Enterprises Department
ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations
ENTERPRISE

Contact us

  1. Job Creation and Enterprise Development Department (EMP/ENTERPRISE)
    Employment Sector
    International Labour Office 4 Route des Morillons
    Geneva
    CH - 1211
    Switzerland
    Website:www.ilo.org/empent

Enterprises Department

All across the world people are in search of jobs. Jobs so they can raise their families and send their children to school. Jobs that provide access to social protection for them and their families. And, jobs in which they are respected, can organize and have a voice. What they want is decent work.

Enterprises play a key role in creating productive and decent work that helps meet the economic and social aspirations of people and their communities. Whether small, medium or large, enterprises – including cooperatives – they are a major source of growth and employment in all countries. Enterprises and the entrepreneurs who run them play a crucial role in creating jobs and reducing poverty.
 

No decent work strategy can be successful without encouraging entrepreneurship, innovation and productivity.”

Juan Somavia, Director-General
International Labour Organization

What's new

  1. News item

    Namibia’s national workshop aims at strengthening the link between the green economy and job creation

    29 April 2013

  2. News item

    Green Business Plan Competitions held in Uganda

    25 April 2013

    The Green Business Plan competitions annually held in Uganda provide opportunities for young entrepreneurs to develop sustainable, environmentally friendly business ideas and compete for prizes. The ILO, through YEF, contracted Enterprise Uganda to prepare and conduct a Green Business Plan Training Workshop in September 2012. Following a call for proposal, 66 candidates were selected to attend the business plan training workshop. Out of these, 28 candidates with the most successful business plans developed during the training in September, received further support such as business skills training and mentorship to finalize the initiated business plans and enter the annual competition.

  3. Statement

    Remarks at launch event of the European Business Campaign: “Skills for Jobs”

    18 April 2013

    by Mr José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Assistant Director General for Policy, ILO at the session on “Reaching impact and scaling up”

  4. Event

    International Research Conference

    12 April 2013

    Improved working conditions, safety and health, training and performance in SMEs: In search of a win-win scenario in developing and transition economies

  5. Event

    How global enterprises are responding to the global call for the extension of social protection

    05 April 2013

    Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 3:30-4:30 p.m.

  6. Publication

    Resilience in a downturn: The power of financial cooperatives

    20 March 2013

    This report reviews the performance of financial cooperatives, looking in particular at the aftermath of the 2007-2008 crisis and the continuing long austerity period. It explains why financial cooperatives have proven to be more resilient pointing to the specificities of the cooperative model of enterprise.

  7. News item

    Green entrepreneurship on the rise in Kenya

    19 March 2013

    Launched in November 2012 through the ILO-YEF partnership, this annual Business Plan Competition in Kenya attracted 183 entries spread across 4 categories. The overall winner, Michael Odhiambo, came from the green and ecological category. Michael is the head of Takawiri, a community-based organization in Kisumu with 24 members. The company produces paper-based products like envelopes and gift bags from hyacinth; a weed harvested manually from the Lake Victoria.

Key resources

  1. Value Chain Development for Decent Work : A guide for development practitioners, government and private sector initiatives
    16 October 2009

    1. Making the strongest links: A practical guide to mainstreaming gender analysis in value chain development
      31 July 2009

      A new publication from the ILO provides groundbreaking methods for incorporating gender concerns into the different stages of value chain analysis and strengthening the links essential for gender equality and promoting sustainable pro-poor growth and development strategies.

      1. ILO Helpdesk for Business on International Labour Standards
        01 May 2009

        The ILO Helpdesk is a free and confidential service that can help your company align its operations with international labour standards and the ILO approach to socially responsible labour practices.

        1. The labour Principles of the United Nations Global Compact – A Guide for Business
          16 December 2008

          As the first publication of the newly-established UN Global Compact Labour Working Group, this Guide aims at helping companies understand and apply the four labour principles into practice (UNGC principles 3-6). In a question and answer format, this Guide provides a brief description of each of the four Global Compact labour principles, and also provides practical guidance on what companies can do to respect, promote, and realise them. It also contains an inventory of key ILO resources that will help companies realise the labour principles.

          1. Tripartite declaration of principles concerning multinational enterprises and social policy (MNE Declaration) - 4th Edition
            01 January 2006

            1. Leaflet: Tripartite Declaration on Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy - Translating labour principles into practice
            2. Follow-up surveys
            3. Short overview of the Principles of the MNE Declaration

          2. Labour and Labour-Related Laws in Micro and Small Enterprises: Innovative Regulatory Approaches
            01 December 2007

            SEED Working Paper No. 81

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