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OAS Joint Summit Working Group Washington, DC 29 Mar 2007

This document outlines the hemispheric agenda for promoting decent work in the Americas, including policies and objectives to ensure economic growth, enforce fundamental principles and rights at work, expand social security, and reduce inequality. It also discusses the cooperation between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and other multilateral agencies in implementing the Decent Work Agenda.

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OAS Joint Summit Working Group Washington, DC 29 Mar 2007

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  1. 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

  2. The Fourth Summit made 9 requests of ILO being followed and periodically reported. In response to one of these (para 73), the ILO’s XVI Regional Conference (May 2006) addressed the main theme of the XIV IACLM. At that time, the ILO’s 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.

  3. 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.

  4. Objectives:

  5. 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.

  6. 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 CEB’s 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, 20–21 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.

  7. 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 WB’s 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 Bank’s 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 WB’s 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, ILO’s 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.

  11. 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, ILO’s 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 theMar del Plata Declaration and Plan of Action, the ILO’s 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.”

  13. 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.

  14. 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.

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

  16. III. General policies:

  17. Strategic Objective 2 Strategic Objective 1 Strategic Objective 3 Strategic Objective 4

  18. IV. Policies for specific areas of intervention:

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