OAS Joint Summit Working Group Washington, DC 29 Mar 2007

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OASJoint Summit Working GroupWashington, DC 29
Mar 2007

• ILO
• Follow up to the Fourth Summit
• Armand F. Pereira
• Director of ILO Office for the United States
• Representative to the Multilateral Agencies in
  Washington

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The Fourth Summit made 9 requests of ILO being
followed and periodically reported. In response
to one of these (para 73), the ILOs XVI Regional
Conference (May 2006) addressed the main theme of
the XIV IACLM. At that time, the ILOs Member
States of the Americas agreed to launch a Decent
Work Decade an Hemispheric Agenda based on an
agreed menu of 4 general policies and 11 specific
policies (See annex slides 15-23), to be
further elaborated at country level, using mainly
Decent Work Country Programs (DWCP) under
national agreements engaging ILO, governments and
employers and workers organizations and other
multilateral agencies, as appropriate. This
mandate remains in line with the priorities
identified in consultations of the preparatory
work for the IACLM 2007.
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Decent Work in the Americas 2006-2015
hemispheric agenda (resulting from the
Declarations of both Mar del Plata (IV Summit)
and OAS XIV ICLM) Challenges Ensure that
economic growth promotes decent work. Ensure
effective enforcement of fundamental principles
and rights at work. Increase trust in democracy
and in social dialogue. Expand and strengthen
social security schemes. Increase social and
labor inclusion to reduce inequality.
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• Objectives

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Decent Work (wage- and self-employment with CLS
and improvements in social protection and social
dialogue) has been also in the centerfold of the
agendas of the main UN bodies and the European
Commission, which indirectly affect aid-donor and
technical cooperation agendas in the
Americas. The Decent Work Agenda was adopted by
the 2006 High-level Segment of the United Nations
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)s
Ministerial Declaration, pushing the Decent Work
Agenda as an essential part of poverty reduction
in the MDGs. The ministers also requested ILO
to develop time-bound plans for 2015, foreseen
for the Millennium Summit and the MDG reviews.
Decent work will again be on the agenda of ECOSOC
in 2007.
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Full employment and decent work was the theme of
recent session of the UN Commission for Social
Development. Employment was key theme in the
2006 Spring and Autumn sessions of the High-level
Committee of the UN system Chief Executives Board
(HLCP/CEB). The Committee asked ILO to develop a
toolkit for mainstreaming employment and decent
work in UN system activities. This initiative was
endorsed by the ministers in their ECOSOC
Declaration in July, 2006 and further discussed
by the Executive Heads of the UN system in CEBs
Oct 2006 session. The toolkit will be discussed
and approved by the HLCP and submitted for final
endorsement by the Executive Heads, including
those of the IMF, the WB and the WTO) at the next
CEB session, hosted by ILO (Geneva, 2021 April
2007). Employment is being increasingly
emphasized by other multilateral agencies
concerned with trade, growth and poverty
linkages. A recent joint ILO-WTO study of trade
and employment is another indication of shared
concerns with employment.
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ILO and World Bank agreed to jointly conduct two
initial country studies focused on
growth-employment linkages and related decent
work issues this followed the Nov. 2006
Wolfowitz-Somavia meeting over concerns in both
WB and ILO about the limited effects of recent
growth on employment (e.g. about 75-80 of the
WB-led PRSPs done so far have nothing on
employment the WBs Independent Evaluation Group
Report (ARDE, Nov.07) called for more WB focus
on jobs, etc.). ILO is working with the WB to
help effective mainstreaming of the CLS in the
Banks operations. ILO is also cooperating with
the International Finance Corporation (private
arm of the WB Group) in the implementation of its
Performance Standards on Environment and Social
Development (including CLS and other standards)
there is a joint program (Better Work) focused
on global supply chains. These initiatives could
have key effect on the effective application of
CLS in the Region and elsewhere
8
DWCPs are the main vehicle for cooperation with
Member States both directly and via the UN
Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), as well
as WBs Poverty Reduction Strategies and Policies
(PRS/PRSP) and Country Assistance Strategies
(CAS/CPS), and future Joint Assistance Strategies
of the UN system with World Bank and other
multilateral banks. DWCPs are also the main
vehicle for ILO engagement with the One UN
objective in the UN reform. In this vein, ILO and
UNDP agreed in Jan.07 to a common plan of action
focused on employment-poverty linkages.
Countries agreed for coverage are Brazil,
Trinidad Tobago, Honduras, Chile, Peru, Costa
Rica, Uruguay (others to follow).
9
Broader DWCPs are ongoing in Argentina, Brazil,
Panama, and are now being negotiated with
Uruguay, Honduras, Bolivia, Colombia and other
countries. The priority entry point in DWCPs
may vary CLS in some cases employment in
others, employment-social protection tradeoffs in
others, etc. For example In Panama, special
cooperation is envisaged to ensure that the Canal
expansion is implemented through employment
procurement practices coherent with the decent
work agenda. In Colombia, the ongoing effort
is focusing first on a recent Tripartite
Agreement on Freedom of Association and Democracy
and related technical cooperation program funded
initially by ILO and by Colombia (4.3 million
over the next 4 years).
10
Outside the DWCP framework in the Region, ILOs
studies on employment and related technical
cooperation efforts have also been promoted
separately, including Tripartite Caribbean
Employment Forum Responding to Globalization A
decent work agenda for the Caribbean in the
context of regional integration, 10-12 Oct 2006,
Barbados (similar emp forums were carried out
earlier for Central America and the Southern
Cone). National Employment Reports in
preparation for the ILO's Tripartite Caribbean
Employment Forum - Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica,
Netherlands Antilles, Saint Lucia, Suriname.
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National Technical and Vocational Education and
Training Reports - to contribute to the regional
discussion on reforming TVET institutions and
accreditation systems for improved skills and
enhanced employability in Caribbean Labor Markets
Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia,
Trinidad and Tobago. The Transition of Jamaican
Youth to the World of Work, Report prepared by
the Human Development Unit, PIOJ, in coop with
ILO. Facing the Employment Challenge
(Argentina, Brasil, Mexico) comparing country
experience on employment and macroenomic
policies, as well as other recent studies on
employment, working conditions and labor
relations, etc.
12
Both within and outside negotiated DWCPs, ILOs
ongoing technical cooperation activities cover a
variety of fields, e.g. labor statistics and
indicators, crisis response emergency employment
schemes, minimum wages, skills development and
training policy, labor inspection and
administration, social security, occupational
safety and health (OSH), etc. On OSH, for
example, in response to the Mar del Plata
Declaration and Plan of Action, the ILOs
Hemispheric Decent Work Agenda resulting from the
XV Regional Meeting (May 2006) stressed as a
policy objective to make occupational safety
and health a priority for social actors in the
region and made it a policy goal that within
ten years (by 2015), reduce the incidence of
occupational accidents and illnesses by 20, and
double occupational safety and health protection
for sectors and collectives heretofore not
covered.
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• Several activities are being undertaken in this
  context with scope for enlarging and improving
  already ongoing inter-agency cooperation.
• With WHO/PAHO (and possibly IADB/MIF, UNEP), for
  example, in
• the application of the ILO Code of Practice on
  HIV-AIDS in the Workplace,
• the joint Occupational Safety and Health Network
  (RSST) - this disseminates and exchanges OSH
  information and experience among technical
  bodies, practitioners and researchers in the
  Region and beyond (now with 1,617 subscribers in
  38 countries and linked with other ILO
  information systems) - an OPS-ILO Technical
  Memorandum is considered,
• the convergence of OSH statistics on occupational
  injuries of protected and unprotected workers and
  related policies.

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• In follow up to the 2005 IACML and in preparation
  for the 2007 IACML, the ILO is convening a
  Caribbean Ministers of Labour Meeting (15 and 16
  May 2007, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago)
• This is part of a longstanding agreement that the
  Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat and ILO
  organize the Labour Ministers Meeting in
  alternate years.
• The Meeting of Labour Ministers will discuss
• items on the agenda of the upcoming session of
  the International Labour Conference (ILC) and
  possibly
• subjects raised in early May at the pre-IACML
  meeting in Costa Rica, as well as
• the Canadian-funded workshop in Trinidad and
  Tobago (July) focused, inter alia, on the labour
  dimensions of free trade agreements, as part of
  preparations for the IACML, to be held in
  Trinidad and Tobago, 11-13 Sep 2007.

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Annex

• Decent Work in the Americas
• 2006-2015 hemispheric agenda
• 4 General and 11 Specific Policies agreed by the
  ILOs Member States to be further elaborated at
  country level, using mainly Decent Work Country
  Programs (DWCP).

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III. General policies
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Strategic Objective 2 Strategic
Objective 1 Strategic Objective 3
Strategic Objective 4
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IV. Policies for specific areas of intervention
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