65 ilo magazine eng...also published in arabic, chinese, czech, danish, finnish, french, hindi,...

In this issue Themes from the ILO Gender Equality Campaign 2008–2009 • Maternity protection • Education • Youthemployment • Non-discrimination • Skills • Migrant workers • Green jobs • Social dialogue • Work/family balance •Older workers • Health insurance • Flexicurity in the financial crisis • Workplace solutions for childcare • Photoreport: Crossing the gender divide

No.

65

, A

pril

20

09

Gender equality at the heart of decent workGender equality at the heart of decent work

WORLD OF WORK, NO. 65, APRIL 2009

World of Work magazine is published threetimes a year by the Department of Com-munication and Public Information of the ILO in Geneva and distributed free ofcharge. Also published in Arabic, Chinese,Czech, Danish, Finnish, French, Hindi,Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish.

EDITOR

May Hofman ÖjermarkSPANISH EDITION

In collaboration with the ILO Office, MadridPRODUCTION MANAGER

Kiran Mehra-KerpelmanPRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Corine LuchiniPHOTO EDITOR

Marcel CrozetART DIRECTION

MDP, ILO TurinCOVER DESIGN

PaprikaEDITORIAL BOARD

Thomas Netter (Chair), Charlotte Beauchamp,May Hofman Öjermark, Kiran Mehra-Kerpelman, Corinne Perthuis, Hans vonRohland

This magazine is not an official document ofthe International Labour Organization. Theopinions expressed do not necessarily reflectthe views of the ILO. The designationsemployed do not imply the expression of anyopinion whatsoever on the part of the ILOconcerning the legal status of any country, areaor territory, or of its authorities, or concerningthe delimitation of its frontiers.Reference to names of firms and commercialproducts and processes does not imply theirendorsement by the ILO, and any failure tomention a particular firm, commercial prod-uct or process is not a sign of disapproval.Texts and photographs may be freely repro-duced with mention of source (except photoagency photographs). Written notification isappreciated.

All correspondence should be addressed tothe ILO Department of Communication andPublic Information, CH-1211 Geneva 22,Switzerland.Tel: +4122/799-7912Fax: +4122/799-8577Email: [email protected]/communication

Printed by ILO TurinISSN 1020-0010

2

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

© I

LO P

HO

TO

S

As the ILO marks its 90th anniversary, a year-

long campaign on gender equality at the heart of

decent work culminates with a discussion at the

International Labour Conference. The ILO has

always been in the forefront of promoting gen-

der equality at work, and women’s rights, and

this year’s campaign and discussion will be a

milestone in the Organization’s efforts to shine

new light on the status of women in the world of

work.

Yet frankly speaking, it hasn’t always been so.

The early days of the ILO saw the adoption of

some measures that effectively restricted women

from some forms of work, most notably the

Night Work (Women) Convention, 1919 (No.

4). Banning women from night work, like other

legislation preventing women from working in

certain jobs, including factories and mines, was

in keeping with the times.

But times change. Today, social progress

together with economic development and tech-

nological advancement have not only proved too

“protective” laws to be wrong, but have seen

women enter the workforce in massive numbers

around the world. Yet debate still rages in many

countries over the benefits or liabilities of special

protective labour legislation for women.

Night work is a good example. From the 1919

Convention to provisions of the 1990 Protocol

allowing for exemptions to the prohibition con-

tained in ILO Convention No. 89, ILO con-

stituents have tried to adapt relevant interna-

tional labour instruments to changing times.

They sought a new balance capable of offering

the best guarantees of protection for women

workers while keeping up with social progress

and contemporary thinking on the status of

women in the working world.

Yet the relaxation of rules on working hours

is but one step in a broad, slow transition in the

role of women in the world of work. Despite

considerable progress over the last decades, gen-

der gaps in employment and pay persist world-

wide.

Notwithstanding the tenor of the times in the

early days, gender equality in the world of work

was enshrined in the ILO Constitution from day

one, and has been reflected in relevant inter-

national labour standards adopted since then. The

four key ILO gender equality Conventions are

the Equal Remuneration Convention (No. 100),

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation)

Convention (No. 111), Workers with Family

Responsibilities Convention (No. 156), and

Maternity Protection Convention (No. 183).

These Conventions show that the ILO does

indeed move with the times – and will continue

to do so.

Women at work, past and present:Like night and day

WORLD OF WORK, NO. 65, APRIL 2009 3

8Themes from the ILO Gender Equality Campaign2008–2009:• Maternity protection • Education • Youth employment • Non-discrimination • Skills • Migrant workers • Green jobs • Social dialogue • Work–family balance • Older workers

Health insurance for women on low incomes

Globalization, flexicurity and the financial crisis

Photo report:

Crossing the gender divide:

Women and men in non-traditional work roles

C O V E R S T O R Y

Gender equality at the heart of decent work

Created in 1919, the International Labour Organization (ILO) brings together governments, employers and workers of its 182 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

Gender equality in the global financial crisis

Planet Work

• Financial crisis: The gender dimension

News

Global financial crisis

• Global Employment Trends 2009

• International Women’s Day 2009

• Asia: Economic crisis response

• Europe: 8th Regional Meeting

• First World Day of Social Justice

• ILO Governing Body discusses response to the

economic and social crisis

• Financial sector: ILO calls for urgent new

policy measures

• Impact of the food price crisis on decent work

Other News

• Panama, Norway ratify ILO Maritime Labour

Convention, 2006

Around the Continents

Media Shelf

A year-long campaign to raise aware-ness of gender equality issues has coin-cided with the worst worldwide finan-cial crisis for decades. Will progresstowards gender equality be affected,and if so, how?

Page 4

4 42

44

50

51

54

F E A T U R E D B O O K

Workplace solutions for childcare 40

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO

28

32

35

4 WORLD OF WORK, NO. 65, APRIL 2009

GENDER EQUALITY

C O V E R S T O R Y

Over the past year the ILO’s Bureau forGender Equality has held a major aware-ness-raising campaign: Gender Equalityat the Heart of Decent Work. In the fol-

lowing pages World of Work looks at themes of thecampaign so far and interviews Jane Hodges,Director of the Bureau for Gender Equality.

What will be the impact of the financial crisis onemployment opportunities for women and men?Will it translate itself into a setback for the genderequality achievements made over the past years?

Jane Hodges: The most recent Global Employ-ment Trends for Women released on this year’sInternational Women’s Day gives us an analysis ofthe initial data gathering. Projections point to 22million more unemployed women by the end ofthe year! Overall, women and men have beenimpacted differently right from the start of the eco-nomic downturn, as a result of the differentemployment situation for women and men before

the crisis. Weak labour market situations areexacerbated by crises. We can see that in this firststage, in the developed economies there are moremen than women losing their jobs. This is due tothe fact that the sectors where most job losses areoccurring at present, such as manufacturing andconstruction, are male-dominated sectors. But this“tip of the iceberg” is predicted to be outdone byfemale job losses as the next wave of bankruptcies,closures and retrenchments takes hold.

For example, women’s unemployment rates arestill higher compared to men’s: in 2008 globalunemployment rates stood at 6.3 per cent forwomen compared to 5.9 per cent for men, and2009 estimates place the female rate at 7.4 per centand the men’s at 7 per cent. Moreover, women con-tinue to suffer multiple disadvantages in terms ofaccess to labour markets. Women are found morein the informal economy, in vulnerable employ-ment, part-time work and are still on average paidless than men for work of equal value.

Gender equality at theheart of decent work

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO

5WORLD OF WORK, NO. 65, APRIL 2009

UNEMPLOYMENT: A GENDER PERSPECTIVE

TT he economic crisis is expected to increase the number of un-employed women by up to 22 million

in 2009, according to the report GlobalEmployment Trends for Women issued bythe TRENDS team of the ILO Employmentsector. The ILO also said the global eco-nomic crisis would place new hurdles inthe path toward sustainable and sociallyequitable growth, making decent work forwomen increasingly more difficult, andcalled for “creative solutions” to addressthe gender gap.

The report indicates that of the 3 billionpeople employed around the world in2008, 1.2 billion were women (40.4 percent). It said that in 2009, the globalunemployment rate for women couldreach 7.4 per cent, compared to 7.0 percent for men.

The report says that the gender impact ofthe economic crisis in terms of unemploy-ment rates is expected to be more detri-mental for females than for males in mostregions of the world. It adds that the onlyregions where unemployment rates areexpected to be less detrimental forwomen are East Asia, the developedeconomies and the non-EU South-EasternEurope and CIS, which had narrowergender gaps in terms of job opportunitiesprior to the current economic crisis.

The labour market projections for 2009show deterioration in global labour mar-kets for both women and men. The ILOprojects that the global unemploymentrate could reach between 6.3 per centand 7.1 per cent, with a correspondingfemale unemployment rate ranging from6.5 to 7.4 per cent (compared to 6.1 percent to 7.0 per cent for men). This wouldresult in an increase of between 24 mil-lion and 52 million people unemployedworldwide, of which from 10 million to 22million would be women.

At the same time, the ILO also projectsthat the global vulnerable employmentrate* would range from 50.5 to 54.7 percent for women in 2009, and from 47.2 to51.8 per cent for men, indicating thatwhile the burden of vulnerability is stillgreater for women, the crisis is pushing

more men into vulnerable employmentcompared to 2007.

Policy implications and measures“Women’s lower employment rates,weaker control over property andresources, concentration in informal andvulnerable forms of employment withlower earnings, and less social protec-tion, all place women in a weaker positionthan men to weather crises,” said ILOBureau for Gender Equality Director JaneHodges, adding that “women may copeby engaging in working longer hours or bytaking multiple low-income jobs but stillhaving to maintain unpaid care commit-ments”.

ILO Director-General Juan Somavia saidthat gender equality should be a key prin-ciple in any policy response, as theeffects of the economic and financial cri-sis go beyond the scope of women in theworld of work and have an impact on theoverall stability of society, consideringthe various roles that women play.

In a statement issued for InternationalWomen’s Day, Mr. Somavia said, “Genderinequality in the world of work has longbeen with us – but it is likely that it will be

exacerbated by the crisis. In times ofeconomic upheaval, women often experi-ence the negative consequences morerapidly and are slower to enjoy the bene-fits of recovery. And already before thecrisis, the majority of working womenwere in the informal economy with lowerearnings and less social protection.”

Mr. Somavia cited a number of policymeasures that could help rebalance theburden placed on women and addressthe impact of globalization, such as sus-tainable and quality jobs open to bothmen and women, broader social protec-tion including unemployment benefits andinsurance schemes that recognizewomen’s vulnerable position in the labourmarket, and social dialogue with theactive inclusion of women in decision-making processes.

* Global vulnerable employment rate: shareof unpaid family workers and own-accountworkers in total employment. Theseworkers are most likely to becharacterized by insecure employment,low earnings and low productivity.

© J

.Mai

llard

/ILO


© I

LO P

HO

TO

GENDER EQUALITY

C O V E R S T O R Y

The ILO must keep tracking these trends andalso make sure that the recovery packages and pol-icies developed to address the current crisis aregender sensitive. In other words, they must takeinto account the different employment situationsof women and men. In that sense the current crisismay actually be an opportunity for greater genderequality in the world of work instead of a threat ora setback. But we have to be vigilant.

2009 is an important year for the ILO in terms ofgender equality: it is the 10th anniversary of its gen-der equality action plan and in June the ILC fea-tures Gender Equality at the Heart of Decent Workas a general discussion item. How would you assessthe ILO’s work on advancing gender equality in theworld of work?

Jane Hodges: In the past ten years a lot of atten-tion has been paid to mainstreaming gender issuesin the ILO’s work, through the gender action plan,the promotion of gender equality as a cross-cuttingtheme, the establishment of a gender networkcomposed of gender focal points in the differentunits in the Office in Geneva and the field offices,as well as the further development of the Bureaufor Gender Equality. The ILO’s commitment togender equality was reconfirmed in the DecentWork Agenda and the 2008 Declaration on SocialJustice for a Fair Globalization, stating that genderequality and non-discrimination must be consid-ered to be cross-cutting issues in the strategicobjectives of the ILO. Gender equality and creatingdecent work for women and men, providing bothwomen and men with access to rights, employmentopportunities, social protection and social dialogueare therefore at the heart of the ILO’s work. Thisyear’s ILC discussion will help chart a strategiccourse for the coming years on the activities theILO needs to develop to further advance genderequality in the world of work.

Last year the Bureau for Gender Equality launcheda major awareness-raising campaign on GenderEquality at the Heart of Decent Work, leading up tothe ILC discussion. What are the objectives of thecampaign and major achievements so far?

Jane Hodges: The campaign was launched dur-ing the 2008 International Labour Conference.During the 12 months leading up to the ILC 2009general discussion, we have been actively reachingout to the ILO constituents and many other stake-holders on gender equality issues, with severalobjectives.

First of all, it is a general awareness-raising cam-paign to increase the understanding of genderequality issues in the world of work, based on thelife-cycle approach. We highlight the specific link-ages between gender equality and securing decentwork for all women and men. The campaign there-fore is built around 12 Decent Work themes andeach of these themes is looked at through a genderlens, showing how various issues may affect womenand men differently in their access to rights,employment, social protection and social dialogue.In addition we are actively promoting theratification and application of the key ILO genderequality Conventions and we advocate the import-ance of overcoming existing barriers to genderequality as beneficial for all. It has been a hugeundertaking to prepare the campaign materialstogether with the ILO technical units – but what werealized during this process is that this active col-laboration in itself has been a way of further main-streaming gender issues throughout the organiza-tion as well as an opportunity to highlight thegender dimensions of the work of many of our col-leagues. The campaign materials have been widelydistributed among the constituents and otherstakeholders all over the world and used in high-level and grassroots meetings in many parts of theworld. The ILO Training Centre in Turin has beenactively involved in the campaign.

The ILO has major conventions on gender equality,two of which are among the most highly ratified;still we continue to see many gender inequalities inthe world of work all around the world. Do youbelieve that our work has created the kind of soci-etal and behavioural changes required to make sex-based discrimination a thing of the past?

Jane Hodges: The ILO Conventions – especiallythe fundamental texts on non-discrimination andon equal pay – are the starting point, as they pro-vide the legal framework for gender equality in theworld of work and we continue to advocate for theratification of these Conventions. When it comes toeveryday life, yes, we continue to see a lot of sex dis-crimination in the world of work, be it in terms of


equal employment opportunities, working condi-tions or pay. Through our assistance to govern-ments, employers’ and workers’ organizations,technical cooperation projects, training and com-munication work, the Bureau contributes to thenecessary societal and behavioural changes. How-ever, this is a long-term process, as traditional gen-der stereotypes are very strong in many parts of theworld and change in behaviour always takes time.But we have to be optimistic when we see that overthe past 50 years there has been a constant growthin the participation of women in the workforce inall parts of the world, thus increasing women’s eco-nomic and financial independence and decision-making. And the policy and legal framework issolid across the regions. Given the many challengesstill ahead that need to be addressed on the inter-national and national levels, we are confident thatthe ILC discussion and its conclusions will provideconstituents with good guidance.

The ILO is not the only UN agency working on gen-der equality. What would you say are the competi-tive advantages of the ILO’s gender equality work?

Jane Hodges: The competitive advantages ofthe ILO are linked to its unique tripartite structure,our way of doing things with actors of the realeconomy and its focus on decent work for allwomen and men. Moreover, ILO sets labour stand-ards that apply equally to both women and men, inaddition to the four key gender equality Conven-tions (Nos. 111, 100, 156 and 183). Its employment

and sustainable enterprises programmes havemainstreamed gender on the policy level and intechnical cooperation. We have specific pro-grammes aimed at improving women’s employ-ment opportunities and enterprise development inmany parts of the world. In terms of social protec-tion, the ILO looks into ways to specifically addressthe protection of women in the informal economyand in vulnerable employment, like migration anddomestic work. And all of this we do together withgovernments, employers’ and workers’ organiza-tions.

The ILO Bureau for Gender Equality has de-veloped a participatory gender audit tool that is notonly used within the ILO and the constituents, butis also much appreciated within the UN family.

IInn SSeepptteemmbbeerr 22000088 yyoouu ttooookk uupp tthheeppoosstt ooff DDiirreeccttoorr ooff tthhee BBuurreeaauu ffoorrGGeennddeerr EEqquuaalliittyy.. WWhhaatt aarree yyoouurriimmpprreessssiioonnss aanndd pprriioorriittiieess aafftteerr ssiixxmmoonntthhss iinn tthhee jjoobb??

I’m struck by the seriousness withwhich Office units handle the genderdimension in their own areas of work,and also by the way that our UN fam-ily entities look to the ILO for guid-ance. But I’m leading at a time ofgreat challenge to gender equalityachievements in the world of work.The current financial crisis willadversely affect men’s but especiallywomen’s hard-won advances for eco-nomic and social empowerment. TheILO must keep tracking the employ-ment trends and be ready to providegender-sensitive policy advice forrecovery plans. Ask me this questionagain at the end of 2009 and we’ll seeif the Office has made a difference.

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO


T H E M E S F R O M T H E I L O G E N D E R E Q U A L I T Y C A M PA I G N 2008–2009


Protecting maternity in Ca

Many women risk losing their jobs whenthey become pregnant. But most tex-tile factories monitored by the ILO’sBetter Factories Cambodia pro-

gramme now offer maternity protection to theiremployees.

PHNOM PENH – Ros Kimsreng supports herfamily by working in Cambodia’s textile industry.

It’s a good job: she earns threetimes what the average Cambo-dian brings home each month.But when she knew she wasgoing to have a baby, Ros startedto worry. For many women inCambodia, there’s a hard reality:when they get pregnant, they canlose their job.

Ros works in the finishingdepartment at a textile factory inPhnom Penh. For families whodepend on working women likeher, losing a well-paid job is acatastrophe. But on Cambodia’sfactory floors, times are chan-ging for working women andmothers.

PCCS Garments, where Rosworks, has a daycare centrewhich is actually part of the fac-

tory premises. Starting when the baby is 18 monthsold, new mothers can leave their babies here whilethey work and earn money for their families. “Thefactory’s daycare centre will take care of him whileI work, up until he is 3 years old,” says Ros.

Companies like PCCS Garments recognize thevalue of keeping their all-woman workforce pro-ductive, and that includes not only keeping womenon the job, but offering special benefits during latepregnancy and the first stages of motherhood. Thecompany has a policy of paid maternity leave,which guarantees women workers 50 per cent oftheir pay for 90 days after giving birth. Duringpregnancy, the company also has special arrange-ments in place.

Chong Chin Siong, the Assistant General Man-ager at PCCS Garments, outlines their policies: “Inthe months of pregnancy we arrange some lightwork for the workers, so for a sewing worker wearrange for her to do some trimming work, andthen for an ironing worker we arrange for her to dosome light packing work, so we try to avoid havingpregnant workers doing work that involves vibra-tion or long standing hours. This applies to themalso after they come back from maternity leave.”

After working women return to PCCS frommaternity leave, the company gives them one houra day, paid, to breastfeed their baby. And mostimportantly during this special time, the companyassigns the women to less strenuous jobs.

PCCS Garments isn’t unique: since 2001 morethan four out of five textile factories monitored bythe ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia programmenow have some form of paid maternity leave; threeout of four, like PCCS Garments, are in full com-pliance, meaning they pay their workers half wagesduring maternity leave, and offer benefits such asbreastfeeding breaks and daycare. The hope is thatthis new atmosphere in the textile industry willinspire other Cambodian businesses to do thesame, raising labour standards for everyone.

“We hope to see an increasing attention beingpaid to motherhood and maternity protection sothat the combination of having decent work and agood family and life balance can be assured,” saysTuomo Poutiainen of the ILO Better FactoriesCambodia programme.

Photos from the ILO video“Protecting maternity inCambodia’s textile factories”.Above right: Ros Kimsreng,also below, and Chong ChinSiong of PCCS Garments

© ILO VIDEOS

For young women like Ros, their worries abouthaving babies and keeping their jobs end whenthey take advantage of their company’s maternityprotection policy. What was a time of uncertainty

for Ros and her family has turned out to be one ofjoy: a new life to nurture, and the opportunity ofkeeping a good job to provide for her family’sfuture.


© I

LO P

HO

TO

S

mbodia’s textile factories

Maternity protection for employed womenis an essential element in equality ofopportunity. It seeks to enable women tocombine their reproductive and productiveroles successfully, and to prevent unequaltreatment in employment due to women’sreproductive role. Historically, maternityprotection has been a central concern ofthe ILO since its creation: among the firstinternational labour standards to be adopt-ed in 1919 was Convention No. 3 concern-

ing the employment of women before andafter childbirth.

The elements of maternity protectioncovered by the most recent standardsconcerned with maternity protection, Con-vention No. 183 and Recommendation No.191 (2000), are maternity leave (the moth-er’s right to a period of rest in relation tochildbirth); cash and medical benefits (theright to cash benefits during absence formaternity); protection of the health ofmother and child during pregnancy, child-birth and breastfeeding; the mother’s rightto breastfeed a child after her return towork; and employment protection andnon-discrimination (guaranteeing thewoman employment security and the rightto return to the same job or an equivalentone with the same pay). Convention No.183 also broadened the scope of coverageto include women working in the informaleconomy and in atypical forms of depend-ent work. These women have often notreceived any legal protection, and it istheir maternal health that is most at risk.

In June 2004, the International LabourConference adopted a Resolution on Gen-der Equality, Pay Equity and Maternity Pro-tection, which links maternity protection tonon-discrimination.

National laws designed to protect thehealth of mother and child and the employ-ment rights of working women figureprominently in the legislation of almostevery ILO member State. There are, how-ever, significant variations in the scope ofcoverage, the extent of protection, thecomplexity of the schemes in force, andthe respective responsibilities of the Stateand of individual employers for the provi-sion of cash benefits.

Paternity leave is seen as an importantreconciliation of work and family life formen, as well as an assistance to women.Paternity leave is a short period of leavetaken by a father around the time of thebirth of his child. Paternity leave provisionsare becoming more common around theworld, reflecting evolving views of father-hood and parenting roles and the needs ofmen as well as women for reconcilingwork and family life. This shift in relation-ships and perceptions may herald moregender-balanced approaches to care-giving and unpaid work.

Find out more: Gender Equality at the Heart of DecentWork Campaign, 2008–2009, atwww.ilo.org/gender.

PROTECTING THE FUTURE: MATERNITY, PATERNITY AND WORK




Replacing child lab

The links between improving access toeducation and ending child labour areincreasingly recognized. A circus schoolon the coast of Morocco is one innovative

community effort among many to get children outof work and into school.

MOROCCO – Look closely in the vibrant streetmarkets of Rabat or Casablanca, and you’ll findhundreds of children, some as young as years old,working 40 hours or more every week. There aremore than 600,000 child labourers in Morocco, 11per cent of the country’s children. And half of themare girls.

El Bouchtaouia (boook-tah-we’-uh) used to beone of them. “I was working as a domestic labour-er in South Morocco for two years. I was workinghard. My employers were beating me. Whenever Isaw children going to school it reminded me that Icould not go to school myself and I was heart-broken.”

With no chance to go to school, El Bouchtaouiaand others like her will grow up illiterate, poor, anddesperate. But on a cliff edge along the rockyMoroccan shore a sign of hope is rising above thecrumbling walls of an old fortress. Inside is anotherworld: not one of desperation, but a world ofmagic, illusion, excitement, and a chance at a newlife.

Here, at the “circus school”, children trapped inthe cycle of poverty and child labour can experi-ence a world they never dreamed possible. Thanksto the efforts of a local community group, after freelessons in juggling and trapeze practice, they spendtime in a nearby classroom, going to school just likemost other girls their age.

Outside the circus tent, the realities in Moroccoare slowly changing. Child labour rates have fallenslightly in the past ten years; experts with ILO’sInternational Program for the Elimination of ChildLabour and other organizations say that’s in partdue to innovative programs like the “circus school”and to a dramatic rise in school enrolment.

Morocco now offers primary school educationto almost all children, with enrolment jumpingfrom 52 per cent in 1991 to 92 per cent today. ElBouchtaouia is one of the success stories. She’s 16now, and in the 5th year of her primary education.Child labour is part of her past, not her future.

But the risks remain. Sriani Ameratunga-Kringof the ILO’s Bureau for Gender Equality says: “InMorocco, more than 40 per cent of the populationare at or below the poverty line. That makes it allthe more likely that a death, a divorce, or a disabil-ity in the family will mean that children will be sentout to work to replace lost family income.”

For girls like El Bouchtaouia, the “circus school”is no illusion, it is a dream come true: a uniquechance at an education, and the skills to win a pay-ing job, and a better life for herself and her family.

Photos from the ILO video “Moroccan circus schoolreplaces child labour witheducation”. Above left: El Bouchtaouia

© I

LO P

HO

TO

S

© ILO VIDEOS


our with education

There is universal understanding that edu-cation for all is the key to development.Educating girls, in particular, paves theway for wider changes in families, soci-eties and workplaces. Educated girls aremore likely to have better income asadults, marry later, have fewer and health-ier children and stronger decision-makingpower within the household. They are also

more likely to ensure that their own chil-dren are educated, avoiding future childlabour. A number of studies have alsomade strong links between enhanced edu-cational access for girls and GDP growth.

Yet despite increasing internationalrecognition that the education of girls isone of the most powerful tools forprogress, girls suffer from discriminationwhen it comes to getting an education. Ofthe 72 million primary school age childrenout of school, 44 million are girls. Failure toeducate girls costs developing countriesUS$92 billion a year.

There can be many barriers to girls’access to school. When families havelimited resources, they may feel they haveto choose between educating their sons ordaughters. Decisions may not be based onnatural aptitudes, skills, or the motivationlevels of either the male or female child.The predetermined gender roles may notnecessarily benefit young boys either, andmay even be harmful. From a young agethey may feel a heavy burden to performacademically – perhaps beyond theircapacities – in order to live up to their fam-ilies’ expectations to succeed.

These unequal gender relations propel avicious cycle of underinvestment in girlsfrom generation to generation, starting atthe earliest stages of their lives and con-tinuing throughout their life cycles. Today,over two-thirds of the world’s 860 millionilliterates are women. Girls take on a greatdeal of unpaid household work for theirfamilies, including childcare, cooking,cleaning, and gathering water and fuel.Many girls in poor communities areexpected to contribute to householdincome. If they are attending school, thereis precious little time for study.

Education sows the seeds of genderequality. Because of the direct and indirectdiscrimination that girls and women ex-perience, it is recommended that specificmeasures be taken to include facilitatingaccess to education for girls in nationalplans, policies and programmes. This inturn will facilitate future access to decentwork.

Find out more: Gender Equality at the Heart of DecentWork Campaign, 2008–2009, atwww.ilo.org/gender

FORMULA FOR PROGRESS: EDUCATE BOTH GIRLS AND BOYS!

DOMESTIC CHILD LABOUR: KEEPING GIRLS OUT OF SCHOOL AND IN POVERTY

The ILO estimates that more girl children under 16 years of ageare working in domestic services than any other category ofwork or child labour. Suniah was one of them. At 13, she lefther Indonesian village to go to Jakarta as a domestic worker,determined to help her family make ends meet. Working from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, by late evening she had just enoughenergy left to fall into bed. After a few years Suniah returnedto her village, enrolled in catch-up classes and attended non-formal junior high school classes. She is one of the lucky ones– making a better future through government programmes andher own perseverance. ©

M.C

roze

t/IL

O




Jobs for young women

When a country has a mismatchbetween its labour market needsand the education and skills of itsyoung people, what’s the answer?

Kyrgyzstan is working hard to address this imbal-ance by training young women and men in jobskills that are actually in demand in its trans-formed economy.

BISHKEK – For years it was the Soviet State thatdecided the professions and how many youngwomen and men needed to be trained for them.But the transition to a free market economy hasrevealed a painful reality.

“Kyrgyzstan is overflowing with qualified uni-versity graduates who can’t get jobs,” says ErkinbekOmurov, State Secretary of the Kyrgyz State Voca-tional Education Agency, Government of KyrgyzRepublic. “Manual labourers can get a job rightaway.”

Thousands, mostly men, have left for jobs in theRussian Federation and the West, their families sur-viving only on the money they can send backhome. Today Kyrgyzstan is becoming a country of“left-behinds” – unemployed women, the elderlyand young children, and a workforce limited toonly the most basic of jobs.

A Dutch-funded ILO project is helping the Kyr-gyz Government revisit the country’s youthemployment policy by developing strong vocation-al training programmes that retrain people, espe-cially women, in jobs that match the realities today.

“In Kyrgyzstan, the ILO works on decentemployment opportunities for all,” says Walter Ver-hoeven. “We have different components in theproject: the promotion of youth employment poli-cies, local and integrated youth employment strate-gies, providing labour market information andskills training, entrepreneurship training, careerguidance.”

More young people are interested now in thevocational skills that are in greater demand. TheModular Skills approach developed by the ILOallows young people to gain professional qualifica-tions in a shorter period of time. Suyun Maitikova,Deputy Director of Lyceum 43 Bishkek, explains:

“These young people get three qualificationsduring their ten months here. The first one is as aplasterer. After another three months they get theirsecond qualification, in laying tile, and then theyget their final one as a wood joiner. Thus in tenmonths’ time they get three professions that are indemand now.”

Nasiba Halilova has high hopes. Her dream is toopen a kindergarten; the ILO seminar showed herhow to calculate costs and develop a business plan.“This seminar is very stimulating,” she says. “ Theyencourage you to develop an idea and then teachyou how to realize it.”

Dilorom Holmatova is breaking all the stereo-types: unemployed, no higher education, and livingin a city plagued by unemployment and poverty.After going through the ILO training course “Startand Improve Your Business”, Dilorom opened thefirst curtain-making workshop in town. It’s beenfour years now, and it’s going so well, she nowemploys four seamstresses. Dilorom doesn’t want itto stop there.

“There are more than 300 single mothers inhere. And they have no one to help them. They arenot working, because they can’t put their childrenin kindergarten – this is very expensive. If I couldget an opportunity to train them I would.”

Dilorom is planning to expand her business and

© ILO VIDEOS

Photos from the ILO video “Jobs for young women andmen in Kyrgyzstan”. Aboveleft: Nasiba Halilova; below:Dilorom Holmatova


and men in Kyrgyzstan

One billion people will reach working agewithin the next decade – the best educat-ed and best trained generation of youngmen and especially young women ever.But despite great efforts carried out bygovernments and social partners, theyouth unemployment crisis is growing, andthe gender barriers have yet to be over-come. We are getting more children toschool but we are failing to get them intoproductive employment and decent work.

For many working-age young people thelack of decent job prospects increasestheir vulnerability in the transition fromchildhood to adulthood. The investment ofgovernments in education and training willbe lost if young people do not move intoproductive jobs that enable them to sup-port themselves, contribute to their fami-lies’ earnings, and pay their public dues.Yet, on average, young women and menare two to three times more likely to beunemployed than adults. This is particular-ly pronounced for young women, who alltoo often work unacceptably long hoursunder informal, intermittent and insecurework arrangements, characterized by low productivity, meagre earnings andreduced labour protection.

Labour force participation rates foryoung women are lower than for youngmen. The largest gaps are found in SouthAsia (35 percentage points) and the MiddleEast and North Africa (29 percentagepoints). The gaps mainly reflect differingcultural traditions and the lack of opportu-nities for women to combine work andfamily duties – not only in the developingworld but also in the industrialized world.The lower value placed on women’s eco-nomic contributions and prevailing views

that women only generate second or thirdincomes in households contribute to thisreality. They may face discriminationbecause of the perception that as soon asthey marry and have children they will beless productive or will leave their jobs.Many young women wonder whether aca-demic achievement actually leads toaccess to employment commensuratewith their qualifications.

Often unaware of their legal rights andlacking enough role models, women areonly slowly penetrating into professionstraditionally dominated by men. Improvedaccess to desegregated training opportu-nities will help increase the employabilityof young women and improve their futureearnings and socio-economic conditions.Efforts should be supplemented by voca-tional guidance better suited to their capa-bilities and needs, as well as by gender-sensitive counselling and placementservices to enable young women to fulfiltheir potential.

Find out more: Gender Equality at the Heart of DecentWork Campaign, 2008–2009, atwww.ilo.org/gender

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT: BREAKING GENDER BARRIERS FOR YOUNG WOMEN AND MEN

will hire more seamstresses. It means new jobs, andnew hope, for unemployed women in her town.“Now I can definitely call myself a businesswoman!” says Dilorom.

The “left-behind” women who once seemed tohave no chance are now thriving – inspiring otherwomen, and rebuilding their country’s future . . .one stitch at a time.

© I

LO P

HO

TO

S




Working in a “man’s world”:

Kasanita Seruvatu, former Director ofTraining in the Fiji Police Force and nowTraining Advisor to the Samoa Police, hasspearheaded initiatives over the last ten

years to create a stronger ethnic and gender bal-ance and empower women to take up challengingroles in the police force. Here she explains how dis-crimination against women at work can be over-come.

SUVA – The deeply entrenched beliefs andstereotyped attitudes towards women in the work-place are major obstacles. Culture, socializationand religion play a role: pre-colonial taboos andnorms of the Pacific cultures draw a clear demarca-tion line between dominant men and subordinatewomen, while the colonial and Christian value sys-tems later reinforced traditional gender roles.Although these roles have lost importance theycontinue to influence modern societies in the Pacif-ic region.

Another major obstacle to gender equality iswomen themselves. Sometimes we live up to theexpectations of society – especially our male coun-terparts – by appearing helpless and non-assertive,even when holding positions of authority andresponsibility. Moreover, by accepting certain kindsof jobs women reinforce deeply entrenched beliefsthat they are weaker than men and cannot performthe same duties as men.

In 2003 the Fiji Police put measures in place towiden the pool of recruits and to remove certaincompulsory selection criteria concerning height,weight, age and chest size of candidates that discrim-

inated against ethnic Indians and Chinese. The sameyear saw a new policy that gave 35 per cent of placesin the police to women and 65 per cent to men. Thenew human resources policies also promoted a moretransparent and fair selection procedure, gavewomen front line operational roles (including eliteunits), established networks, and promoted zero tol-erance of sexual harassment and positive media cov-erage of women in the police force.

But joining the higher ranks of the Fiji PoliceForce is not easy, due to entrenched attitudes andbeliefs regarding women in general in policing, notonly in Fiji but in the Pacific region as a whole.Only a few years ago there was only one womanholding the rank of an Assistant Superintendentwhile the next highest ranking woman was a ser-geant. There was no woman at the inspectoratelevel. It’s a man’s world. A significant change cameabout in 2003 when Commissioner Hughesappointed two women to significant operationalpositions. However, their work was made harder onthe ground when they dealt with male counterpartswho had deeply ingrained ideas about gender rolesin society. There is a patriarchal attitude towardswomen in the world of work and sometimeswomen are given token positions to pacify thestrong advocates on women’s issues and to more orless “keep their mouths shut”.

Managers need to make sure that every attemptis made to facilitate the access of women policeofficers to upper management levels. They need to“walk the talk” instead of merely paying lip service.Women should be encouraged to take up front lineoperational duties and to move away from per-forming “administrative duties”. Promotion oppor-tunities and key positions vacancies should beadvertised and everyone encouraged to apply andthe selection done in a fair and transparent way.Women should stop being ‘mute’, be assertive intheir communication with men and dare to ques-tion the decisions of superiors.

A gender and ethnically balanced police forcereinforces the principle that all law enforcementagencies should be representative of and responsiveand accountable to the community they serve. Italso reinforces the fact that a police force shouldrecognize and reflect the identity and concerns of

© I

LO P

HO

TO


Women in the Fiji Police Force

every section of the population. When a policeforce can show the visible presence of members ofthe minorities and women in prominent positions,it can be a clear indication of its acceptance in thepopulation.

The ILO can and should play a major role inbreaking down the barriers of discrimination bothat the organizational level as well as at the govern-mental level: strengthening labour ministries in the

region, facilitating dialogue among the interestedparties and providing technical assistance in iden-tified improvement areas. Some concrete ideas forpolicies promoting gender equality would include:giving scholarships specifically to young womenand girls in traditional male jobs such as engineer-ing; reserving places for young women and girls ontraining courses; and ensuring that all girls andyoung women have open access to education.

More women today are in the formal econ-omy than ever before. There are higherproportions of women in public services,and an increasing number of equal oppor-tunities policies exist globally. However,while women’s participation in the formal

labour market has increased remarkably inmost parts of the world, women still facemultiple forms of discrimination in thelabour market. Women almost everywherestill continue to earn less than men forwork of equal value; they have feweropportunities in obtaining better-paid jobsand often bear the unequal burden of fam-ily responsibilities. Discriminatory prac-tices based on assumptions about whatjobs are “appropriate” for women, or onwomen’s reproductive roles continue toexist in a number of countries.

Fifty years ago, the International LabourConference adopted what is still consid-ered the most comprehensive dedicatedinternational instrument on non-discrim-ination and equality in the world of work.The ILO Discrimination (Employment andOccupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111)was forward-looking in its time, andremains as relevant now as it was in thelate 1950s. The ILO’s commitment to theelimination of discrimination in the worldof work was reaffirmed in the ILO Declar-

ation on Fundamental Principles andRights at Work, 1998. The ILO Declarationon Social Justice for a Fair Globalization,2008, also confirms that gender equalityand non-discrimination are cross-cuttingissues in all the ILO’s work.

The principles set out in Convention No.111 have been almost universally accept-ed. The progress that has been achieved inthe application of the principle of equalityof opportunity and treatment between menand women and the leading role the Con-vention has played in the past fifty yearsshould be heralded. Yet the goal of elimi-nating discrimination in employment andoccupation set out in the Conventionremains a distant one. To be on the righttrack to equality, it is time to identify andremove the remaining obstacles.

Find out more:Gender Equality at the Heart of DecentWork Campaign, 2008–2009, atwww.ilo.org/gender

REMOVE THE OBSTACLES! ON THE RIGHT TRACK TO EQUALITY

© I

LO P

HO

TO

S




Spinning ancient technologi

When ancient technologies connectwith modern methods, the resultscan change lives – even in placeswhere hope is hard to come by. In

one of the world’s most remote places, reconnect-ing with the past is showing the way into thefuture.

ABRA PAMPA – It is one of the most astound-ingly beautiful places on earth. This is the highdesert of northwestern Argentina . . . untouched bytime, and now, reconnecting to an ancient tradition.

For centuries in this windy, desolate place, theindigenous Kolla people have raised llama as packanimals, for food and for wool. Now the time-test-ed tradition of shearing fleece by hand, and spin-ning it into high-quality wool, is bringing newhope to a region with chronic unemployment. Forwomen like Eugenia Gutierrez, it all comes natural-ly. This ancient art is her passion.

“I have been spinning wool ever since I was6 years old,” says Eugenia. “All my life, I have con-

sidered myself a spinner. I adore spinning. And Iam a craftswoman, specializing in spinningthread.”

This is the Punha Cooperative, where womenspin wool in the old traditional way. The FOR-MUJER programme from the ILO Inter-AmericanCentre for Vocational Training CINTERFORhelped make this ancient tradition a commercialsuccess. FORMUJER helps indigenous and non-indigenous women in Bolivia, Costa Rica, andArgentina connect traditional technologies withmodern methods of organization, production anddistribution.

FORMUJER helped the spinners understandthat the high-quality wool they produce is alsovaluable outside Abra Pampa. Now, the Cooper-ative’s wool, and the articles made from it, are soldaround the region in a network of schools andshops, even on the internet. FORMUJER alsochanged Eugenia’s life: she became a leader of thecooperative, and its first woman president.

“It changed my vision, from being only acraftswoman to becoming a community leader whothinks about, and understands the needs of others.”

Sara Silviera, the regional coordinator of theFORMUJER program, agrees: “Eugenia is a clearexample, across the region, of how it is possible togrow and to transform oneself with support, train-ing and stimulation.”

“Learning how to live with technology and adaptto its imperatives is one of the most pressing globalchallenges today,” says Jane Hodges, Director of theILO Bureau for Gender Equality.“We must empowerwomen to overcome cultural barriers which may pre-vent them from gaining access to the required skills,technologies, resources and markets.”

Now the Punha Cooperative is working towardsrecognition by Argentina’s Ministry of Labour as avocational training institution, which means new

© ILO VIDEOS

© I

LO P

HO

TO

S

Photos from the ILO video “Women’s Cooperative spinsancient technologies into com-mercial success”.Above: Eugenia Gutierrez;below: Sara Silviera


es into commercial success

Almost everywhere women lag behindmen either in access to training or in theapplication of technology. According tothe OECD, this is more a question of lack ofencouragement, pervasive gender rolesand attitudes rather than aptitudes. Girlsare far less likely than boys to study engi-

neering or computer or physical sciences.Though women earn more than half of

the university degrees in the OECD coun-tries, they receive only 30 per cent ofdegrees in science and technology. Thepercentage of female graduates advanc-ing to research is even smaller, represent-ing less than 30 per cent of science andtechnology researchers in most OECDcountries and only 12 per cent in countriessuch as Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Even though women hold more than 60per cent of IT-related jobs in OECD coun-tries, only 10 to 20 per cent are computerprogrammers, engineers, systems ana-lysts or designers. The large majority ofwomen are in secretarial, word process-ing or data-entry positions, requiringrather routine, low-level skills or limitedtechnical training.

Education and skills training increasethe ability of women and men to apply newtechniques, thus enhancing their employa-bility as well as the productivity and com-petitiveness of enterprises. Technological“catching up” is also supporting the tran-sition from the informal to the formal econ-

omy. In some countries, the growth inwomen-owned businesses is greater thanfor private firms as a whole. Supportingwomen entrepreneurs to introduce newtechnologies in their enterprises enhancesthe potential to increase productivity, cre-ate employment, reduce poverty, and pro-mote local development.

Women go into business in a variety offorms, including self-employment, SMEs,social entrepreneurship, cooperatives andmany more. But for women to recognizetheir entrepreneurial potential, it is impor-tant to promote role models that coincidewith their realities and aspirations. Womenalso need to overcome other barrierswhen deciding whether to start a busi-ness, such as limited access to credits ortraditional patterns preventing womenfrom taking part in income-generatingactivities or controlling financialresources.


SKILLS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: BRIDGING THE TECHNOLOGY AND GENDER DIVIDE

resources. And Eugenia travelsaround Argentina, showing howskills development training leads toprofessionalism, commercial know-how, higher productivity, and bet-ter income. The threads of Euge-nia’s own life have been woven intoa new fabric: stronger, moreresilient, and aware that she has thepower to change her life, andinspire others.

“I have to learn something newevery day,” she says.“I cannot stick towhat I have learned and leave it atthat. Day by day I am learning more.Learning does not finish, ever.”

IT TRAINING IN TANZANIA

Operating out of the family home, Jane provides comput-er training to nearly 50 students a day. From three com-puters in 1998, her business has grown to ten computersand five employees. They train young women and men inhow to use computers and software and provide mainte-nance. Jane participated in the ILO’s Women’s Entrepre-neurship Development and Gender Equality programme(WEDGE) training activities to increase her businessmanagement skills, organize her work effectively andgrow her business. As a result of increased demand forIT services in Mbeya Municipality, Jane now hopes tostart giving certificate and diploma courses.

© I

LO P

HO

TO




Protecting Filipino nu

When skilled workers can’t makeenough money at home, manymigrate overseas. But withoutlabour laws that protect migrant

workers, the dream of working abroad can quicklyturn into a nightmare. Women are especially vul-nerable to abuse and exploitation, because theyoften work in sectors where labour law enforce-ment is weak. But when laws protecting migrantsare effective, the dream becomes reality, with a sur-prising benefit when these workers return home.

MANILA – The Philippines are famous world-wide for their highly-skilled nurses. Every yearthousands of Filipino women and men train for aprofession that is increasingly in demand, as theworld’s population continues to age.

But the country that produces some of theworld’s most skilled nurses can’t pay them whatthey can earn overseas. Many try their luck workingabroad. The exodus of skilled Filipino workers hasled to a crisis in the country’s health care, withwider implications for the entire society.

“Now, many of our matured and experiencednurses are out of the country,” says Leah PrimitivaPaquiz of the Philippine Nurses Association.

“We’re talking also of families, children growingup without their parents, if both parents are work-ing overseas,” says Annie Geron of the Public Ser-vice Labor Independent Confederation. “And youhave a different kind of culture being developedbecause of migration.”

For some migrants, the dream of finding a newlife abroad turns into a nightmare of exploitation,abuse, and hopelessness. Women are particularlyvulnerable, especially in sectors where there is littleprotection under national legislation, such asdomestic work and agriculture. Gloria Moreno-Fontes Chammartin, Migration Specialist at theILO in Geneva, explains: “The issues of migrationstatus are very important – are they going abroad asdocumented or undocumented? As you know,those who go abroad undocumented are muchmore vulnerable.”

The protection of Filipinos working abroad hasbeen a concern for the Philippines government. Formore than 40 years, it has been building bilateralagreements with countries interested in hiring Fil-ipino nurses and other workers. In partnershipwith overseas governments, the Philippines Over-seas Employment Administration (POEA) regu-lates recruitment, contracts and employment indestination countries, especially in Saudi Arabia,the destination of three-quarters of Filipino nursesworking overseas.

“I think it’s a model in Asia,” says Hans Cacdacof the POEA, “because as far back as the 1970sthere has been a network of administrative protec-tion, a set of guarantees of rights of our migrantworkers if and when they do work abroad.”

Fernando Urutia is one of those who migratedto Saudi Arabia. The experience was not alwayseasy: “I was crying for three months because num-ber one, the language. You know, in Saudi Arabiathey speak Arabic.” But thanks to the agreementsbetween the two countries, Fernando Urutia gothelp and support whenever he needed it from thePhilippine Embassy in Saudi Arabia and from hisown government back home. The rest was up tohim.

“I’ve learned that when going to one country,you have to embrace their culture as well so thatyou can stay. That’s the reason why I stayed in SaudiArabia for 15 years.”

And it turns out the “brain drain” effect ofmigration isn’t the whole story, as Hans Cacdacexplains: “We’re also emphasizing the “brain gain”effect. Which is, at some point in time when thesenurses return, they have derived a wealth of experi-

Photos from the ILO video “Protecting male and femaleFilipino nurses migratingabroad”. Above left: AnnieGeron; below right: HansCacdac; below: FernandoUrutia

© I

LO V

IDE

OS


rses migrating abroad

ence abroad, more talent and more skills, andtherefore they bring it back here to either reinvestor share the talent and skills that they haveacquired abroad.”

Fernando is proof of migration’s “brain gain”.When he came back home from Saudi Arabia, hegot a Master’s degree and a job as a professor. Now

he is teaching student nurses who want to try theirluck working abroad.

“I want to share my knowledge, I want to sharemy experiences with these student nurses, becausethey are the new generation. Nursing is not justabout earning dollars. It’s a vocation, it’s a calling.”

Migrant workers are persons who migratefrom one country to another with a view tobeing employed otherwise than on theirown account. All migrant workers, irre-spective of sex or other personal attrib-utes, should have the right to treatment noless favourable than that applied to nation-al workers.

Women migrant workers tend to beemployed in a restricted range of occupa-tions, including manual work in agricul-ture, factories or Export Processing Zones(EPZs), but mostly jobs related to stereo-typical female roles as caregivers, nurses,domestic workers, and low-status workersin the catering, hotel, and entertainmentindustries. By the very nature of the workthey undertake, women and girls can beparticularly vulnerable when employed forwork outside their own countries. Theymay be subject to exploitation and abusenot only because they are outside the legalprotection of their country of origin, butalso because they often hold jobs forwhich there is little protection under sociallegislation. Their situation is often madeworse by the lack of autonomy and thestrong relationship of subordination thatare typical of these jobs. They may be sub-ject to gender-based violence and sexualabuse, especially if they are working asdomestics or sex workers. In addition,these women are usually young, poor, andisolated from their families, whom theyhave left in their countries of origin. They

do not speak the language of the hostcountry, are unaware that they have rightsthat are being infringed, and usually do notknow where to go for help. At worst, theymay be victims of coercive recruitmentand employment practices or human traf-ficking. Young women and girls are at par-ticular risk of being trafficked for commer-cial sexual exploitation.

Because of high and persistent unem-ployment, many countries have introducedpolicies to reduce the number of immi-grants and are now confronted with theproblem of migrant workers who are in anirregular situation and/or illegallyemployed. Although the statistical evi-dence is not clear, it can be assumed thata great many of these workers are women.Gender-blind immigration policies in desti-nation countries can have disproportion-ately negative effects on women immi-grants and leave them at higher risk ofirregular employment and deportation.Find out more:Gender Equality at the Heart of DecentWork Campaign, 2008–2009, atwww.ilo.org/gender.

WOMEN AND MEN MIGRANT WORKERS: MOVING TOWARDS EQUAL RIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

© I

LO P

HO

TO

S




When community clean-up ge

“Green jobs” not only clean up theearth’s fragile environment, theycan also provide innovative newways to build sustainable jobs. In

Burkina Faso, recycling waste is generating newlivelihoods for women.

OUAGADOUGOU – Plastic as far as the eye cansee: scattered by wind and rain, each year the city ofOuagadougou in Burkina Faso produces 20,000tons of plastic trash. For humans, it’s dirty anddangerous. For animals, it’s deadly. One third of allthe livestock that die here each year choke to deathon plastic the animals mistake for food.

But the women of Ouagadougou are turning theplastic plague into prosperity. This starts with the“plastic pickers”. Each morning, Salamata Yanogoand her friends pick over the piles of plastic, look-ing for pickings they can sell to Burkina Faso’s firstplastic recycling centre.

“If I collect a lot over two weeks I can make1,500 francs,” says Salamata. That’s just over 2euros, a very modest, yet essential income for Oua-gadougou’s poorest people. Some 2,000 people inthe area recycle plastic.

Salamata and her friends bring their pickings tothe plastic waste recycling centre founded byAndrea Micconi, an Italian environmental scientistworking for an NGO here. After training at the

ILO’s International Training Centre in TurinAndrea organized the recycling centre, which isentirely operated by the women of Ouagadougou.Many of the workers come from the poorest sec-tions of the city.

These women have gained experience in con-serving, sorting, and recognizing value. Thirtywomen work at the centre 40 hours a week, earningabout 50 euros a month. That’s almost double whata teacher earns here.

Margueritte Ovempeko Kabore is President ofthe centre’s Women’s Association for the Recyclingof Plastic Waste. “We have to spread the word aboutthe centre, so that people bring plastic waste here,”she says. “We work hard cleaning and sorting theplastic, recycling four to five tons every month, sowe can cover salaries and maintenance costs.”

Women are involved in every aspect of the re-cycling process. First, the plastic is washed by hand.Then it is sorted by colour and by type. The centreprovides gloves, aprons, and other protective gearfor the women workers. The plastic is then put intomachines, which grinds it down to granules whichare bagged and sold to local industry at half theprice of imported plastic. So far, the centre has sold50 tons of recycled plastic, worth US$40,000.

Local companies mold the recycled granulesinto chairs, plastic tubing, and even affordable rulerkits for local schools. The recycled plastic rulers arecheaper than imported ones. And the schoolchil-dren are proud of their town when they read thelabel: “Made from 100% recycled plastic in Oua-gadougou, Burkina Faso.”

Students go on field trips to the recycling centreto see first hand where their rulers came from. Ithelps them understand more about the impact ofenvironmental pollution, and the important roleplayed by the women at the recycling centre.

“The world needs greener economies every-where,” says Peter Poschen of the ILO’s Green JobsInitiative. “Green jobs are policies and measuresthat take care of the environment, are a waytowards development and are a way of creatingdecent jobs for all kinds of people. This applies to awhole range of sectors, from recycling, to renew-able energies, to clean transport, to reforestationand many others and it offers opportunities for

Photos from the ILO video “When community clean-upgenerates livelihoods forwomen”. Above left: Margueritte OvempekoKabore; below right: Salamata Yanogo

© I

LO V

IDE

OS

© D. Riunaud/ILO


nerates livelihoods for women

Nearly three-quarters of the world’s poor-est citizens – those living on less than US $2 per day – are dependent on the en-vironment for a significant part of theirdaily livelihood. Climate change is endan-gering efforts to realize the internationally

agreed Millennium Development Goals(MDGs). The current global economic andfinancial crisis also presents challenges,including growing concern that previouscommitments to cap green house gas(GHG) emissions or phasing out pollutingfactories may be replaced by what onepolitical leader has called “cheap anddirty” economic stimuli.

Women and men working in sectorsmost dependent on the weather, such asagriculture and tourism, are likely to bemost affected. Climate change, moreover,is not gender neutral. Women are increas-ingly being seen as more vulnerable thanmen to the effects of climate changebecause they represent the majority of theworld’s poor and are proportionally moredependent on threatened naturalresources. Women also tend to play agreater role than men in natural resourcemanagement – farming, planting, protect-ing and caring for seedlings and smalltrees – and in ensuring nutrition and ascare providers for their families. Yet, in the

long run, no one – women or men, rich orpoor – can remain immune from the chal-lenges and dangers brought on by climatechange.

The ILO’s Decent Work Agenda providesfor green growth including the promotionof green enterprises and green jobs; activelabour market policies which combinesocial security for displaced workers withskills development to help enterprises andworkers to adapt and seize opportunities;work that is clean and safe for workersand the environment; and respect forworkers’ rights that give freedom includingto engage in social dialogue which is keyto shaping effective responses. Decentgreen jobs effectively link MDG 1 (EndPoverty and Hunger) to MDG 7 (EnsureEnvironmental Sustainability), makingthem mutually supportive.

Find out more:Gender Equality at the Heart of DecentWork Campaign, 2008–2009, atwww.ilo.org/gender.

GREEN JOBS: IMPROVING THE CLIMATE FOR GENDER EQUALITY

workers across the range, from relatively unskilledto highly, academically trained people.”

For the women who collect and sell plastic wasteto the centre, to the women who work there recy-cling, there is a sense of pride and accomplishment.Lamoussa Kamogo, a member of the Women’s Asso-ciation, says: “I’m very lucky because in Burkina

Faso it’s not everyone who can get a job like this.”Thanks to the women of the recycling centre,

today there isn’t as much plastic trash blowingaround Ouagadougou. The area’s livestock is safer,families have a new way of making a dependableincome, and the pride in what the women of Oua-gadougou have achieved grows deeper every day.

© I

LO P

HO

TO

S




Creating employment oppor

Successful social dialogue among govern-ment, trade unions, employers, is keywhen it comes to improving genderequality and changing perceptions about

women workers. This can be quite a challengewhere gender discrimination runs deep. But thingscan change, even in very traditional societies.

HADRAMOUT – Yemen is facing a number ofdevelopment challenges. The poverty rate runs atabout 40 per cent. The illiteracy rate is 52 per cent;for women it is over 70 per cent. When a womantries to find a job, she faces severe pressure to con-form to the traditional roles women and men havein this society.

“It’s true I have educated my daughter,” says onefather, “but within limits. The boys can work andthe girls can read the Quran. They can read andwrite to be able to distinguish right from wrong.But my aim for her to be either a consultant or aminister or a director, no! This is not her destinyafter marriage. God knows!”

And another adds: “All these issues you are talk-ing about are nonsense. I am an educated man andI am responsible for my children. I am in charge ofmy household and my woman. This talk is non-sense, wrong, wrong, wrong.”

Dr. Amat Alrazza Hommad is the Minister ofLabour and Social Affairs, one of the few women to

hold a high position in Yemen’s government. “TheYemeni labour law and civil service code are themost equitable within the Arab region regardingwomen,” she says. “Yemen has also signed most ofthe international labour conventions, and reflectstheir provisions in Yemeni national laws.

“But despite this fact, there is a big gap betweenlaw and practice concerning equal rights, opportu-nities for and treatment of women. This is perhapsthe biggest challenge of our ministry, and requiresraising the awareness of our society. Because ourmain struggle is not an institutional one in essence,but it is society’s perception of women workers.”

The Directorate General of Women Workers inthe Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour providestraining programmes for both women and menworkers from the public and private sectors, focus-ing on workers’ rights, social protection, social dia-logue and gender equality. Some of these efforts aresupported by the ILO/Netherlands Partnershipproject “Promoting Decent Work and GenderEquality in Yemen”. These training programmeshave been organized throughout Yemen, helpingboth women and men understand their rights atwork and raising their awareness on genderequality.

One of the women trainers was assigned toHadramout, one of Yemen’s most conservativeregions, where many establishments did not evenhave a single woman worker.

“When we wanted to train there, my colleaguesaid it would be hard,” she says. “To be honest, yes Iwas scared. Even when I went I did not know howto address the men. But later, when I started to talk,they grew to like the training. Their own perceptionof women started to change. Even their boss wishedthey would have a woman like me working withthem.”

Thanks to the work of the Women’s Directorateand the partnership between government, employ-ers, and trade unions, thousands of women andmen workers across the five governorates havereceived training in the concepts of decent workand gender equality. The programme itself is nowseen as a prime example of good practice for socialdialogue across the country. Perceptions concern-ing working women are slowly starting to evolve.

Photos from the ILO video “Social dialogue: Creatingemployment opportunitiesfor Yemeni women”.

© I

LO V

IDE

OS


tunities for Yemeni womenAs the past decades have witnessed asteady increase in women entering theworkforce, whether as employers or work-ers, women have also increased their par-ticipation in the relevant institutions ofsocial dialogue. However, the participationrates of women remain low. When partici-pating in social dialogue and within theirown organizations, women have beenmore active in bringing gender equalityissues to the forefront. Thus an increasedinvolvement of women in social dialoguehas resulted in greater attention to genderissues. In a way the participation ofwomen in the institutions of social dia-logue is itself a “key to promoting genderequality”.Social dialogue involves participation, dia-logue and consensus building based on

principles of freedom of association, freediscussion and democratic decision mak-ing on issues related to the world of work.It therefore provides a channel for womenand men to realize opportunities for decentand productive work in conditions of free-dom, equality, security and human dignity.As social dialogue echoes the needs andaspirations of its participants, its rele-vance depends highly on whether all seg-ments of society can have their voicesheard. It is therefore indispensable thatwomen and men are represented in anequitable way to have their voices heard.


SOCIAL DIALOGUE AT WORK: VOICES AND CHOICES FOR WOMEN AND MEN

Ali AlHada is an Administrative Assistant. “Iwould have liked my wife to work out of thehouse,” he says. “The economic situation is tough,and raising children requires a lot of money. If shehad a job, my wife could help with the expenses.”

Even the most conservative of women take pridein their employment and their newly-found voice.Sabah alHindi, the Administrative Coordinator inthe Directorate, comments: “My family membersare surprised. How is it that our daughter isaccomplishing so much? Now even my brothersencourage me. At home, I am the only breadwin-ner, but I also take care of my mother or other fam-ily members when they are sick, I take care of

everything. My mother always says, “My daughteris the man and the woman of the house!”

© I

LO P

HO

TO

S

Dr. Amat Alrazza Hommad,Minister of Labour andSocial Affairs




Workaholic o

From Australia to Zambia there is almostuniversal recognition that a better balancebetween work and family life is a vital ele-ment in achieving equality in employment.

Workers in both industrialized and developingcountries are under severe pressure to both earn adecent living and take care of their children, theirsick relatives, and their ageing kin.

BEIRUT – “I leave home around 8 a.m. for mypaid work and leave work around 3.30 p.m,” saysNadia, 35 years old. “First, I go to my father’s housenearby. I am the closest to him and the most avail-able among my three siblings. Every day, I makesure that he has eaten and taken his medicines, ashe suffers from diabetes. I clean the house. If he hasfriends over, I prepare coffee for them. It is normalfor us both that I come to see him every day. How Iwish that he could find a new wife who will takecare of him.

“By the time I get to my house at 5 o’clock, mychildren are already at home. My 17-year-old sonpicks up my 6-year-old son at school every day.When I come into the house, I say loudly, ‘I amhome.’ If they want to see me, they come. I usuallyspend two to three hours preparing meals andcleaning the house. I receive neighbours andfriends sometimes, but I continue working. Myhusband is no help in this situation.”

In other parts of the world there is growingrecognition that equality in employment impliesthe sharing of family responsibilities. The Employ-ers’ Organization of the Philippines (ECOP) notes,for example, that “the division of labour in thehome is evolving for young married couples”.According to ECOP, “employees cannot entirely

relegate family issues to the background while atwork. Therefore, if work–family issues are nottaken seriously, they might cause problems in theworkplace that could affect work performance.”

An insurance company in the United Statesfound this to be true when they carried out a workand family needs analysis. Of 7,800 employees, 60per cent were in dual-career families, 50 per centhad care responsibilities for children or elderlydependants, and 20 per cent anticipated havingthem within three years. Further, over 30 per centof the employees leaving the company thought thatthe decision would help them balance their workand family responsibilities. The study raised con-cern about the company’s ability to attract andretain staff, and the related costs. There was a busi-ness case for putting into place a family-friendlypolicy that included job-sharing and telecommut-ing programmes, better suited to employees’ needs.

But workplace culture and expectations con-cerning the ideal worker who puts job and careerconcerns over family involvement play a role in dis-couraging men from taking advantage of the manyand increasing entitlements that exist. However,men are beginning to speak up too.

The Los Angeles Department of Water andPower (DWP) is the largest public utility in theUnited States and a heavily male-dominated work-place (76 per cent). In the 1980s a workplace surveyyielded two important findings:●● The employees had critical childcare needs.●● Many of the DWP’s male employees were outraged

that they had been excluded from the survey, becausethey had childcare problems too.The department now offers a comprehensive set

of work–family services that also address the needsof its male staff.

In Spain, Hewlett-Packard (HP) has a compre-hensive Work–Life Harmony Programme that isviewed by the company as essential to competitiveadvantage, and includes time-management courses,a “workaholic” programme to reorganize time foremployees who work longer than stipulated, andtelecommuting practices benefiting about half theworkforce.

Australia’s Department of Industrial Relationshas long been convinced of the value of family-

© I

LO P

HO

TO

S


r double day?

The gendered division of labour thatplaces primary responsibility for maintain-ing the home and family on women is animportant determinant of gender-basedinequalities between the sexes and ofinequalities among women. Conflictbetween these family responsibilities andthe demands of work contributes signifi-cantly to women’s disadvantage in thelabour market and the sluggish progress

towards equal opportunity and treatmentfor men and women in employment. Whilewomen are forced, or choose, to acceptpoorly-paid, insecure, part-time, home-based or informal work in order to combinetheir family responsibilities with their paidemployment, difficulties in reconciling thedemands of work and family contribute tomen’s disadvantage in the family and limittheir ability to be involved in family mat-ters. Workplace schedules that do not takeinto account workers’ family responsibil-ities can constitute indirect discriminationin that they force such workers to “under-perform” in terms of participation in work-place activities and thus potentially dam-age their career development prospects.

Harmonizing employment and familycommitments for both women and menhas emerged as an important labour andsocial policy theme in a growing number ofcountries. However, not all work–familymeasures promote equality. As noted in arecent ILO Global Report: “There is a dan-ger that work/family policies, which areoften aimed implicitly or explicitly atwomen in particular, may end up reinforc-ing the image of women as ‘secondaryearners’ and accruing to the double bur-den of working women.”

Flexibility in working conditions and insocial security should be promotedthrough:●● the progressive reduction of hours of

work and the reduction of the amountof required overtime;

●● the introduction of flexible arrange-ments in working schedules, rest peri-ods and holidays;

●● consideration of the place of employ-ment of the spouse and the educationalpossibilities for children in the case oftransfer from one locality to another;

●● the regulation and supervision of termsand conditions of employment of part-time workers, workers on temporarycontracts and homeworkers: all termsand conditions of employment, includ-ing social security should be equivalentto those of full-time and permanentworkers;

●● consideration of family responsibilitiesas a valid reason for refusal of an offerof employment (for the purpose ofavoiding the loss or suspension ofunemployment benefits).


WORK AND FAMILY: THE WAY TO CARE IS TO SHARE!

friendly policies: “A family-friendly workplace isone where employees feel they are supported inmeeting both their work commitments and theirfamily responsibilities. It is one where the employ-

er accepts that family responsibilities will have animpact on employees’ working lives and is preparedto accommodate their responsibilities whereverpossible.”

© I

LO P

HO

TO

S




Never too old

The world’s population is ageing, and liv-ing longer costs money. Because womenlive longer than men, they form themajority of older persons. As women age,

supporting themselves gets more difficult. Buteven the most difficult situations can be changed,if there’s an opportunity. A 70-year-old woman ata small village market in Ethiopia is proof that itcan be done.

ADDIS ABABA – For millennia, the legendaryEthiopian wine called “Tej” (tey-ya), has been madefrom honey and organic hops known as “gesho”(gay’-sho) found only in the highlands of Ethiopia.

In a small market in Addis Ababa, 70-year-oldChaltu carries on the tradition, in her new businessselling dried gesho leaves. But how Chaltu got hereis anything but traditional. Most of her life hasbeen spent on the streets begging. And worse: Chal-tu was infected with Hansen’s disease – leprosy,

when she was a girl. The result: she’s been discrim-inated against, her entire life.

Berke Negatu, General Manager of the Ethiop-ian National Association of Ex-Leprosy Patients(ENAELP), has seen the social exclusion connectedwith this disease: “More than anything, victims ofleprosy have to fight against becoming isolatedfrom the rest of society. Many people still believethat the disease is a curse from God, that it’s fate ora punishment. This is why life for people with lep-rosy remains so difficult.”

But it’s not only Chaltu’s disability that was theproblem. Like so many women around the world,as Chaltu got older, opportunities to change hersituation diminished. The disadvantages and thediscrimination pile up as women age: finding a reli-able means of support, especially a meaningful job,becomes more difficult.

Chaltu was determined to change her life for thebetter. The opportunity came a few years ago, whenshe heard about a new ILO training programme,“Improve Your Business”, supported by the ILOIrish Aid Partnership Programme. Despite heradvanced age, she was offered a place on the train-ing programme.

Fantahun Melles, National Coordinator of theProgramme, says: “By training entrepreneurs withIYB (Improve your Business) skills, we let themunderstand effective business management skills,better marketing knowledge, production planningand financial management.

“The training was very important to me,” saysChaltu. “I would have liked to have done evenmore! It has made a difference to my life. Before Iwas a beggar, now I am running my own business.”

After the training, Chaltu got a micro-loan tobuild her business. She started shopping around,getting better prices for gesho, and building up hersavings. Within a year she had paid off the loan.

“Chaltu is special,” says Fantahun Melles, “in

Photos from the ILO video “Chaltu: Never too old tochange her life”.

© I

LO P

HO

TO

S

© ILO VIDEOS


to change

Increases in life expectancy involvechanges in the entire life cycle. One funda-mental change that has been noted is ashift from three-generation societies tofour-generation societies. Many of today'sgrandparents remain engaged, mobile andactive. Traditional characteristics attrib-uted to “seniors” are shifting to an older

age bracket (70s and 80s). But as themajority of the world's population does nothave entitlements to any form of old-agepension, for many living longer also meansliving with scarcity for longer periods oftime. Poverty in old age is a key issue ofconcern.Because women live longer than men,they form the majority of older persons (55per cent). Currently, women outnumbermen by about 70 million among those aged60 years or over. In the last 50 years, global life expectancy of women has in-creased from 48 to 67 years, as comparedto 45 to 63 years for men. Poverty in oldage has a strong gender dimension. Sincelife expectancy for women is higher thanfor men, women may be in poverty for alonger period of their lives. A woman'schance of losing her partner is higher, andwomen are less likely to remarry than men.Women over 60 who have lost their part-ners greatly outnumber their male equiva-lents.Throughout their life cycles, women accu-mulate disadvantages that pile up at olderages. Double or triple discrimination is

often amplified as women advance in age.Women are especially vulnerable owing totheir high numbers in unpaid, low-paid,part-time, frequently interrupted, or infor-mal economy work. As a result they areless often entitled to any contributory pen-sion benefits in their own right. Even if theyare, their pensions are often significantlylower than those of men due to lowerearnings and shorter contribution periods. A society for all ages requires rethinkingthe conventional course of working life. It entails introducing more flexible andtailored working patterns, yet at the sameensuring that people have both the right tocontinue working if they so wish and theright to retire in an affordable manner ifthey do not wish to continue an econom-ically active life. There needs to be a shiftfrom competition to solidarity amongworking age groups and to remove theemployment barriers facing older people.


RIGHTS, JOBS AND SOCIAL SECURITY: NEW VISIONS FOR OLDER WOMEN AND MEN

that she has broken the shackles of poverty throughcommitment, hard work and determination. First,she is an ex-beggar, second, she is a disabledwoman – an ex-leprosy patient, and third, she is anold woman. But none of these things have deterredher from going into business.”

Late in life, Chaltu has learned something newthat has changed everything. Now she eats threemeals a day, pays the rent, helps pay for her grand-children’s education, and puts aside some savingsfor the future. And most importantly for Chaltu,she did it herself.

“I have been saved from being in the street andtotally dependent on others,” she says. “Now I candepend on myself. I can sell what I have, and I canlive on it.” ©

M.C

roze

t/IL

O



M I C R O I N S U R A N C E F O R H E A LT H

Health insurance forwomen on low incomes

When women in developing coun-tries fall ill they are often more vul-nerable than men since they pre-dominantly work in the informal

economy, without any social protection. They earnless than men on average, have little ownership ofor control over assets, are more likely to care forchildren and the elderly, are more likely to live inpoverty, and are less likely to have access to healthinsurance and pension coverage. Sarah Bel looksat how microinsurance schemes can fight back.1

AHMEDABAD, INDIA – Jaitoonbibi works asan agarbatti maker, earning 30 rupees per dayrolling incense sticks. She lives in a small ten-by-fif-teen foot room with three family members, in ahouse that has no running water. Under these con-ditions it was not surprising that Jaitoonbibi con-tracted typhoid and malaria, nor that she had tospend most of her savings to pay her medical bills

and recover from her illnesses. But Jaitoonbibi wasfortunate. She had purchased insurance withVimoSEWA (see sidebar) and was reimbursedwithin a week.

Jaitoonbibi’s story is still an exception in develop-ing countries. Even the most common illnesses canquickly deplete the assets of a family, especially forthose living in rural and remote areas. Most health-care systems are urban-based, elite-biased and cura-tive-orientated. Access is limited and cost-prohibi-tive for low-income families, and risk-protectionmechanisms such as insurance, which would enablethem to cope, are not yet widely available.

Women’s health is particularly at risk, due to theunhealthy environment, long working hours inhazardous conditions and lack of income to investin prevention. Seventy per cent of the world’s poorare female and women face more violence, abuseand exploitation than men. In rural areas, cultivat-ing family plots involves hours of backbreaking toil

1 This article has been

compiled from several

sources, particularly

“Meeting the special needs

of women and children”

by Mosleh Ahmed and

Gabriele Ramm, in

Protecting the poor:

A microinsurance

compendium

(ed. Craig Churchill,

ILO 2006), pp. 130–44.

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO


>>

for no wage. In urban areas, they often work longhours in unregulated, unhealthy and unsafe condi-tions without the ability to protest or voice theiropinions.

The most significant risks that affect women’shealth include maternal mortality and complica-tions surrounding pregnancy and childbirth, sexu-ally transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, ex-posure to waterborne diseases, and respiratoryproblems and burns from household work. Genderinequality in most developing countries is also afactor. Low social status and harmful traditionalpractices in some societies (such as female genitalmutilation and early marriage) have adverseaffects; non-nutritious diet increases proneness toill health, which can be exacerbated by the fact thatwomen are often a lower priority in receiving med-ical treatment.

Designing policies: key challengesIf health microinsurance is to become viable in

protecting the livelihoods and health of low-income women, its design and delivery has to over-come many challenges.

Despite their essential role in administeringfamily health, women are often not considered as aprimary beneficiary of insurance products.Microinsurance providers tend to focus on the(male) breadwinner as the main target for enrol-ment campaigns and policies. In some cases, whenschemes allow the policyholder to choose who willand will not be covered, women and girls are notenrolled because their health is valued less byhousehold decision-makers.

To overcome this issue, l’Union des Mutuelles deSanté de Guinée Forestière (UMSGF) – a network

of mutual health organizations (MHO) in Guinea– designed a family product that gives incentives tothe breadwinner to register his spouse. Member-ship in an MHO is family-based and all depend-ants must be registered. Group leaders are respon-sible for ensuring that no household members areexcluded from coverage, which is also a good wayof mitigating adverse selection. To ease their task,MHOs offer free coverage for children born duringthe budget year. In polygamous households, whichare numerous in some areas, family registration iscarried out separately for each spouse and herdependants. One membership card is issued foreach mother and her children.

Financial incentives can definitely encouragecertain behaviours. For example, VimoSEWA suc-cessfully offers a Rs. 20 (US$0.45) discount tomembers who enrol their whole families.

Designing a gender-relevant product is anotherissue. Microinsurers need to cover women’s specif-ic health concerns, especially those related to preg-nancy, delivery, maternity, and gynaecological dis-eases. However, some commercial schemes shyaway from offering maternity benefits because,unlike in the case of illness or accidents, womenhave (some) control over whether or not they getpregnant. Consequently, pregnancy is not a riskthat can be risk-pooled in a pure insurance sense.

For example, because of the high risk of deathduring childbirth, Delta Life in Bangladeshexcludes women in their first pregnancy from tak-ing out a policy. There is also a significant adverseselection risk of women who know they are preg-nant (but not yet showing) who then enrol in ahealth insurance scheme. The First MicroinsuranceAgency in Pakistan and ASSEF in Benin both ex-perienced abnormally high rates of pregnancy andchildbirth in their voluntary schemes.

A better way to include women’s concerns inpolicy design has been experimented throughcommunity-based health schemes, especially inAfrica. These health mutuals are social and profes-sional groupings in which members freely chooseto join and pay their contributions regularly, thusenabling them to cover their healthcare expenses.However, their efforts to improve access to health-care and extend social protection to vulnerablegroups, including women, often involve only asmall portion of the population in developingcountries and many mutuals lack the resources tosustain their activities.

As low-income women are predominantly cas-ual and seasonal workers, regular monthly premium

VIMOSEWA

SEWA is a trade union of 1.1 million poor, self-employed women workers in India. Establishedin 1972, its main goals are to organize women forfull employment and self-reliance. VimoSEWA isSEWA’s insurance unit in which the workersthemselves are the users and managers of allservices. It was developed in 1992 in response tomembers’ needs for protection. VimoSEWA pro-motes an integrated insurance product of life,health, accident and asset coverage for poorworkers and their families.

© V

IMO

SEW

A


M I C R O I N S U R A N C E F O R H E A LT H


payments can be difficult to pay, but a large annuallump sum may not be suitable either. Flexiblearrangements are most appropriate to increasemicroinsurance access to low-income women.Microinsurers should offer a range of premiumpayment options, such as a grace period of severalmonths or a flexible payment schedule that allowsfor irregular premium payments according to theparticular financial situation of women.

FINCA Uganda and Microcare Health Ltd arepartnering to provide voluntary health insuranceto informal sector workers and their familiesthrough an affordable financing mechanism.FINCA currently offers a special loan to finance thepremium (at lower interest) for clients who cannotpay upfront, and will now experiment with a spe-cial savings account to enable clients to accumulatethe premium during the course of the year, whichwill broaden the range of available financingoptions.

Eventually, “women-friendly” products anddelivery channels are expected to make a great dif-ference in expanding health protection among low-income women in developing countries. To over-come financial illiteracy that prevents women fromunderstanding the concept of insurance, and toincrease relations of trust between insurer andclient, direct and regular contact is necessary. Thefield staff of grassroots organizations, such as tradeunions, NGOs and MFIs, committed to reduce thelikelihood of misleading sales practices and confu-

sion about insurance contracts, are the best changeagents. In fact, savings and credit groups – essen-tially composed and administered by women –remain one of the most widespread mechanisms fordistributing insurance to low-income households.

Collateral damageA disease often involves more than a cure.

“Women, more often than not, are the family’s pri-mary caregiver. During a health event, there’s morethan just medical expenses – lost wages, childcare,even transportation to and from the hospital alladd pressure on that household during a toughtime,” says Mary Ellen Iskenderian, CEO ofWomen’s World Banking.

Microinsurance products would be more effi-cient if they covered these collateral implications ofan accident or an illness, which can have cata-strophic consequences. For example, according tothe Director of the Yomou Hospital in Guinea, onepoor woman, “Madame Seni Pohomou, fromYalakpalé village, was in labour for 3 days. Therewas no transportation at night and the family hadto wait until the next midday to find a taxi. Whenthey arrived at the hospital, we operated on her butthe baby had already passed away.”

Products would also have a greater impact ifthey included illness prevention strategies. Volun-tary health microinsurance schemes worldwideface difficulty in retaining their clients. One reasonfor this is because most clients make no claim in agiven year, and thus see no tangible benefit in thehealth insurance product. Calcutta Kids, an Indian-based NGO working in slum areas, aims to createvalue for non-claimants through an “outpatientcounselling service” – an additional service thatseeks to enhance prevention and avoid hospitaliza-tion. Similarly, Microcare distributes insecticide-treated bednets at subsidized rates to its policy-holders so that they can see a tangible benefit oftheir insurance coverage even if they do not make aclaim – and which has the added advantage ofreducing incidences of malaria.

Improving the strategic situation of women But while several practical needs can be taken up

through improved product design at the micro leveland improved operations at the meso level, otherstrategic interests require long-term changes inlabour policy and the status of women in society.

It is sometimes assumed that grassroots organ-izations working towards the empowerment ofwomen will automatically consider the gender per-

>>© M. Crozet/ILO

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO


spective in their microinsurance operations – butthis is not always the case. Greater attention to gen-der-specific needs and risk-management instru-ments is required. Additionally, community-basedrisk-pooling mechanisms are particularly vulner-able because of their limited financial resources.Catastrophic losses, repeated idiosyncratic risksand poor controls may deplete their resource poolsand lead to their collapse. When these schemes fail,poor women are likely to suffer more than menbecause of their lower earning capacity and limitedassets.

However successful microinsurance might be, itwill never be in a position to provide full protec-tion. Private mechanisms have a supplementaryrole – comprehensive social protection is theresponsibility of the State. Recognizing this respon-sibility, the state-run microinsurance schemes inPeru, Bolivia and Paraguay all started by focusingon the most important epidemiological needs ofmaternity – risks that private insurers are less like-ly to address.

Women’s participation in the monitoring, man-agement and planning of government programmessuch as healthcare centres would also increase thelikelihood that these services meet the needs ofwomen.

Experience has revealed the need for customizedinsurance products reflecting the characteristicsand preferences of women. But even when prod-ucts are jointly developed with female clients, theirneeds are not necessarily addressed; insuranceproviders often exclude benefits such as gynaeco-logical diseases and treatment related to pregnancy,as we have seen. In these cases, other risk-manage-ment instruments such as preventive measures ormicrofinance can complement microinsuranceproducts.

Above all, private microinsurance should beseen as complementary to the social protectionresponsibilities of the State. In most cases, micro-insurance can only address the symptoms of healthrisks, such as providing treatment to those who areill, but it cannot solve the root causes.

For microinsurance to be effective, there is aneed for strategic changes towards gender equalityin society. Structural causes of gender discrimin-ation, such as legal, social and economic policies,have to be addressed to improve the position ofwomen in society and their capacity to benefitfrom health insurance. While some risks can beaddressed through appropriate products, changesin the institutions involved, through gender main-

streaming and gender participation, are alsorequired. Eventually, microinsurance can onlyreach its maximum impact if improvements in thestatus of women in society are achieved throughmacro-level policy interventions.

THE MICROINSURANCE INNOVATION FACILITY

Many of the microinsurers described in this arti-cle, including VimoSEWA, Finca and Microcare,UMSFG and Calcutta Kids, are grantees of theILO’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility. Foundedin 2008 thanks to a grant from the Bill & MelindaGates Foundation, the ILO’s Microinsurance Inno-vation Facility seeks to increase the availability ofquality insurance for the developing world’s low-income families to help them guard against riskand overcome poverty. For more information, seewww.ilo.org/microinsurance

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO

Refused treatment inMumbai



F L E X I C U R I T Y

Globalization, flexicurityand the financial crisis

With production in industrializedcountries increasingly outsourcedto low-wage countries, unskilledworkers are particularly hard hit –

and many of them are women. Anne Mette Skip-per looks at how the Danes are using their well-developed flexicurity policies to adapt in a time offinancial crisis.

BILLUND – Pia Cramon Jensen, 36 years old, isa happy, good-looking young woman who has livedall her life in this rural south-western part of Den-mark. When I meet her on a grey spring day at Bil-lund airport, Denmark’s second largest, she tellsme how her world nearly fell apart after more than12 years as an unskilled worker at the Lego factory.

In 2006 Lego, by far the largest employer in theregion, announced that due to production restruc-

turing many hundreds of jobs would be lost in thecoming years. In fact, Lego was later able to changethis decision and did not lay off its workers – itslatest 2008 results are good in spite of the inter-national financial crisis. But the FITS (FromIndustry To Service) project was set in motionthen, and has since been developed in the regionwith support from the European Union, among others.

Pia remembers: “We were called to a meetingand told that in view of our uncertain job future wewere invited to participate in a competence assess-ment course lasting one week. I decided to give it atry. I never had my competence tested before.

“First we visited potential employers in theregion. There aren’t many. Besides Lego andLegoland (an amusement park), there is the airportand Lalandia (a large water park and holidayresort). I was fascinated by the airport but never

© A

BM

G

© ABMG


thought I would have a chance to work there. Well,when tested, it turned out that my knowledge ofEnglish and German was better than I had thought.That gave me courage to apply for a job in the secu-rity service at the airport. What they wanted toknow was basically if I was flexible with workinghours. I said yes and got the job. It has come at aprice, I often start working at 2.15 a.m. . . . but Ihave a car so that is OK.”

Pia likes her job. Instead of painting faces onLego bricks, she now studies the faces passingthrough the airport security system. Summing upher working life, she says, “When I left school afterten years of compulsory schooling I started clean-ing in the slaughterhouse in Grindsted. When thecleaning company changed owner I was 21 yearsold and decided to apply for a job at Lego. All theyasked me then was if I was colourblind. The train-ing was two or three weeks of following a personaround, and then various functions in production.”

The FITS project started out of a fruitful combi-nation of desire and necessity. Lego wanted to helpits workers in case they had to be laid off. Lalandiaand the airport were looking for low-skilled per-sonnel. The job centre in Esbjerg had both peoplewho wanted to find employment and at the sametime a need for employees in the communal servicesector.

JobinVest was created to develop a project tobring the interested parties together. One obviousidea was to develop a method to test workers’ skillsand see to what degree they would match whatemployers were looking for.

As Arvid Stück, managing director of JobinVest,explains: “In many of the jobs in the service sectorpersonal traits such as personality, cooperation andperception are important, and they are rarely docu-mented. We sometimes have surprises, like a 39-year-old mother of two who had worked for years

in the iron industry. When she came to a compe-tence assessment course she found out that shewould like to work with the care of elderly peopleinstead of producing radiators. So now she is intraining to become a healthcare assistant.”

The FITS components of the project have beenfurther developed by partners in Spain, Germany,France and Italy to meet different needs. In Ger-many, for instance, there is special interest in help-ing young people who have not completed voca-tional training to find a professional field of interest.

For historical reasons Denmark may be wellplaced to take initiatives in labour market adjust-ments. In the 1960s and 70s there was a changefrom agriculture to industry. Before this period thelow-skilled labour force mainly worked in agricul-ture; then came the significant change, with labourgoing into the industrial sector. It was not all pain-less: 20 years ago Denmark had over 10 per centunemployment, so the social partners (employersand trade unions) decided to work together toimprove the situation.

Now the trend is changing again, with produc-tion being outsourced to low-wage countries andautomation of production facilities. This develop-ment towards a knowledge-based society also hasits costs, especially for unskilled workers. However,at the same time there is a need for more people inservice-related jobs.

FLEXICURITY: WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Flexicurity is a hybrid of the words “flexibility” and“security”. In the labour market it has three maincomponents:●● Flexibility in hiring and firing●● A social welfare system which provides

income security and health care●● An active employment policy

Special features of the flexicurity model in Den-mark include:

●● A high level of mobility. Almost one-quarter ofthe Danish workforce change jobs each year

●● Pension contributions are paid into a fund andfollow the person wherever he/she works

●● A high level of ongoing training of the work-force

●● Low level of unemployment (2.6 per cent inMarch 2009)

●● Few industrial disputes●● High taxes

>>

© A

BM

G

© ABMG



F L E X I C U R I T Y

>> While the threat of mass layoffs from Lego led toa regional initiative to try to match people withnew jobs available in a region with a relatively smallpopulation and few employers, the approach wasdifferent in the area north of Copenhagen.

Coloplast, one of the world’s leading producersof intimate healthcareproducts, had to fire 142workers in January 2009.The process started last

year: because production is being moved to low-cost countries some 500 out of 7,500 jobs havebeen cut.

So how do you tell people in times of financialcrisis that their job, in a company that is doing verywell, has gone?

Carsten Bentzen, 42 years old, has been a shopsteward at Coloplast for 12 years out of the 14 hehas worked there. He is a warehouseman and rep-resents some 1,000 unskilled workers. “Whensomeone loses a job it’s dramatic,” he says, “even inDenmark where there is no social stigma connect-ed with being fired and where the social securitysystem makes sure that basic economic needs aremet. The job and the colleagues are important partsof a person’s life.

“This is the first time at Coloplast that so manypeople have to lose their jobs. We are used to jobsecurity – meaning that if your job disappears youare offered another one in the company.”

“Who gets fired is the responsability of theemployer. We, the shop stewards, are consulted andthere are certain rules concerning whom you canfire,” he explains. “It’s definitely not the principle‘last in first out’. For instance, if you are a singleparent you do not get fired; if your spouse has justlost his or her job or is unemployed you do not getfired either.”

“As trade union representatives, we have negoti-ated hard to get the best possible conditions for

those laid off. It is obvious to all parties that inbeing generous the company gains by avoidingcostly conflicts. It is also important for the motiva-tion among those workers who stay that they knowthey will be treated decently if their job is movedabroad. For instance, the moment you are fired youdo not need to come to work any more. You get fullsalary for 4-6 months, even if you find another jobduring this time. Also every person who loses hisjob will have a capital of 30,000 kroner (US$5,500approx.) to use for coaching, job training or othermeasures that can help find a new job. At present,we know that several people are in training tobecome bus drivers. One woman, who was among37 women fired in Thisted in the north of Jutland,wants to become a horse coach (horsewhisperer . . .).She will be able to use the funds available for thistraining.”

Coloplast is one of the ten Danish companiesthat are members of the UN Global Compact (seesidebar), with internationally recognized high ethi-cal standards. “It may make a difference that thefounding family still owns 60 per cent of the com-pany shares, “ says Carsten Bentzon. “We feel a per-sonal bond between the owner and the workers. Wealso have a company culture of constantly upgrad-ing the skills of employees. Every year eachunskilled worker at Coloplast participates in a two-week training course and we work on having agood working environment.”

As for the 142 people fired in January, some 20per cent had found work one month later.

“How do you know that?” I ask.“They tell me,” answers Carsten Bentzon. “I have

asked them to keep me informed. They shouldknow that they are not just dumped. We care forthem. In a situation like this, it may make just a lit-tle difference.”

The UN Global Compact is an initiative askingcompanies to embrace, support, and enact,within their sphere of influence, a set of ten uni-versally accepted principles in the areas ofhuman rights, labour, environment and anti-cor-ruption. It is the largest global corporate citi-zenship network and involves UN agencies,companies, governments, employers’ andworkers’ organizations, NGOs, and academicinstitutions.

© L

EG

O


P H O T O R E P O R T

Crossing the gender divide:Women and men in non-traditional work rolesAccording to recent reportsfrom the United Kingdom,women should be going intoengineering and men into child-care.

There is a national shortageof engineers and scientists, andwomen make up a very smallnumber of those employedalthough more girls than boysachieve the top grades in maths,science and technology inschool. But in 2008 five timesmore men than womenachieved a degree in engineeringand women make up just 18.7per cent of the overall SET (sci-ence, engineering and technolo-gy) workforce. The NationalSkills Forum says: “Schools needto do much more to encouragegirls to work in traditionallymale-dominated industries.”

On the other hand, men arebeing urged to take jobs in nurs-eries after a survey by the Chil-dren’s Workforce DevelopmentCouncil has found that 17 percent of children have fewer than

two hours of contact time perweek with a male adult, and 39per cent have less than six hoursa week. The CWDC is calling formore men to consider workingin early years settings. They sayit is crucial for children underthe age of five to have contactwith a responsible male adult.Thom Crabbe, the council’s

national development manager,said the career could bring greatrewards. But, “Traditionally, it’snot been seen as a job for men,and we need to challenge that,”he said.

The trade union Voice –which represents nursery nursesand other childcare and educa-tion staff across the UK – saidchildren needed male as well asfemale role models. “However,unless more is done to improvethe pay, working conditions,training, career developmentand status of nursery staff, men– and, increasingly, women –will not be attracted to childcareas a profession.”

These voices from the UnitedKingdom are not alone. Womenand men all over the world arebreaking the gender barriersand working in all kinds of“non-traditional” jobs. The fol-lowing pages illustrate some ofthem.

© J

.Mai

llard

/ILO

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO




© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO

© J

.Mai

llard

/ILO

© J

.Mai

llard

/ILO

© J

.Mai

llard

/ILO


© J

.Mai

llard

/ILO

© J

.Mai

llard

/ILO

© P

.Del

och

e/IL

O

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO




© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO

© J

.P.P

oute

au/I

LO

© J

.Mai

llard

/ILO

© V

.Ku

tty/

ILO


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

F E A T U R E D B O O K

Many parents cannot rely on family sup-port networks to look after childrenwhile they work. Care by personsfrom outside the family takes many

forms, from live-in nannies to community child-care centres. As most of these arrangementsinvolve a payment, parents in both developing andindustrialized countries who work or would like towork are struggling to find childcare that is afford-able, convenient and of a reliable quality.

GENEVA – A new book from the ILO focuses onways of helping parents to access non-family carethrough workplace programmes. By reviewingnational childcare frameworks and presentingexamples, Workplace solutions for childcare1 pro-vides insight into why and how different partnershave come together to develop solutions to helpworkers with childcare needs.

The first part of the book provides an overviewof workplace programmes, setting them in theirnational policy contexts and considering the diver-sity of initiatives which have been taken, goingbeyond the traditional workplace crèche to look atother options, not only for pre-school children butalso for school-age children. Partnership is a keytheme since it is mainly through combiningresources and capabilities and establishing collab-oration among such actors as employers, tradeunions, national governments, municipalities andvarious types of childcare providers that effectiveprogrammes for childcare support have emerged inworkplace settings.

The second part of the book presents case stud-ies from ten countries chosen to reflect a variety ofnational contexts: four industrialized countries(France, Hungary, United Kingdom and the UnitedStates) and six developing countries (Brazil, Chile,India, Kenya, South Africa and Thailand). For eachcountry, a national overview is presented on pol-icies and facilities for childcare and the implica-tions for working parents, followed by case studiesof specific workplaces. The case studies providedetail on why the childcare support was started,how it is funded and managed, how various part-ners are involved, and the perspectives of workersand employers on the support provided.

Reach of government supportWorkplace programmes for childcare are situ-

ated in and adapted to national and local contexts.Government approaches to childcare differ greatly.A few countries, such as France and Hungary, viewchildcare as a public entitlement and governmentresponsibility. In contrast, many governments leaveparents to pay for non-family care from a privateprovider such as a nanny or local childcare centre.As these are costly, some governments have systemsto help very low-income parents.

Evidence suggests that facilities available for chil-dren of different ages often fall short of workers’needs. For parents with children under age 3, there

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO

Workplace solutions forchildcare

1 Workplace solutions for

childcare, by Catherine

Hein and Naomi Cassirer,

Geneva, ILO (forthcoming

in 2009).


is a serious lack of affordable, quality childcare facil-ities in most countries. Pre-primary schooling (3-5year-olds) is becoming more common in manycountries but daily hours are often limited and cov-erage is far from complete. For school-age children,out-of-school care is not well developed or afford-able except in the few countries where childcare isseen as a public responsibility. Government supportin both developing and developed countries hasfocused mainly on pre-school education for chil-dren about to start school but has tended to over-look the needs of working parents.

Workplace partners: employers, trade unions,NGOs

While the role of the employer is often import-ant, other partners such as trade unions, NGOs andorganizations specialized in childcare as well asgovernment departments and municipalities areincreasingly becoming involved in workplace-related programmes.

Governments have tried to encourage workplaceprogrammes in some countries whereas in others,with no specific encouragement from government,workplace initiatives have occurred, although to alesser extent.

Partnership is a key component of many work-place childcare programmes. Employers who havechildcare programmes report a number of benefitsincluding high retention level of employees,reduced turnover, increased productivity, and lowlevels of employee stress.

Workplace solutions for different needsThere are four main types of childcare pro-

grammes that are linked to the parents’ workplace:●● on- or off-site company childcare centre;●● facility in the community which is linked to the

workplace;●● some form of financial support (childcare vouchers,

funds or subsidies); and●● advice and referral services to help find facilities and

support.Care for young children until the start of formal

schooling is probably the most obvious need andworkplace assistance for this age group is the mostcommon. Nevertheless, care for school-age chil-dren before and after school and during holidayscan be a major problem for parents; workplacehelp for this age group does exist and tends to behighly appreciated.

While in the past, childcare support has beenmainly aimed at helping parents to access reliable

childcare on a regular basis, it is becoming increas-ingly common, particularly in industrialized coun-tries, to help parents access emergency “back-up”care which can be used when the regular childcarearrangement breaks down. Each workplace situ-ation requires careful assessment of workers’ needsand the local possibilities in order to determinewhat kinds of solutions would be appropriate.

Ensuring viability of quality childcareThroughout the case studies, a common theme

in parents’ reactions to childcare programmes istheir concern about the quality of the care theirchildren are receiving.

Since quality depends highly on the childcareworkers, a major issue is how to ensure that in try-ing to make childcare affordable, the earnings ofchildcare workers do not suffer. Ensuring standardswhile maintaining affordability for parents is diffi-cult and at least for low-income parents, someform of government financial support is needed.

Childcare support at the workplace is morecommon in large organizations such as banks, ITcompanies or academic institutions that are con-cerned with retaining highly skilled employeesthan in those where most workers are in lowerpaid, less skilled jobs. Yet the examples of pro-grammes for low-income workers in this book sug-gest that employer gains can be considerable.

By showing how support for childcare has beenorganized and funded in a variety of workplacesand the diversity of the partnerships which haveevolved in both developing and industrializedcountries, as well as the limitations and challengesthey face, this book should be helpful to policy-makers and workplace partners who are concernedto find practical solutions for helping working par-ents with their childcare needs.

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO


F E A T U R E S

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 M E D I A S H E L FN E W S

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

FFiinnaanncciiaall ccrriissiiss:: TThhee ggeennddeerr ddiimmeennssiioonnWWhhiillee tthhee sseeccttoorrss tthhaatt iinniittiiaallllyy bboorree tthhee bbrruunntt ooff tthhee gglloobbaall ffiinnaanncciiaall ccrriissiiss wweerree tthhoossee ddoommiinnaatt--eedd bbyy mmaallee wwoorrkkeerrss –– ffiinnaannccee,, iinnssuurraannccee aanndd rreeaall eessttaattee,, ccoonnssttrruuccttiioonn aanndd mmaannuuffaaccttuurriinngg –– tthheeccrriissiiss iiss nnooww hhiittttiinngg sseerrvviiccee--oorriieennttaatteedd sseeccttoorrss aanndd wwhhoolleessaallee rreettaaiill ttrraaddee,, wwhhiicchh iinn mmaannyyiinndduussttrriiaalliizzeedd eeccoonnoommiieess aarree ddoommiinnaatteedd bbyy ffeemmaalleess.. TThheerree iiss aallssoo ccoonncceerrnn ffoorr wwoommeenn iinn tthheeddeevveellooppiinngg wwoorrlldd wwhhoo hhaavvee nnoo ssoocciiaall pprrootteeccttiioonn.. TThhiiss iissssuuee ooff PPllaanneett WWoorrkk llooookkss aatt wwhhaatt tthheepprreessss iiss ssaayyiinngg aabboouutt tthhee eeffffeecctt ooff tthhee ccrriissiiss oonn tthhee ggeennddeerr ggaapp..

■ In Asia, it is mostly women who areemployed in export-oriented indus-tries, non-regular employment, low-skilled jobs, and with low pay-levels.Judging from the 1997 Asian financialcrisis and on emerging trends underthe current global crisis, non-regular,low-paid and low-skilled workers willbe among the first to lose their jobs. Inthe Philippines, Thailand and VietNam, the most affected industriesinclude: garment, electronics, tourism,leather, cars and auto parts, and con-struction. These first three industriesaccount for substantial percentages ofwomen’s total employment in the threecountries. Men’s employment will alsodecline considerably because of thedecline in construction. In times of

financial hardship, and especiallyamong low-income and poor families,women are often obliged to provide asafety net through informal paid workand unpaid work. (The Manila TimesInternational, 22 Feb. 2009)

■ But according to the United King-dom’s Chartered Institute of Personneland Development (CIPD) women are“definitely not” suffering more thanmen from job cuts and rising un-employment. “It’s a truism that morewomen will lose jobs in this recessionthan in previous recessions – there aresimply lots more women in the work-force,” says John Philpott, the group’schief economist. “Yet while one can’tyet entirely rule out the possibility thatwomen will lose out relative to men inthe jobs stakes as the recession unfolds,this is categorically not true of the jobsdownturn to date.” He acknowledgedthat women who lost their jobs mightneed tailored help to enable them tocope with unemployment and return-ing to work – including income pres-sure on lone parents and childcareissues. But more men had so far losttheir jobs during the recession.(www.bbc.co.uk, 6 Mar. 2009)

■ However, just one month later theBritish press was reporting a differentview: “The current downturn threatenswomen’s employment as never before.In past recessions in the UK and theUS, female incomes have insulated

families because male-dominatedindustries were worst hit, but not thistime: sectors such as retail, which havea predominantly female workforce, arein the frontline. There is also likely tobe a second wave of job losses in thepublic sector – a major employer ofwomen – later on in the recession, asthe state and local government areforced to cut costs.” (The Observer, 5Apr. 2009)

■ US Secretary of State Hillary Clin-ton spoke at the Women’s LeadershipForum in Beijing, China on theurgency for action to achieve equalitybetween men and women. Addressingan audience composed of academics

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO

© J

.Del

orm

e/IL

O


and leaders in the business, legal, mediaand non-profit sectors, she said: “Ifwomen are not full participants in soci-ety, the society does not advance theway that it could.” The challengesbrought about by the financial crisisalso presented opportunities forwomen in the workplace, said FengCui, Vice-President of the China Asso-ciation of Women Entrepreneurs. Con-sidering that 20 per cent of entrepre-neurs in China are women, Feng alsohighlighted the importance for womento show solidarity during the financialcrisis. (China Daily, 23 Feb. 2009)

■ Ernst & Young has highlighted in areport the significant and proven con-tributions women make towards busi-ness and economic growth. The report,released during the World EconomicForum in Davos, Switzerland, and pre-sented by Beth Brooke, Global ViceChair, promotes the role women canplay during this period of economicturmoil. Ernst & Young conducted in-depth interviews and gained insightsfrom leading thinkers in business, gov-ernment and academia. The researchdemonstrates that the increased partic-ipation of women in the world econ-omy could significantly enhance globalgrowth. (Accountancy Age, 30 Jan.2009)

■ After Iceland’s banks collapsedalong with the exchange rates last fall,the IMF was called in to provide lend-ing and the government resigned inJanuary. Iceland’s women have steppedinto positions of power in order to takecontrol of the worst economic crisisany country has experienced in peace-time. Iceland’s largely male-dominatedbanking and business culture has beenrestructured to reflect more “feminine”values, aiming for a more balancedeconomy and emphasizing sustainablegrowth. Iceland’s new Prime Minister,Johanna Sigurdardóttir, has pledged tolead a government that works with thepeople during this turmoil. Otherprominent women in power are HallaTómasdóttir and Kristin Petursdóttir,the founders of Audur Capital, whohave teamed up with the singer Björkto set up an investment fund to boostthe ravaged economy by investing ingreen technology. (The Observer, 22Feb. 2009)

■ The Guardian newspaper organizeda round-table discussion betweenwomen from the world of business andfinance to discuss whether the crisiscould have been avoided if there hadbeen a better gender balance at high-level banking. Dr. Ros Altmann, inde-pendent investment banking and pen-

sions expert and Governor and Non-Executive Director of the LondonSchool of Economics, expressed theview that machismo, the drive to alwayshave to beat your rivals, is a significantfactor. She said, “There was not thecooperative thinking that there wouldbe in a female environment.” However,other women, such as Cary Marsh,Chief Executive of Mydeo.com andEmma Howard Boyd, Director ofJupiter Asset Management, believe thatit is not a question of gender, but abouta diversity of attitudes present in high-level banking. (The Guardian, TheObserver, 15 Feb. 2009)

■ Choice Credit Group, a firm in theDetroit area of the United States haslaunched an exclusive “Bailout forWomen” programme that helps womenreduce or eliminate their financial debtthrough debt settlement. Like US Presi-dent Obama’s economic stimulus pack-age to help Americans hit by the finan-cial crisis, “Bailout for Women” isdesigned to help women who arehomeowners and struggling to paymortgages, single mothers not inreceipt of child support, and thousandsof other women to settle and alleviatetheir debt. (MSNBC (Microsoft andNBC), 24 Feb. 2009)

© J

.Del

orm

e/IL

O

© J

.Sig

uar

dard

ótti

r


© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO

F E A T U R E S


Global financial crisisGlobal Employment Trends 2009:Unemployment, working poor and vulnerable employment toincrease dramatically due to global economic crisis

The global economic crisis is expect-ed to lead to a dramatic increase in thenumber of people joining the ranks ofthe unemployed, working poor andthose in vulnerable employment,according to the annual GlobalEmployment Trends report (GET)2009. The report said global unem-ployment in 2009 could increase over2007 by a range of 30 million to morethan 50 million workers if the situ-ation continues to deteriorate. TheILO report also said that in this lastscenario some 200 million workers,mostly in developing economies, couldbe pushed into extreme poverty.

Director-General Juan Somavia said, “TheILO message is realistic, not alarmist. We arenow facing a global jobs crisis. Many govern-ments are aware and acting, but more decisive

and coordinated international action is neededto avert a global social recession. Progress inpoverty reduction is unravelling and middleclasses worldwide are weakening. The politicaland security implications are daunting.”

Mr. Somavia said the crisis underscored “therelevance of the ILO Decent Work Agenda. Wefind many elements of this Agenda in currentmeasures to promote job creation, deepeningand expanding social protection and more use ofsocial dialogue.”

The new report updates a preliminary esti-mate released last October indicating that theglobal financial crisis could increase unemploy-ment by between 15 to 20 million people by2009. Its key conclusions are as follows:

●● Based on November 2008 IMF forecasts, theglobal unemployment rate would rise to 6.1 percent in 2009 compared to 5.7 per cent in 2007,resulting in an increase of the number of unem-ployed by 18 million people in 2009 in compar-ison with 2007.

●● If the economic outlook deteriorates beyondwhat was envisaged in November 2008, which islikely, the global unemployment rate could riseto 6.5 per cent, corresponding to an increase ofthe global number of unemployed by 30 millionpeople in comparison with 2007.

●● In a current worst-case scenario, the globalunemployment rate could rise to 7.1 per centand result in an increase in the global numberof unemployed of more than 50 million people.

●● The number of working poor – people who areunable to earn enough to lift themselves andtheir families above the US$2 per person, perday, poverty line, may rise up to 1.4 billion, or45 per cent of all the world’s employed.

●● In 2009, the proportion of people in vulnerableemployment – either contributing family work-


ers or own-account workers who are less likelyto benefit from safety nets that guard againstloss of incomes during economic hardship –could rise considerably in the worst-case sce-nario to reach a level of 53 per cent of theemployed population.

The ILO report notes that in 2008, NorthAfrica and the Middle East still had the highestunemployment rates at 10.3 and 9.4 per centrespectively, followed by Central & South East-ern Europe (non EU) and the Commonwealth ofIndependent States (CIS) at 8.8 per cent, sub-Saharan Africa at 7.9 per cent and Latin Ameri-ca at 7.3 per cent.

The lowest unemployment rate was onceagain observed in East Asia at 3.8 per cent, fol-lowed by South Asia and South-East Asia & thePacific where respectively 5.4 and 5.7 per cent ofthe labour force was unemployed in 2008.

The report shows that the three Asian regions –South Asia, South-East Asia & the Pacific and EastAsia – accounted for 57 per cent of globalemployment creation in 2008. In the DevelopedEconomies & European Union region, on theother hand, net employment creation in 2008 wasnegative, minus 900,000, which explains in partthe low global employment creation in this year.

Compared with 2007, the largest increase in aregional unemployment rate was observed in theDeveloped Economies & European Unionregion, from 5.7 to 6.4 per cent. The number ofunemployed in the region jumped by 3.5 millionin one year, reaching 32.3 million in 2008.

According to the study, sub-Saharan Africaand South Asia stand out as regions withextremely harsh labour market conditions andwith the highest shares of working poor of allregions. Although the trend has been decliningover the past ten years, around four-fifths of theemployed were still classified as working poor inthese regions in 2007.

Policy measuresThe economic crisis of 2008 has deepened the

concern over the social impacts of globalizationwhich the ILO had previously raised. Stressingthe need to take measures to support vulnerablegroups in the labour market, such as youth andwomen, the ILO report observes that a hugelabour potential remains untapped worldwide.Economic growth and development could bemuch higher if people are given the chance of a

decent job through productive investment andactive labour market policies.

“The Decent Work Agenda is an appropriatepolicy framework to confront the crisis. There isa powerful message that tripartite dialogue withemployers and workers organizations shouldplay a central role in addressing the economiccrisis, and in developing policy responses,” Mr.Somavia said.

The report lists a number of ILO-recom-mended policy measures being applied by manygovernments, as discussed by the ILO GoverningBody in November 2008, namely:●● wider coverage of unemployment benefits and

insurance schemes, re-skilling redundant work-ers and protecting pensions from devastatingdeclines in financial markets;

●● public investment in infrastructure and hous-ing, community infrastructure and green jobs,including through emergency public works;

●● support to small and medium enterprises●● social dialogue at enterprise, sectoral and

national levels.

If a large number of countries, using theirown accumulated reserves, emergency IMFloans and stronger aid mechanisms, put in placecoordinated policies in line with the ILO DecentWork Agenda, then the effects of the downturnon enterprises, workers and their families couldbe cushioned and the recovery better prepared.

WOMEN’S DAY EVENT FOCUSES ON IMPACT OF FINANCIAL CRISIS ON WORK AND FAMILY

The ILO marked International Women’s Day 2009 witha panel discussion on the impact of the financial crisison the sharing of work and household responsibilitiesbetween women and men. The tripartite panel discus-sion on the theme Work and family: The way to care isto share! also examined good practices by countriesand workers’ and employers’ organizations inaddressing the equal sharing of responsibilitiesbetween women and men. Work and family was alsothe March theme of the Gender Equality at the Heart ofDecent Work Campaign (http://www.ilo.org/gender/Events/Campaign2008–2009/lang--en/index.htm)launched in June 2008 to increase general awarenessand understanding of gender equality issues in theworld of work (see above, pages 24-25).

Speakers included Ms Bibata Niandou Barry (Minister of Women’s Promotion andChild Protection – and recipient of the MDG3 Torch, Niger); Mr. David Loughman(Managing Director of A/S Norske Shell, Norway); and Ms Francisca Jiménez (Vice-chair of the Women’s Committee of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas(TUCA), Dominican Republic).

© M. Crozet/ILO

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO


F E A T U R E S


Asia: Economic crisis response must prioritize jobs, SMEs, vulnerable sectors

Delegates representing workers,employers and ministries of finance,planning and labour from Asia and thePacific, meeting in Manila on 18–20February, suggested policies and meas-ures to be urgently put in place to mit-igate the expected severe impact of theglobal financial and economic crisis oneconomies in the region, and to stimu-late a more rapid, more equitable andsustainable recovery.

The three-day, high-level regional forum inManila looked at the global downturn and iden-tified critical policy responses and practicalmeasures. Officials from the Asian DevelopmentBank (ADB), the World Bank, the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF), other UN agencies, aca-demics and foreign diplomats also attended.Of concern for countries were sectors dependenton exports and remittances and the knock-oneffect of decline for other economic sectors andon the most vulnerable and poorest. The poten-tial loss of jobs and threats to decent work affect-ing many millions in the region was the centralpreoccupation of forum participants. Capacityto address this through stimulus packages wasparticularly worrying in countries with limitedfiscal space or reserves to call upon.

An effective response to the unfolding large-scale crisis requires a global financial systemguaranteeing stability, security and fairness forall. Participants highlighted that governmentaland international action had to be coordinatedand coherent. Economic stimulus packagesneeded to be comprehensive and target jobpreservation and creation and social protectionas central to sustainable recovery and growth.Practical measures called for included:●● Protecting and supporting decent jobs●● Collective bargaining and social dialogue par-

ticularly in negotiating flexible hours, wages,temporary lay-offs and severance packages

●● Rolling out quickly infrastructure and labour-

intensive public works projects, to keep menand women in work, particularly thoseretrenched

●● Enterprise support measures including access tocredit to focus particularly on small and me-dium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs

●● Targeting support to specific sectors such as therural and agricultural economy, and for vulner-able groups of workers – international andinternal migrants, informal sector workers,women and young people

●● Social security and social protection systems tobe expanded to support vulnerable groups andincrease disposable income levels

●● International and regional support to includefunding for developing countries and easing ofconditionality in funding from internationalfinancial institutions

●● The ILO to help mobilize development partnersand actors to support the above priority meas-ures, to strengthen regional cooperation inresponding to the crisis and reduce barriers totrade and commerce, and to build capacities fornational, regional and international policy coher-ence for growth, employment and decent work

“A strong message came from the meeting thatnational, regional and international responsesmust be coherent and co-coordinated, and thatthey must take into account social factors as wellas economic factors,” said Sachiko Yamamoto,ILO Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific.“The crisis is severe and we haven’t seen the worstof it. The poorest and most vulnerable could beseverely hit by its brutality as it spreads. To beeffective, we must ensure that assistance reachesall levels of society and economies.”

“This is the first major crisis in the era of glo-balization and it needs a global response; the ILOhas an important role to play in developing thatresponse,” she added. “The Decent Work Agendaand social dialogue in particular have never beenmore important. We must keep talking and notcompound our problems by relinquishing gainsthat have been made, such as the minimum wageand fundamental rights and standards.”

The high-level forum,“Responding to the Eco-

© M. Crozet/ILO


Europe: ILO Regional Meeting calls forcoordinated response to economic crisis

nomic Crisis – Coherent Policies for Growth,Employment and Decent Work in Asia and thePacific”, was convened by the InternationalLabour Organization (ILO) to discuss the effectthe crisis is having on countries and their workers.

The forum was organized with the collabor-

ation of the ADB and the Department of Labourand Employment of the Philippines, and with thesupport of the Government of Norway. It is oneof a series of regional events whose outcomesfeed into a high-level meeting on the economiccrisis, called by the ILO’s Governing Body.

The 8th European Regional Meetingof the ILO concluded on 13 Februarywith calls for a coordinated effort tomaintain employment and restore eco-nomic growth amid “the most seriouseconomic crisis to hit Europe for 60years”. Delegates said it was vital toensure that “coordinated stimuluspackages are designed to expandaggregate demand, avoid deflationaryspirals and maintain employment anddecent work opportunities” and that“reformed finance markets supply thecapital needed by sustainable enter-prises for productive investment anddecent work”.

Representatives of governments, workers andemployers from European and Central Asianmember States of the ILO called for protectionfor the most vulnerable members of the popula-tion so that they do not become separated fromthe labour market or become working poor andstressed “the urgent need for effective social dia-logue and collective bargaining due to the gravi-ty of the crisis”.

They urged “greater policy coherence atnational, regional and global levels” as a way to“avoid protectionism in all its forms, which canonly exacerbate the effects of the crisis in thelonger term”.

ILO constituents also pledged to “remainextremely vigilant of the risks of a resurgence ofpolitical reactions to rising unemployment and

social exclusion in the form of race and religioushatred, discrimination against immigrants orethnic minorities, victimization of union repre-sentatives and protectionist economic policiesthat would aggravate the crisis”.

“This time it was not ‘business as usual’,” saidPetra Ulshoefer, Director of the Regional Officefor Europe and Central Asia of the ILO in herclosing statement. “Consensus and solidarity areneeded now more than ever. Despite the greatdiversity of country situations, many similaritieshave become evident in the approaches of gov-ernments to tackle the crisis. We have seen astrong consensus among constituents of allcountries that the Decent Work Agenda is guid-ing the way towards mitigating the socialimpacts of the crisis.”

In the conclusions, government, worker andemployer delegates said that “the severity of theeconomic crisis is affecting a large number ofworkers on the labour market, including manywho had secure jobs… Until more normal con-ditions return to credit markets, the threat ofwage cuts, further lay-offs and rising unemploy-ment will remain.”

The conclusions of the meeting also stressed >>

© I

LO P

HO

TO


F E A T U R E S


ILO marks first World Day of Social Justice

that fundamental principles and rights at workshould be safeguarded, international labourstandards promoted, skills development andtraining increased and institutions for social dia-logue fully utilized. They also stated that funda-mental principles and rights at work are “animportant defence against the risk that recessionmay lead to an increase in worker exploitation”.

“We should also stimulate close cooperation atthe regional level, through European institutions,UN agencies and regional networks of govern-ments and employers’ and workers’ organiza-tions,” Ms Ulshoefer said.“And we must not forget

that the European and Central Asian region mustplay a leading role in fostering policy coherence atthe global level, without losing sight of the need toforge a sustainable development path.”

The meeting also called for the increased par-ticipation of constituents in Decent Work Coun-try Programmes, which have become a valuablemeans for the ILO and its constituents in theregion to develop integrated approaches to theimplementation of the Decent Work Agenda.

The ILO European and Central Asian memberStates meet every four years to forge policies andset priorities for the area.

>>

The ILO marked the first World Dayof Social Justice on 20 February with adebate on the theme “The crisis: threator opportunity for social justice?”. TheWorld Day was established by the UNGeneral Assembly in November 2007,to be observed annually on 20 Febru-ary. The ILO event brought togetherrepresentatives from academia, thefinancial sector, international organ-izations, non-governmental organiza-tions and the world of work for anexchange on international policiescoming into effect in the context of theglobal crisis and their implications forthe pursuit of social justice.

Panellists included ILO Director-GeneralJuan Somavia; Raymond Torres, Director of theILO’s International Institute for Labour Studies;Khalid Janahi, Chairman of Ithmaar Bank, co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s MiddleEastern debates and Group Chief Executive ofDar al-Maal al-Islami Trust (DMI); Jack Lowe,President of Blue Orchard Finance; Anita Nor-mark, General Secretary, Building and WoodWorkers’ International (BWI); Rick Samans,Managing Director of the World EconomicForum; and Karen Tse, Founder and CEO ofInternational Bridges to Justice.

For more information about the World Day ofSocial Justice, please visit the special web page atwww.ilo.org/socialjustice or contact the ILODepartment of Communication and Public Infor-mation at +4122/799-7912/7353 or [email protected].

GOVERNING BODY: ILO MEMBERS DISCUSS RESPONSE TO THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CRISIS

The Governing Body met from 5–27March to examine urgent new poli-cies and measures to mitigate thesevere impact of the global financialand economic crisis on the world ofwork and to stimulate a sustainableeconomic recovery. Professor JosephStiglitz, Nobel Prize laureate and ILODecent Work Prize laureate in 2008,addressed the Governing Body duringa special sitting on 12 March 2009. On23 March 2009, a High-level Tripartite Meeting on the Current Global Financial andEconomic Crisis discussed effective responses to the crisis based on a report cover-ing 40 countries worldwide. Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of theInternational Monetary Fund, addressed the meeting, among others. The Committeeon Social and Employment Policy examined the ILO response to the crisis.

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO


Financial sector: ILO calls for urgent new policy measures to address growing job losses in the financial sector

Worker, employer and governmentrepresentatives called for urgent newpolicies and measures to mitigate thesevere impact of the global financialand economic crisis on the more than20 million financial sector workersworldwide and to stimulate a sustain-able economic recovery. A two-dayGlobal Dialogue Forum on the Impactof the Financial Crisis on Finance Sec-tor Workers held at the ILO said thatan effective response to the unfoldingemployment crunch in the financialsector should balance economic andregulatory needs with the impact onjobs, working conditions, skillsrequirements and social protection inthe sector.

A report issued for the forum said that some325,000 workers in the sector had lost their jobssince August 2007, 40 per cent of them sinceOctober 2008. It said that the figure was prob-ably an underestimate, and that the number ofjob losses in the sector could accelerate in thecoming months as and when the recession deep-ens and spreads to other countries.

The conclusions of the Forum called for dia-logue between employers, unions and workers’representatives, and urged that layoffs be usedonly as a “last resort” after other alternatives hadbeen exhausted.

The conclusions also highlighted practicalmeasures that could be taken to mitigate thesocial impact of the crisis, including:

●● taking account of fundamental principles andrights at work, including freedom of associ-ation, the right to organize and collective bar-gaining, and involving the social partners in thereform process in so far as the labour and socialdimension is concerned;

●● basing restructuring on dialogue and consulta-

tion between management, unions and work-ers’ representatives;

●● ensuring workers’ employability through skillsenhancement, life-long learning and activelabour market policies to support adjustment;

●● maintaining advances in equity policies, espe-cially for the large number of women workingin the sector;

●● treating workers in atypical employment fairly;●● coordinating measures to avoid protectionist

policies that would aggravate the crisis.

The conclusions also referred to the ILO’s Tri-partite Declaration of Principles concerningMultinational Enterprises and Social Policy, the1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Prin-ciples and Rights at Work, the 2008 Declarationon Social Justice for a Fair Globalization and the2007 International Labour Conference conclu-sions concerning the promotion of sustainableenterprises as key to the policy responses to bedeveloped.

Finally, the conclusions called on the ILO tocontinue monitoring the impact of the crisis andthe reforms on employment and on the socialand labour dimension in the sector, develop anaction plan on these issues in cooperation withgovernments and the social partners, and assistgovernments and the social partners to addressthe social and labour dimension of the financialcrisis and the reform process.

FOOD: TRIPARTITE TECHNICALWORKSHOP ON THE IMPACTOF THE FOOD PRICE CRISIS

ON DECENT WORK

The ILO held a two-day work-shop on 5–6 March 2009 on theglobal food crisis and its impacton decent work. The meetingrecommended measures toachieve global food securityand to involve networks ofemployers’ and workers’ organ-izations in the development anddelivery of national plans to doso. ILO will be working in part-nership with the UN High LevelTask Force on the Food Securi-ty Crisis to ensure that decentwork is an integral part of theglobal response.

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO


F E A T U R E S


Other newsPanama, Norway the latest major maritime States tocome on board and ratify ILO Maritime Labour Convention, 2006

Panama and Norway depositedinstruments of ratification of theMaritime Labour Convention, 2006with the ILO in February. This meansthat seafarers working on more than40 per cent of the world’s merchantfleet (by gross tonnage) will be coveredby the decent work requirements ofthe Maritime Labour Convention,2006 when it enters into force.

Panama, the largest flag State in the world,with nearly 22 per cent of the world’s merchantfleet flying its flag, is the fourth major shippingcountry in the world to ratify the Convention,adopted by the 94th (Maritime) Session of theInternational Labour Conference in Geneva inFebruary 2006.

Panama’s ratification is especially significantbecause, combined with the previous ratifica-tions by other key flag States, Liberia, the Repub-lic of Marshall Islands and the Bahamas (thenext three largest States), it means that one ofthe two requirements for entry into force (atleast 33 per cent of the world gross tonnage ofships) is more than achieved. Progress in manyother countries indicates that the secondrequirement for entry into force, ratification byat least 30 countries, can be expected by 2011.

Norwegian State Secretary in the Ministry ofTrade and Industry Ms Rikke Lind stressed theimportance of strengthening seafarers’ rightsglobally, to which ratification of the MaritimeLabour Convention, 2006, would be an essentialcontributing factor. Norway played a leadershiprole throughout more than five years of prepara-tion leading to the adoption of the Conventionin 2006. The then Deputy Minister of Trade andIndustry of Norway, Ms Karin Yrvin, was a spe-cial guest speaker at the International LabourConference in February 2006, the Conferencethat adopted the Convention.

Norway also played a key role in developingthe international guidelines for flag State inspec-tions and port State control officers carrying outinspections under the Maritime Labour Conven-tion, 2006, that were adopted in September 2008by a tripartite meeting of experts. Norway’s rati-fication sends a strong signal to other Europeancountries many of which, along other majormaritime States, have already made significantprogress in this direction.

“Super Convention”The adoption of the Maritime Labour Con-

vention, 2006, sometimes called the “super con-vention”, saw governments, shipowners and sea-farers agree on comprehensive internationalrequirements for seafarers’ working and livingconditions that also promote a level playing fieldfor quality shipping in the maritime sector.

The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006,besides providing for a “level playing field” forshipowners, sets out a seafarers’ “bill of rights”and is intended to be the “fourth pillar” in theinternational shipping regulation complement-ing major maritime Conventions of the Inter-national Maritime Organization (IMO) on en-vironmental protection and ship safety andsecurity. It establishes a strong compliance andenforcement mechanism based on flag Stateinspection and certification of seafarers’ workingand living conditions. This is supported by portState inspection of ships to ensure ongoing com-pliance between inspections. The MaritimeLabour Convention, 2006 also contains provi-sions allowing it to keep in step with the needs ofthe industry and help secure universal applica-tion and enforcement. It is a comprehensiveConvention bringing together and updating 37existing ILO Conventions and covers the min-imum requirements for seafarers to work on aship, conditions of employment, hours of workand rest, wages, leave, repatriation, accommoda-tion, recreational facilities, food and catering,occupational safety and health protection, med-ical care, welfare and social security protection.

© M. Crozet/ILO

Panama ratifies the MaritimeLabour Convention, 2006


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

crime similar to slavery and forcedlabour. All 182 member States of theILO have committed themselves toeliminate all WFCL by 2016.

For more information, please contactthe International Programme on theElimination of Child Labour (IPEC) [email protected]

New guide forbusiness on labour principles■ “The Labour Principles of the Unit-ed Nations Global Compact. A Guidefor Business” was launched at a meetingof the Labour Working Group of theUN Global Compact, in the presence ofleading representatives of the Interna-tional Organisation of Employers(IOE), the International Trade UnionConfederation (ITUC) and businessleaders. In a question and answer for-mat, the Guide provides a brief descrip-tion of each of the four Global Compactlabour principles: freedom of associa-tion and the effective recognition of theright to collective bargaining; the elimi-nation of all forms of forced and com-pulsory labour; the effective abolition ofchild labour; and the elimination of dis-crimination in respect of employmentand occupation. It also contains aninventory of key ILO resources con-cerning these principles. The LabourWorking Group was established at theinitiative of the IOE and ITUC to givemore visibility to the labour principles,promote a common understanding andhelp ensure a consistent approach totheir implementation.

For more information, please contactthe Multinational Enterprises Pro-gramme at [email protected]

New guide againstchild trafficking■ The International Programme onthe Elimination of Child Labour(IPEC) launched a new resource guideon child trafficking and sexualexploitation at the third World Con-gress against Sexual Exploitation ofChildren and Adolescents, which tookplace in Rio de Janeiro from 25 to 28November 2008. The guide, titledCombating trafficking in children forlabour exploitation: A resource kit forpolicy-makers and practitioners, cap-tures over ten years of work by IPECand its partners and makes the Pro-gramme’s experiences and knowledgeavailable to those who design, imple-ment and improve policy and pro-gramming to fight child trafficking.The ILO considers the sexual exploita-tion of children one of the worstforms of child labour (WFCL), a

Brazil becomes firstdonor from the South■ The Government of the FederalRepublic of Brazil will contributeUS$300,000 to the ILO’s RegularBudget Supplementary Account (RBSA),becoming the first donor countryfrom the South to do so. Brazil’s con-tribution will support field pro-grammes in Latin America and theCaribbean promoting fundamentalprinciples and rights at work. In linewith its growing international prom-inence Brazil is supporting inter-national development efforts throughSouth-South cooperation. The ILO, inaccordance with the Paris Declarationand the Accra Agenda for Action, hasbeen encouraging member countrieswith the possibility to do so to makeadditional voluntary contributionsthrough the ILO’s Regular BudgetSupplementary Account. Brazil hasmade important advances in recentyears in economic, labour market andsocial policies in line with the ILODecent Work Agenda. Through its vol-untary contribution to the ILO Sup-plementary Account Brazil will dis-seminate successful experiences andgood practices while strengtheningownership of recipient countries.

For more information, please contactDonor Relations, Department ofPartnerships and Development Cooper-ation at [email protected]

New guidelines toprevent HIV infection■ A new set of joint guidelines pre-sented last December by the ILO andthe World Health Organization

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

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO


(WHO) strongly urges nationalauthorities to provide HIV post-expo-sure prophylaxis as part as theirnational HIV policy. Post-exposureprophylaxis to HIV is the only way ofreducing the risk of development ofHIV infection in an individual whohas been exposed to the virus. Eachday thousands of workers, especiallyhealthcare workers – but also emer-gency rescue staff, waste-disposalworkers, law enforcement personnel,firefighters and others – may beexposed to infected blood and otherbody fluids while performing theirwork duties. The Joint WHO-ILOGuidelines on post-exposure prophy-laxis (PEP) to prevent HIV infectionfocus on how to provide PEP, a short-term antiretroviral treatment thatreduces the likelihood of HIV infec-tion after possible exposure.

For more information, please contactthe ILO Programme on HIV/AIDS andthe World of Work at [email protected]

ILO, Germany sign newagreements■ Last November, the German FederalMinistry for Economic Cooperationand Development (BMZ) and theInternational Labour Organization(ILO) signed two supplementaryagreements to promote the ILO’sDecent Work Country Programmes

and the Global Labour University inSouth Africa. Under the agreements,Germany will support specific thematicareas of the ILO’s Decent Work Agendaby contributing 3 million euros in2009–2010 for combating child labour,creating youth employment andsupporting the Better WorkProgramme, as well as providing€180,000 for the Global LabourUniversity in South Africa. The FederalRepublic of Germany is a long-timepartner of the ILO in the field oftechnical cooperation, contributingmore than US$17 million since 2001 inprojects such as small and mediumenterprise promotion in Africa andsocial security in Asia.

For more information, please contactDonor Relations, Department ofPartnerships and Development Co-operation at [email protected]

ILO, Luxembourg signlong-term agreement■ Last December, the government ofthe Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, rep-resented by its ministry in charge ofdevelopment cooperation, and theInternational Labour Organization(ILO) signed a long-term generalframework agreement to promote theILO’s Decent Work Agenda and financeILO projects and programmes in differ-ent countries. Under the agreement,Luxembourg will support specific the-matic areas of the ILO’s Decent WorkAgenda by contributing each year atleast the same amount it provided in2008: US$1.46 million (€900,000). Bothparties will jointly identify the thematicareas. Luxembourg has also agreed toconsider financing ILO projects andprogrammes at the national level, espe-cially in countries that enjoy partnerstatus with the Luxembourg develop-ment cooperation. Luxembourg is along-time partner of the ILO in the fieldof technical cooperation, contributing

more than US$11 million since 2002 inprojects such as labour-intensiveemployment in Africa, small and medi-um enterprise promotion, also inAfrica, and social security in Asia.

For more information, please contactDonor Relations, Department of Part-nerships and Development Cooperationat [email protected]

Belgium continuespartnership with ILO■ On 9 December 2008, the Ministerof Development Cooperation of Bel-gium, Mr. Charles Michel, signed anagreement with the InternationalLabour Office (ILO) for a new grant of€6 million and €2.4 respectively toextend social security to vulnerablepopulations and promote social dia-logue in French-speaking Africa.Through its Federal Public ServiceForeign Affairs, Directorate–Generalfor Development Cooperation (DGCD),the Government of Belgium will con-tinue to promote two major ILO tech-nical cooperation programmes,including the third phases of the STEP(Stratégies et techniques de lutte contrela pauvreté) and PRODIAF (Pro-gramme de promotion du dialoguesocial en Afrique francophone) pro-grammes from 2009 to 2012.

For more information, please contactDonor Relations, Department of Part-nerships and Development Cooperationat [email protected]

Promoting youthemployment in West Africa■ On 1 December 2008, the YouthEmployment Network (YEN)launched a competitive grant scheme

F E A T U R E S

A R O U N D T H E C O N T I N E N T S M E D I A S H E L FN E W SP L A N E T W O R K©

M.C

roze

t/IL

O


for youth-led organizations in theMano River Union (MRU: Côted’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, and SierraLeone). Applicants can apply forgrants between US$2,000 and 50,000.The MRU countries have experiencedviolent conflicts resulting in majorchallenges for the societies in prepar-ing their young workforce for employ-ment as well as creating decent workfor youth. The scheme will serve as alaboratory to identify and implementinnovative projects with potential toprovide employment opportunitiesfor young people. It also provides anopportunity to actively engage youthorganizations, demonstrating thepotential of youth as active partici-pants in development.

The Youth Employment Network(YEN), a partnership among the Unit-ed Nations, the International LabourOrganization (ILO) and the WorldBank, brings together policy-makers,employers’ and workers’ organiza-tions, young people and other stake-holders to pool skills, experience andknowledge so as to propose policiesand programmes addressing the youthemployment challenge.

For more information, please contactthe YEN Secretariat in Geneva at [email protected]

Measuring the world of work■ Last December, the 18th Interna-tional Conference of Labour Statisti-cians ended at ILO headquarters in

Geneva with the adoption of new inter-national statistical standards on childlabour and working time as well as rec-ommendations for further work on themeasurement of decent work, labourunderutilization and volunteer work.Among others, the 250 Conference par-ticipants from more than 120 countriessupported a resolution calling for a setof “labour underutilization indicators”that are complementary to the tradi-tional indicator of unemployment andmore fully reflect today’s reality in theworld of work, including labour slack,low earnings and skills mismatch. Inrecognition of the importance of thework of volunteers, the Conferencesuggested new methods to measuremore completely their importance forthe economy and society as a whole.The Conference also adopted standardson working time and child labour sta-tistics, which are key components ofassessing decent work.

For more information, please contactthe ILO Bureau of Statistics [email protected]

ILO, World ScoutMovement fight childlabour■ Last December, Michele Jankanish,Director of the ILO’s InternationalProgramme on the Elimination ofChild Labour (IPEC) and Luc Panis-sod, Acting Secretary-General of theWorld Organization of the ScoutMovement (WOSM), signed a new

Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) to extend their cooperation inthe fight against child labour for a fur-ther three years. The cooperationbetween the two organizations will bebased on a shared vision in pursuingsocial justice and peace, the empower-ment of young people, and promotingthe social dimensions of globalization.Over the last three years, the enthusi-astic and vibrant participation ofyouth in jointly planned ILO-WOSMinitiatives and events created local andglobal interest and developed new net-works involving IPEC field offices andNational Scout Organizations.

For more information, please contactthe International Programme on theElimination of Child Labour (IPEC) [email protected]

Worldwide letter-writing competitionon decent work■ The theme of the Universal PostalUnion’s 2009 letter-writing competi-tion for children around the world is“Write a letter to someone to explainhow decent working conditions canlead to a better life”. This theme waschosen in coordination with the Inter-national Labour Organization (ILO),which is currently launching a world-wide campaign on the importance ofdecent work and is celebrating its 90thanniversary. The results will beannounced later in the year.

For more information, visithttp://www.upu.int/letter_writing/en/index.shtml

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO

© M

.Cro

zet/

ILO

Swiss francs. Also available in French and Spanish

There is a worldwide perception that at least the

most unacceptable forms of child labour must be

and can be eradicated within a short time frame,

setting in motion an irreversible process leading to

the total elimination of all forms of child labour. This

report aims at setting standards of good practice on

the collection, compilation and analysis of national

child labour statistics, guiding countries to update

their existing statistical systems in this field or to

establish a new one where necessary.

■ Cooperating out of poverty:

The renaissance of the African

cooperative movement

Patrick Develtere, Ignace Pollet

and Frederick Wanyama (eds.)

ISBN 978-92-2-120722-1. Dar es

Salaam, ILO, 2008. US$35; UK£18; €23; 35 Swiss

francs

Successful and economically viable coopera-

tives create economic opportunities, provide a basic

level of social protection and security, and provide

their members with voice and representation. This

book offers an objective analysis of the state of

affairs of the cooperative sector in Africa since the

liberalization of the economy in the early 1990s. It

contains a historical overview of cooperative devel-

opment in the continent; in-depth country studies

illustrating the structure and operation of the coop-

erative sector; and an analysis of the major

strengths and weaknesses of various cooperative

undertakings. It aims to alert governments, donors

and researchers to a fragmented, dispersed move-

ment and make a case for cooperatives in Africa.

■ Edward Phelan and the ILO:

Life and views of an international

social actor

ISBN 978-92-2-121983-5. Geneva,

ILO, 2009. US$50; UK£35; €35; 50

Swiss francs

One of a small group of people who mapped out

the design of the ILO in the Treaty of Versailles in

1919 and one of the principal authors of the ILO Con-

stitution, Edward Phelan became the ILO's fourth

Director in 1941 until his retirement in 1948. His per-

sonal memoirs, long unpublished, are brought

together in one volume along with a biographical

essay by labour historian Emmet O'Connor, texts by

Brian Cowen TD, Seán Lemass TD and former ILO

Director-General Wilfred Jenks, and a selection of

Phelan's lesser-known writings on the ILO's later

development.


■ Ageing: Managing diversity

and equality at the workplace

CD-ROM. ISBN 978-92-2-121017-7.

Geneva, ILO, 2009. US$40; £25; €25;

40 Swiss francs. Trilingual Eng-

lish/French/Spanish

This training package is primarily designed for

employers' organizations and enterprises to assist

them in developing programmes and policies that

create decent and productive conditions of work

and employment that address older age workers in

the workplace. The retention and recruitment of

older workers can be an integral part of competitive

and productive enterprise management. With a

user-friendly structure delivering a range of infor-

mation, activities, examples of good practices and

other resources, this package can be used for both

self-study and reference.

■ Asian Decent Work

Decade resource kit

6 booklets + CD-ROM. ISBN

978-92-2-121200-3. Bangkok,

ILO, 2008. US$35; UK£18; €23;

35 Swiss francs

Brings together the ILO's expertise, knowledge

and tools as they relate to the goals of the Asian

Decent Work Decade (2006–2015) in a single, acces-

sible package. The kit provides state-of-the-art

knowledge on topics such as competitiveness, pro-

ductivity and jobs; labour market governance; local

development for decent work; protection of migrant

workers; and the youth employment challenge. It

has been created to help workers, employers, gov-

ernments and other interested parties learn more

about these priority areas, the key challenges and

the resources available to meet them.

■ Child labour statistics

Eighteenth International Confer-

ence of Labour Statisticians, 2008,

Report III

ISBN 978-92-2-121623-0. Geneva,

ILO, 2008. US$20; UK£10; €13; 20

■ Forced labour and human

trafficking: Handbook for labour

inspectors

ISBN 978-92-2-121321-5. Geneva,

ILO, 2008. US$25; UK£12; €16; 25

Swiss francs

Bonded labour, forced child labour, forced labour

linked to migration, and organized criminal traffick-

ing in the sex industry are all forms of forced labour.

This handbook highlights how labour inspectors can

play an active role in the global fight against forced

labour and human trafficking. It is designed for use

in training seminars and as a reference book for pol-

icy development. It includes two adaptable training

modules and a CD-ROM containing relevant training

materials.

■ Guidelines for flag State

inspections under the Maritime

Labour Convention, 2006

ISBN 978-92-2-121741-1. Geneva,

ILO, 2009. US$15; UK£10; €10; 15

Swiss francs. Also available in

French and Spanish

Adopted by the ILO in September 2008, the

guidelines provide practical advice to competent

authorities in flag States, and to flag State inspec-

tors or recognized organizations, on how to carry

out ship inspections and certifications to verify com-

pliance with the requirements of the MLC, 2006 as

implemented nationally. The book provides an

overview of the special features of the MLC, 2006; an

overview of the procedures for ship inspection and

certification, including areas of national flexibility,

and processes for responding to complaints; the

basic requirements to be complied with; a list of

items showing how to check the basic requirements

and examples of deficiencies; and guidance on

actions to be taken when deficiencies are found and

when a ship may have to be detained.

■ Guidelines for port State

control officers carrying out

inspections under the Maritime

Labour Convention, 2006

ISBN 978-92-2-121743-5. Geneva,

ILO, 2009. US$15; UK£10; €10; 15

Swiss francs. Also available in French and Spanish

Adopted by the ILO in September 2008, these

guidelines provide practical advice to port State

control officers (PSCOs) verifying compliance of for-

eign ships with the requirements of the MLC, 2006.

The book includes an overview of the MLC, 2006; the

required profile of PSCOs; the required review of

F E A T U R E S

A R O U N D T H E C O N T I N E N T S M E D I A S H E L FN E W SP L A N E T W O R K

M E D I A S H E L F

■ Promoting equity: Gender-

neutral job evaluation for equal

pay A step-by-step guide

ISBN 978-92-2-121538-735. Gene-

va, ILO, 2009. US$30; UK£18; €23; 35

Swiss francs. Also available in

French and Spanish

Significant gender disparities in pay are amongst

the most resilient features of labour markets. This

has many causes, including sex discrimination in

remuneration. This step-by-step guide sets out the

various methodological components of the evalua-

tion process and explains the criteria to be met in

order to avoid discriminatory practices. It can be

adapted to different economic and organizational

contexts and to large and small enterprises, and will

be of use to workers' and employers' organizations,

officers of Equal Opportunity Bodies, human

resource managers, gender specialists and pay

equity practitioners responsible for implementing a

pay equity programme.

■ Social protection expendi-

ture and performance review and

social budget: Tanzania mainland

ISBN 978-92-2-121265-2. Geneva,

ILO, 2008. US$40; UK£20; €25; 40

Swiss francs

Tanzania mainland is susceptible to many fac-

tors present in the demographic, labour market and

economic environment that could challenge the

social protection system. The ILO-DFID funded pro-

ject indicates that a global minimum social protec-

tion package would substantially reduce the pover-

ty headcount, close the shortfall in consumption and

be economically sustainable. This report builds on

this work to analyse and provide the foundation for

future analysis of policy options regarding social

protection as means of reducing poverty in the

region. It takes into account demographic and

macroeconomic information specific to mainland

Tanzania and makes projections from a baseline

year based on the two types of social protection

schemes, contributory and non-contributory.

■ Social protection expenditure and performance

review and social budget: Zambia

ISBN 978-92-2-121251-5. Geneva, ILO, 2009. US$40;

UK£20; €25; 40 Swiss francs

55

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-1211Geneva 22, Switzerland. Tel: +4122/799-7828, fax: +4122/799-6938, email: [email protected], web site: http://www.ilo.org/publns. Catalogues or lists of new publications are available free of charge from theabove address. The ILO Publications Center in North America can be contacted by phone: +613/745 2665, fax: +613/745 7660, email: [email protected]. Customers from developing countries canbenefit from special discounts on the regular prices indicated in this magazine and may be able to pay in local currency through an ILO field office. For more information, email us at [email protected].

■ Gerry Rodgers, Lee Swep-ston, Eddy Lee and Jasmienvan DaeleISBN 978-92-2-121955-2.Ithaca, ILR Press, CornellUniversity; Geneva, ILO,2009. US$50; UK£35; €35;

50 Swiss francsThis book tells the story of the ILO, found-

ed in 1919 in the belief that universal and last-ing peace goes hand in hand with social jus-tice. Since then the ILO has contributed to theprotection of the vulnerable, the fight againstunemployment, the promotion of humanrights, the development of democratic institu-tions and the improvement of the workinglives of women and men everywhere. Theauthors explore some of the main ideas thatthe ILO has developed and championed: rightsat work, the quality of employment, incomeprotection, employment and poverty reduc-tion, a fair globalization and today's overridinggoal of decent work for all in a world wherethe present economic crisis underlines theurgency of global action for social justice.

THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION AND THE QUEST FOR

SOCIAL JUSTICE, 1919–2009


documents in ships that carry MLC certification;

explains when a more detailed inspection may be

carried out; indicates the basic requirements to be

complied with, sources of information for checking

compliance and examples of deficiencies, in the 14

areas of working and living conditions that are main-

ly concerned; provides guidance when deficiencies

are found and when a ship may have to be detained

in port; and relates to the handling of onshore com-

plaints by seafarers.

■ International Labour

Standards Electronic Library

– ILSE 2009

CD-ROM. ISSN 1020-9972.

Geneva, ILO, 2009. US$25;

UK£16; €16; 25 Swiss francs.

Trilingual English/French/Spanish

ILSE is an electronic reference library of basic

International Labour Standards documents, includ-

ing ILO Conventions, Recommendations, Constitu-

tion, Standing Orders of the International Labour

Conference, General Surveys, the Digest of Deci-

sions of the Committee on Freedom of Association,

the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and

Rights at Work, the Global Reports, and the recent

publications on international labour standards. A

selection of further texts is available in Arabic, Chi-

nese, German, Portuguese and Russian.

■ Labour and social trends in

ASEAN 2008: Driving competitive-

ness and prosperity with decent

work

ISBN 978-92-2-121694-0. Bangkok,

ILO, 2008. US$25; UK£13; €17;

25 Swiss francs

This report highlights major trends in employment

and social conditions in the dynamic ASEAN region.

It analyses the key factors that underpin long-term

competitiveness and productivity, and the policy

challenges that lie ahead if growth and prosperity

are to be maintained – including encouraging inno-

vation and progressive workplace practices, raising

the quality of the workforce, strengthening social

dialogue and cohesion, and tackling vulnerability. It

aims to advance the development of internationally

comparable, gender- and age-specific labour market

statistics across the ASEAN region and beyond.

In recent years, Zambia has

witnessed economic expansion, a

fall in inflation rates and lower

external vulnerability. In particular,

the ILO-DFID project to extend

social protection and coverage as

means of poverty reduction has yielded favourable

results. This review of the output of the first year's

work examines the objective of extending social

protection coverage in the country. It focuses on

five key issues: living conditions of households;

working conditions and patterns of informality in the

labour market; coverage and performance of exist-

ing public social protection interventions; resource

allocations to social protection; and future trends in

the Zambian social budget. The assessments pre-

sented will be useful for the ongoing work in Zambia,

implemented by different sectoral ministries, Sect-

oral Advisory Groups (SAGs), cooperating partners

and other actors involved.

Pho

to: K

.Meh

ra-K

erpe

lman

/ILO

• G

raph

ic e

nhan

cem

ents

: N

. A

kram

The ILO’s Decent Work Agenda providesthe policy framework to tackle the crisis.

No.

65

, A

pril

20

09

Keep abreast of the most relevantanalysis and information, featuring

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

The impact of the economiccrisis on the world of workand policy responses to itNew information resourcesfrom around the worldWeekly updates with articlesand analysis from ILOspecialistsRegional informationTargeted areas of concernMonthly bulletin on selectedemployment, unemploymentand consumer priceindicatorsILO tools and good practicesto help develop employmentstrategies

ILO JOB CRISIS OBSERVATORYwww.ilo.org/jobcrisis

Click into the ILO’s new website on the global job crisis!

65 ilo magazine eng...also published in arabic, chinese, czech, danish, finnish, french, hindi,...

Documents