Follow-up to the Conference debate and decisions on the economic and employment crisis: Strategy to give effect to the Global Jobs Pact

The Governing Body adopted the following:

Moving from crisis recovery to sustainable development

The voices of the real economy, represented by the constituents of the International Labour Organization (ILO), are needed in the shared international effort to shape recovery from the continuing global jobs crisis and build a future of strong, sustainable and balanced global growth.

A more balanced economic growth pattern must not lose sight of the need to urgently address large-scale unemployment, underemployment and rising income inequality. These issues deserve the same high-level political priority that has been given to the rescue of financial institutions. The ILO, guided by its tripartite nature, can give an important contribution in this regard.

Taken together, the 2008 Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization and the Global Jobs Pact represent a balanced, comprehensive and tripartite agreement about the appropriate response to the global crisis. These documents should guide the activities of the Office at all levels.

The 2008 Governing Body Officers’ statement remains as relevant today as it was a year ago.

Getting those who have lost their jobs back to work and ensuring that the millions of young women and men who start looking for work each year get a good start in their working lives is a vital first step for recovery and sustainable growth and development. Making the transition then from crisis response to stronger, more sustainable, equitable development and a fair globalization will need an employment-oriented framework for the medium and longer term. Its primary goal must be decent and productive work for the world’s workforce of over 3 billion.

In this context the Global Jobs Pact sets out a policy package of practical measures, to counteract the immediate crisis and set a course for sustainable recovery.

The Governing Body:

(a) encouraged constituents to advocate and promote the Global Jobs Pact;

(b) requested constituents to share information through the Office on actions taken, best practices, lessons learned and future plans to give effect to the Pact, including through specific seminars and workshops;

(c) requested the Director-General to:

(i) take into account its guidance on the strategy being developed and implemented by the Office to support constituents in giving effect to the Pact;

(ii) deepen support for countries applying the Pact in coordination and with the full involvement of the workers and employers;

(iii) deepen the research and analysis by the Office of the action taken by it and the constituents in the implementation of the Pact;

(iv) work with constituents to include Global Jobs Pact responses in Decent Work Country Programmes and orient Office workplans towards constituents’ crisis response priorities;

(v) consult with the Officers on the agenda for the March 2010 session of the Governing Body to ensure that it addresses:

– how best to further develop the Office’s technical capacity with the necessary personnel at global and regional levels with the skills to support the implementation of the Pact. This would enable the ILO to make the necessary contributions to all levels in close cooperation with governments, employers and workers’ organizations; and

– implementation measures undertaken to give effect to the Global Jobs Pact and related issues, thus providing an input to forthcoming multilateral discussions; and

(vi) with the full engagement of constituents, seek additional resources from countries and the multilateral agencies to fund policy initiatives within the framework of the Pact and increase the Office’s capacity to respond to constituents’ requests. The Governing Body encouraged those nations that could do so to expand support for the ILO to make this urgent work possible.

(Document GB.306/3/1, paragraph 67, and proposals put forward by the Workers’ and Employers’ groups.)