in1990, to 45.1 years in 2002. In Japan, the number of

workers over 50 years old increased from 12.8 percent in 1984, to 21.7 per cent in 1994.

Except for the transition countries, many work-

ers in the chemical industry have enjoyed real wageincreases in recent years. They often earn morethan their counterparts in other industries because

of the higher training requirements. Salaries forchemists and chemical engineers steadily increasedover the past ten years.

About 93 per cent of organized chemical work-ers in 42 major chemical producing countriesworked less than 40 hours a week. Workers in

Africa, Asia, Latin America and transition countriestend to work longer hours than European workers.In 2000, the average number of annual working

hours was 2,040.8, ranging between 1,665 in Den-mark and 2,808 in Thailand. Continuous shift workis an imperative in the chemical industry.

For a full report on the conclusions, please see:www.ilo.org

Feeding the world, but…What is their fate?

Today, the number of people work-ing in agriculture is put at more than1.3 billion – making up half of theworld’s active population. They feedthe world, but what is their fate?Unenviable, according to Luc Demaretof the ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activities,in this report on a recent symposiumon decent work in agriculture

GENEVA – “If she hasn’t finished her workquota, she’ll have to carry on the next day, and

that’s when she’ll get her day’s wage, because she’spaid by the job. If everything goes well, she willearn the equivalent of 35 US dollars (32 euros) in a

month. The overseers are all men and wage black-mail is part of the arsenal of sexual harassment. Inthe tea plantations, most of the children living with

their mothers don’t know their biological fathers.Ironically, the employers are reluctant from theoutset to recruit women who have family responsi-


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bilities, and pregnancy tests are common practice

before hiring.”Accounts like this from a trade unionist in the

tea plantations of Tanzania, featured strongly in the

four-day colloquium on decent work in agricul-ture, held in Geneva in September by the ILOBureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV).

According to a report distributed at the sympo-sium, the extent of child labour and discriminationagainst women – who now make up half of the

labour force there – are major concerns in Asia’sagricultural sector. Significantly, everywhere, theslice of national income generated by agriculture is

smaller than the proportion of the labour forceengaged in it.

As ILO Director-General Juan Somavia told the

workers’ symposium, “those who produce theworld’s food often don’t earn enough to put a mealon the family table. They form the majority of the

people known as the working poor.”If the international community is serious about

fighting and eradicating poverty, or even about

halving it by 2015, then the rural sector mustbecome a priority. “We must fight for jobs, sustain-able incomes, and activities that produce such

incomes. This is about promoting real opportu-nities, not charity,” Somavia insisted.

But how did things get to this state? According

to Juan Somavia, “the present globalization modeltreats labour as a commodity. But it isn’t a com-modity. This model is unjust and it won’t solve the

problems.”

Production monopoly

According to the working paper distributed atthe symposium, the ten biggest companies in agri-culture control about 80 per cent of a world market

valued at 32 billion US dollars. But while the com-panies’ profits are rising, the prices paid to the pro-ducers are continually falling. ILO agricultural

expert Ann Herbert points up the contrasts: “Whilea kilo of arabica coffee fetched US$4 dollars for theproducers in 1970, today it earns them US$1.42. A

peasant farmer gets US$0.14 per kilo of instant cof-fee, which sells at US$26 in the supermarkets.” Thedrop in commodity prices has, of course, hit agri-

cultural wages even harder, as well as the living andworking conditions of farm labourers.

The lack of trade union freedom is also the

cause of many problems. A survey organized justbefore the symposium by the ILO Bureau forWorkers’ Activities is illuminating: 52 per cent of

workers’ organizations in some 35 countries state

that their officers or members have been harassed.Job blackmail is commonplace. So are dismissals.And, as the situation in Colombia shows, murders

are not a rare occurrence.

Social dialogue – an investment

“What governments and companies mustunderstand is that when trade union freedom isdenied, the nation is impoverished, because it has

to do without its most valuable resource for devel-opment.” These words from the ILO Director-Gen-eral went down well with the assembled trade

unionists, but also with representatives of inter-national organizations, UN agencies, financialinstitutions and even employers.

There were few employers at the symposium,which was aimed mainly at trade unionists, butone, representing multinational Chiquita during

the debate on social dialogue, did not take issuewith the Director-General’s remarks. “We can’tenvisage a profitable business that does not have a

good reputation on human rights,” he declared.The multinational employs more than 20,000 peo-ple, mainly in Latin America. Many of them are

union members. Since 1998, Chiquita has beenembarked on a “corporate social responsibility”drive. The concept enabled the International Union

of Food and Agricultural Workers (IUF) to openup a breach in the banana sector, since it led to thefirst-ever global framework agreement in the

banana business. In the agreement with the IUF,Chiquita undertakes to respect fundamental rightsat work. It also acknowledges its responsibilities on

occupational health and safety, a key concern inagriculture which holds the world record for deathsdue to accidents at work: 170,000 per year.

Adopted in 2002, an international Conventionon Health and Safety in Agriculture came into forcein September 2003. Convention 184 has so far been

ratified by three countries. As the working paperstresses, the fight against child labour in agricultureshould include promotion of Convention 184.

Article 16 of that standard sets a minimum age of18 for work which, by its nature and the conditionsunder which it is performed, constitutes a threat to

the safety and health of adolescents. And childlabour, most often in its “worst forms”, is endemicin agriculture. In fact, each year 12,000 youngsters

die on the land. Nor, of course, does the exploita-tive situation faced by more and more women leavetheir children unaffected.


A R O U N D T H E C O N T I N E N T S

A REGULAR REVIEW OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOURORGANIZATION AND ILO-RELATED ACTIVITIES AND EVENTSTAKING PLACE AROUND THE WORLD.

A R O U N D T H E C O N T I N E N T S

Rescuing childrenfrom cocoaproduction■ An estimated 700 boys and 300 girlsyounger than working age will soonstop work in Cameroon’s cocoa pro-ducing regions, under a 37-monthproject launched in September by theILO International Programme on theElimination of Child Labour (IPEC). Itis jointly sponsored by the US Govern-ment, the UN and nongovernmentalorganizations. IPEC national coordi-nator, Beatrice Fri Bime, said that apartfrom removing children from cocoafarms, “five hundred children at risk –an equal number of boys and girls – will

Children inarmed conflict■ It is estimated that 120,000 chil-dren between 7 and 18 years of ageare currently participating in armedconflicts across Africa. In collabor-

be prevented from entering such work,and 500 household members, particu-larly women, will be provided servicesrelated to community development,livelihood assistance and microfinanceservices.” Since January 2003, similarILO activities were launched in Côted’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Nigeriawithin the framework of the ILO sub-regional project “West Africacocoa/commercial agriculture pro-gramme to combat hazardous andexploitative child labour”.

For further information, pleasecontact the ILO InternationalProgramme on the Eliminationof Child Labour (IPEC),phone: +4122/799-8181;fax: +41-22-799.8771;email: [email protected]

AFRICA SPECIALTenth African Regional Meeting in Addis Ababain December 2003The report of the Director-General on ILO activities in Africa 2000-2003, highlights anumber of ILO projects and programmes. “Around the Continents” refers to only a fewof them which face enormous challenges, but are also improving fortunes in Africa.

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ation with the ILO InFocus Pro-gramme on Crisis Response andReconstruction, the ILO Inter -national Programme on the Elimi-nation of Child Labour (IPEC) haslaunched a major subregional pro-gramme to prevent children becom-


Decent work forpoverty reduction ■ Four out of every ten people inGhana are classified as poor, accord-ing to the Ghana Living StandardsSurvey. Poverty is concentrated insubsistence farming, on which 60per cent of the poor depend, and theinformal economy. Since January2003, Ghana has been supported byan ILO Decent Work Pilot Pro-gramme assisting the country tointegrate decent work as a goal intonational policies and programmesfor a four-year period until 2006. Asimilar ILO programme aims toboost competitiveness by promot-ing decent work in Morocco’s textileand garment industries.

For further information, pleasecontact the ILO National PolicyGroup (INTEGRATION),phone: +4122/799-6437,fax: +4122/799-8579

Jobs for Africa■ As a follow-up to the WorldSummit for Social Development inCopenhagen in 1995, the ILO andUNDP developed the Jobs for Africa(JFA) Programme to ensure thatpoor people on the continent haveaccess to productive employment.The first phase of the programmeended in 2002, with positive resultsin a number of countries. As a resultof the JFA Programme, pro-poorand pro-employment policies areincreasingly recognized as animportant development frameworkfor Africa. As a follow-up to the rec-ommendations of the independentevaluation of the first phase of theJFA Programme, the ILO has devel-oped a policy framework for thesecond phase, adopted at the Sub-regional Tripartite Meeting on aNew Vision for Jobs in Africa, heldin Addis Ababa on 20 to 21 February2003.

For further information, pleasecontact the Regional Director for ILOField Programmes in Africa,phone: +4122/799-6191,fax: +4122/799-6056,email: [email protected]

Improving andextendingsocial protection■ A number of African countriesachieved important progress onsocial protection between 2000 and2003. The most significant achieve-ments include:• Benin, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana,

Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi,Morocco, South Africa, Tunisia andZambia ratified one or more occupa-tional safety and health Conventions,improved their legislation or startedusing new codes of practice andguidelines on safety and health, at theoperational level

• Botswana, Lesotho, Nigeria, SouthAfrica, Swaziland and Zimbabweimproved the coverage of theirstatistics on occupational acci-dents and diseases

• Policies and programmes toextend or improve the coverage ofsocial security were introduced inBenin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon,Cape Verde, Democratic Republicof the Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon,Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria,Senegal, Sierra Leone, SouthAfrica, United Republic ofTanzania, Tunisia and Zimbabwe

• People’s security surveys were con-ducted in Ethiopia, South Africaand the United Republic ofTanzania

• The coverage of social security wasextended to the excluded and thepoor in Mali

For further information,please contact theILO Social Protection Sector,phone: +4122/799-6530,fax: +4122/799-6157,email: [email protected]

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ing involved in armed conflict and toreintegrate child soldiers. Burundi,Congo, the Democratic Republic ofCongo and Rwanda are the partici-pating countries. The first phase ofthe project identified a strategy forconcerted action. The programmewill target not only armed combat-ants, but also children used asporters, messengers, spies or so-called “wives”.

For further information, pleasecontact the ILO InternationalProgramme for the Eliminationof Child Labour (IPEC),phone: +4122/799-8181,fax: +4122/799-8771,email: [email protected]

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Progress towardseffective socialdialogue

Womenand child labour

■ In Tanzania, the ILO has beenworking to promote more and bet-ter jobs for women under con -ditions which will lead to a pro-

■ A stronger commitment to theprinciples of partnership, goodfaith, mutual respect and willing-ness to abide by agreementsbetween governments, workers andemployers, and to guarantee free-dom of association, can be noted inseveral countries in the Africaregion. With ILO support, Senegal,for example, has adopted a Charterfor social dialogue between theState, private sector employers andworkers. The Charter became effec-tive in March 2003, and applies toall sectors of the economy, bothpublic and private, as well as theinformal economy. The documentlays down a set of rules of conductfor each of the three partners,acknowledges in particular labour’sstake in business performance, andestablishes an institutional frame-work for dialogue at the national,sectoral and enterprise levels.

For further information, pleasecontact the ILO Social DialogueSector,phone: +4122/799-6320,fax: +4122/799-7289,email: [email protected]

gressive reduction in child labour.Since 2000, nearly 1,000 womenworkers from the informal economyhave been organized into productiveeconomic groups and provided withtraining, microcredit, awarenessraising and other support. Mech-anisms have also been put in placeto withdraw children from childlabour. Over 1,700 younger andolder children have been integratedinto either primary school orvocational training. In the tea sec-tor, working conditions of mothershave also improved with the provi-sion of day care facilities for over1,258 children. The achievementsfrom the project provide valuablelessons for policies and programmesat the national level and have beenextended to other parts of the coun-try and in Zanzibar.

For further information,please contact the ILO Gender Pro-motion Department,phone: +4122/799-6090,fax: +4122/799-7657,email: [email protected]

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South-East Asia andPacific Forum onDecent Work

■ Throughout the Asia and PacificRegion, the ILO’s technical work hasincreasingly focused on assistinggovernments, and employers’ andworkers’ organizations to worktowards a coordinated set of nation-al policies and programmes fordecent work. The South-East Asiaand the Pacific Subregional Tripar-tite Forum on Decent Work, inAuckland, New Zealand, from 6 to 8October 2003, discussed a majorreport on recent developments inAustralia, Fiji, Indonesia, Kiribati,New Zealand, Papua New Guinea,the Philippines, Solomon Islands,Vanuatu and Timor-Leste, showingthe significant progress which hasbeen made in promoting the DecentWork Agenda across the subregion.

For further information, pleasecontact the ILO Manila Office,phone: +632/815-2354,fax: +632/812-6143,email: [email protected]

Rights-at-worktraining for theIndonesian nationalpolice■ Reform within the Indonesiannational police began in 2000, withthe separation of the police from thearmed forces. In 2002, the Parlia-ment enacted a law which obligesmembers of the police force torespect and promote human rights

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when undertaking their duty. InAugust 2003, the ILO began a two-year technical cooperation projectfunded by the United States tofamiliarize the Indonesian policewith fundamental principles andrights at work, including the right ofworkers to establish unions andother mechanisms in resolvingindustrial disputes. The project hasalso explored a major programmeto improve the capacity of theIndonesian national police in theprevention of trafficking of persons.Considering that legitimate law-and- order issues can arise duringdemonstrations, strikes or otherforms of industrial action, the train-ing project is also looking at theexperiences of international policeforces in dealing with such issues. Acourse on labour rights is beingdeveloped for inclusion in the cur-riculum of the National PoliceAcademy and the police trainingschools.


Action againstHIV/AIDS at theworkplace■ By the end of 2002, some130,000 people in Indonesia wereliving with HIV/AIDS, and thenumber of cases is expected to dou-ble this year. Ninety per cent ofthese cases involve people in theprime working-age group of 20 to50 years. To reduce the economicand social impact of the pandemic,the ILO assists the Government,employers and workers to addressHIV/AIDS through training andguidance on prevention, care and

social protection, including fightingthe stigma associated with the ill-ness. Following a national seminarin early 2003, the social partnerssigned a Tripartite CommitmentStatement to combat HIV/AIDS inthe world of work. The ILO nowassists the signatories in developinginnovative, long-term partnershipswith the private and public sector.


Combatingunemploymentthrough infrastructurerehabilitation■ In response to the crisis in theSolomon Islands, the ILO, in collab-oration with UNDP, launched aJapanese-funded Community Infra-structure Rehabilitation Project, inearly 2003. The project will provideimmediate employment to some2,180 people through the rehabilita-

tion and maintenance of some 70km of primary roads, 16 woodenand steel bridges, and the upgrad-ing of community recreation andsanitation infrastructure. Usinglocal resources and local labour, theproject aims to create a multipliereffect, indirectly generating furtheremployment and income. TheSolomon Islands will also haveimproved access to markets, pri-mary education and health care,clean water and rural transport.


Eliminating the worstforms of child labourin the Philippines

■ The elimination of the worstforms of child labour has become apriority in the national develop-ment agenda of the Philippines. Thecountry ratified ILO ConventionNo. 182 on the worst forms of childlabour, in November 2000, and theNational Child Labour Committeeestablished the goal to reduce theworst forms of child labour by 75per cent by 2015. The National Pro-gramme Against Child Labour(2001-2004) is the overall time-bound framework for action whichtargets child labour in sugar-caneplantations, mining and quarrying,pyrotechnics, deep-sea fishing,domestic work and child prostitu-tion. An estimated 22,000 childrenin the worst forms of child labourwill be withdrawn in the near futureand provided with meaningfulalternatives, including education,counselling, health care, and servic-es for reintegration into their fami-


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Timor-Lestebecomes 177thILO member State

■ The Democratic Republic ofTimor-Leste (formerly East Timor)has become the 177th memberState of the International LabourOrganization, following receipt inGeneva of a letter from Prime Min-ister Mari Bim Amude Alkatiri,stating, on behalf of the Govern-ment, that the Democratic Repub-lic of Timor-Leste formally acceptsthe obligations of the ILO Consti-tution. Timor-Leste’s membershipbecame effective on 19 August2003. The country has been a mem-ber of the United Nations since 27September 2002.

Masters Programmeon Labour Policiesand Globalization■ The University of Kassel and theBerlin School of Economics, in Ger-many, offer a new Masters Pro-gramme on Labour Policies andGlobalization. In cooperation withthe ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activi-ties and the ILO-Universitas pro-gramme, the international labourmovement and academic partnerinstitutions throughout the world,the one-year programme gives stu-

ILO joins Genevaresearch projects■ The Geneva Academic Network(GIAN) has approved sevenresearch projects presented by mul-tidisciplinary research teams.Researchers include Swiss academ-ics and experts from internationalorganizations. The ILO participatesin three of the projects coveringsocial dialogue regimes: globaliza-tion, migration and humanrights; and employment and relat-ed socioeconomic dimensions inresponse to conflict and naturaldisaster situations. A total fundingpackage of 2 million Swiss francs isavailable for these projects.

For further information pleasecontact GIAN,phone: +4122/733-2692,email: [email protected]

EU "fully committed"to ILO standards ■ EU Trade Commissioner, PascalLamy, told trade unionists at theGlobal Unions WTO Conference,in Cancun, on September 9, thatthe European Union is “fully com-mitted” to promoting respect forcore labour standards in its tradepolicy. Lamy cited the EU’sstrengthened support for ILO tech-nical assistance, and reform of theEU GSP programme to betterreward countries which meet ILOcore labour standards and to “reacteffectively in case of serious andpersistent violations”.

lies. Another 22,500 children at riskwill be prevented from enteringchild labour.


dents the chance to analyse the chal-lenges of globalization with a multi-disciplinary approach. The Pro-gramme equips participants to assistworkers and their organizations toengage more effectively in socialdialogue, public debate, and socialand employment policies. The clos-ing date for applications is 15 March2004.

For more information andapplication forms, visit,www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/actrav/gip,or contact the ILO Bureau forWorkers’ Activities,phone: +4122/799-7021,fax: +4122/799-6570,email: [email protected]

Children at the Kiwohede centre, in Dar Es

Salaam, show their support to the Red Card

to Child Labour campaign with a giant

football, presented to the ILO by Art for the

World. Kiwohede works closely with the ILO,

rehabilitating former child sex workers and

running a nursery school for AIDS orphans.

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Articles have been excerpted and are not always in the exact format in which they appear originally. They are trimmed and rearranged sometimes, for space reasons.


■ Helping small busi-nesses prevent substanceabuse.ILO Geneva, 2003,ISBN 92-2-113871-2.Price: 15 Swiss francs

This manual providespractical background information and a step-by-step guide for developing small businesssubstance-abuse prevention initiatives. It isbased on the findings and lessons learnedfrom the experience of five countries whichparticipated in the ILO pilot project on pre-venting alcohol and drug abuse at the work-place: Egypt, India, Malaysia, South Africaand Zimbabwe. The volume offers numeroususeful sample questionnaires, a plan ofaction, and a variety of self-assessmenttools.

■ Best practices in work-flexibility schemes and theirimpact on the quality ofworking life in the chemicalindustries.ILO, Geneva, 2003,ISBN 92-2-114140-3.

Price: 20 Swiss francs, also available inFrench and Spanish

This report discusses the developmentand application of flexible working arrange-ments and their impact on employment,working conditions, skills development andcareer prospects, in the chemical industry. Itreviews employment trends in the sectorover the past decades, globally and byregion, including gender issues. The reportexamines recent trends in remuneration,working time and paid leave, as well as ques-tions on work/life balance. The report alsoconsiders how flexible work arrangementscan affect industrial relations.

■ A global programme:Investing in employment forpoverty reduction and localeconomic growth.A Programme Document ofthe Employment-IntensiveInvestment Branch for 2003-

2007. ILO, Geneva, 2003, ISBN 92-2-113671-XThe Employment-Intensive Investment

Programme’s development objective is topromote and support the generation of pro-ductive and decent employment in develop-ing countries, through labour-based invest-ment policies and programmes in theinfrastructure sector, thus contributing topoverty reduction, economic developmentand social progress.

This publication outlines the ILO mandateand action on job creation and poverty reduc-tion, and specific components of the pro-gramme, including promotion of small con-struction enterprises, reform of contract

■ ILO activities in Africa2000-03 Tenth AfricanRegional Meeting, AddisAbaba,December 2003. Report ofthe Director-General, ILO,Geneva, 2003, ISBN 92-2-

114842-4. Price: 15 Swiss francs, also avail -able in French and Arabic

The first four years of the new millenniumwitnessed some improvements in the for-tunes of Africa, but enormous challengesremain to be faced. This report, presented tothe Tenth African Regional Meeting, servesas a basis for an analysis which may shapefuture ILO activities in Africa.

The report summarizes the conclusions ofthe Ninth African Regional Meeting, anddescribes some of the development frame-works adopted by the international communi-ty and the African region in response to itssocial and economic challenges. It identifiesfive major regional priorities: social dialogue,and economic and social policies; post-crisisreconstruction; regional integration; povertyreduction, and the prevention and manage-ment of HIV/AIDS at the workplace.

The report describes how the ILO hasresponded to the emerging developmentchallenges and priorities in Africa through theimplementation of relevant activities withinthe framework of the Decent Work Agenda.

■ Gender equality and theextension of social protec-tion.Rachel Sabates-Wheeler andNaila Kabeer,ILO, Geneva, 2003,ISBN 92-2-113746-5,

also available at www.ilo.org/coverage4allOverwhelming evidence shows that

women are disadvantaged vis-a-vis employ-ment opportunities, compared to men. Casu-alization and feminization of the labour forceand life-cycle events also mean that womenare far more likely to be excluded from socialprotection strategies and benefits. Thispaper, published as part of the Global Cam -paign on Social Security and Coverage forAll, evaluates good practices of social pro-tection programmes and experience inextending social protection for women.

■ Labour markets in tran-sition: Balancing flexibilityand security in Central andEastern Europe. Sandrine Cazes and AlenaNesporova, ILO, Geneva,2003, ISBN 92-2-113723-6.

Price: 35 Swiss francsThe economic and structural changes in

the transition countries since the breakup ofthe Soviet Union, have been unique and pro-found. This book explores how the labourmarkets of the Central and Eastern Europeantransition countries, the Baltic States and theRussian Federation have developed inresponse to this and the challenge of acces-sion to the European Union.

Through cross-country analysis, the volumeexamines the sectoral structure of employ-ment, and changes in its major characteristics:employment status, type of labour contract, for-mal/informal employment, and others.

■ Jobs after war:A critical challenge in thepeace and reconstructionpuzzle.Edited by Eugenia Date-Bah,ILO, Geneva, 2003,ISBN 92-2-113810-0.

Price: 50 Swiss francsJob creation following armed conflicts is

central to peace building and reconstructionefforts. But the issue continues to receiveinadequate coverage in post-conflict debateand action. This book examines the complexdecent-work deficits which follow armedconflicts and proposes an integrated strategyfor addressing them. The volume includesvivid country case studies, and reflection anddebate on the critical issues of jobs in post-conflict situations, making the book a practi -cal tool for post-conflict policy planners andimplementers.

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■ Barefoot Research: A workers’ manu-al for organizing on work security.

Margaret Keith, James Brophy, PeterKirby, Ellen Rosskam, 2002

This manual has been a consistentglobal success since its publication inMarch 2002, with an average of 3,500downloads every month from the ILOSocio-Economic Security ProgrammeWeb site. Clients in more than 40 coun-tries have requested over 3,600 hardcopies of the manual. This practical pub-lication shows workers how to conductbasic workplace research on workers’health, as a vehicle for improving work-ing conditions, income security, skillssecurity, job security, and voice repre-sentation security. The guide providesworkers and employers with tools toidentify work security problems, tackleproblems from a worker-centred per-spective, and use “Barefoot Research”tools and results to improve and organizearound work security.

The manual is free, and available inhard copy, CD-ROM, and PDF format fromthe ILO Socio-Economic Security Pro-gramme (Web site: www.ilo.org/ses).


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systems and procedures, community andlocal institution development for planning andimproved access to social and productiveresources, and capacity-building throughtraining and educational programmes.

■ Bulletin of labour sta-tistics 2003-3.ILO, 2003, ISSN 0007-4950.Annual subscription:115 Swiss francs. Trilingual:English/French/Spanish

ILO publications for sale can be obtained through major booksellers or ILO local offices in many countries, or directly from ILO Publications, International Labour Office, 4 route des Morillons,CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland. Tel: +4122/799-7828; fax: +4122/799-6938; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http//www.ilo.org/publns. Catalogues or lists of new publications are availablefree of charge from the above address. The ILO Publications Center in the US can be contacted by phone: +301/638-3152, fax: +301/843-0159, e-mail: [email protected], or on the Web site:http://www.un.org/depts/ilowbo.

Published quarterly in March, June, Sep-tember and December, this bulletin providesthe most recent statistics on employment,unemployment, hours of work, wages andconsumer price indices. This issue featuresan article by Igor Chernyshev of the ILO Poli-cy Integration Department, Statistical Devel-opment and Analysis unit. “Decent work stat-istical indicators: Strikes and lockoutsstatistics in the international context,” looksin-depth at one indicator of the social dia-logue aspect of decent work, strikes and

lockouts, and argues that currently, themeasure which best reconciles the numberof days lost due to industrial action with thevarying sizes of countries’ employed popula-tion, and which provides a reasonable basisfor international comparisons, is the rate ofdays not worked due to strikes and lockouts(per 1. 000 employees).

n a unique collaboration, the ILOInFocus Programme on Promoting

the Declaration is working with 12 radiostations in East Africa* to develop andbroadcast programmes which generaterobust discussion on workplace issues.The new interactive radio programmeswill provide information for workingpeople – whether they are in urban cen-tres or remote villages, employed orstarting businesses – with informationvital for spurring economic growth andsocial progress.

“We are receiving so many positivecalls about the programmes,” saysBeat Mutyaba, a producer for CBSRadio in Kampala, Uganda. “They wantto tell us more about their work. In fact,one story we produced on trade unionsbeing kept out of a textile factory hasnow become national news. And this isnow leading to improvements in work-ing conditions there.”

A series of technical training work-shops have been held in Nairobi, Dar esSalaam and Kampala to improve pro-

duction and enhance the skills of thereporters and presenters. In-depthtraining is provided by AFRiNET, a localproduction company, for the media inEast and West Africa. “There are somewonderfully talented people here inEast Africa. With some technical train-ing and hands-on experience, we willhave some world-class media special-ists here” says Willy Thomas, Directorof AFRiNET.

“It is a win-win situation”, accordingto Sam Nyalla, Managing Director ofRadio Free Africa, in Tanzania. “We areincreasing the skills of the staff and pro-moting important social issues.”

Through better production andresearch, stations are generating quali-ty content for news programmes – aswell as television – and they are alreadythinking of ways of improving their

approach. After all, the Declaration isabout people achieving their full poten-tial and realizing aspirations throughwork in freedom, dignity, security andequality.

These programmes show a strongcommitment by radio stations toimprove working conditions, sharingexperiences and insights about thechallenges we all face in today’s fastchanging economic landscape. Now, itis up to the listeners, the people of EastAfrica, to use this opportunity toimprove their world of work.

*Uganda: CBS Radio, Radio Paidha,Voice of Teso, Voice of Toro, RadioUganda, Voice of Kigezi, Kenya:Kameme, Baraka, Citizen, Tanzania:Radio Free Africa, Radio Tumaini, RadioTanzania.

YOUR VOICE AT WORK: ILO LAUNCHES NEW INTERACTIVE RADIO PROGRAMMES FOCUSING ON WORKPLACE ISSUES

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World of Work - International Labour Organization · 2014-06-10 · DECENT WORK COVER STORY Decent work for Africa's development: 4 WORLD OF WORK, NO. 49, DECEMBER 2003 alf of Africa’s