Feature articles

April 2009 

• Start at home: promoting local economic development to stem the global economic crisis
  29 April 2009 - Much policy advice has been given to facilitate global finance, trade and investments to connect with the global economy. But much less to reinforce local communities and local markets where people live and want to stay if given the opportunity. Strengthening local communities in developing countries is also a means to help those who will suffer most from the global economic and jobs crisis. ...
• Questions and answers on Occupational Safety and Health in times of economic crisis
  27 April 2009 - With credit barely flowing and global demand on a downward slide, enterprises around the world are struggling to cope with the global economic crisis. Meanwhile, the numbers of unemployed and working poor are rising. How is the crisis affecting working conditions? For this year’s World Day for Safety and Health at Work (28 April), ILO Online asks Dr. ...
  • World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2009
• Coops and the global financial crisis
  23 April 2009 - Cooperatives have been more resilient to the deepening global economic and jobs crisis than other sectors. ILO Online spoke with Hagen Henry, chief of the ILO’s Cooperatives Branch.
• From crisis to crisis: the impact of the global food crisis on decent work
  09 April 2009 - Since 2007, escalating food prices have created budget turmoil, trade imbalances and inflation and provoked panic and social unrest in some countries. Despite bumper harvests of rice and wheat in 2008 that may have alleviated some of the concern, economies are now grappling with a worsening global economic crisis. ...

March 2009 

• Brazil extends Bolsa Familia during the economic crisis
  20 March 2009 - When the first signs of financial trouble emerged in the industrialized world, predictions were that the “decoupling effect” would insulate the developing world from the crisis. Today, the economic crisis is clearly global and no country is immune. In Brazil, one key measure has been extending a successful cash-transfer programme – Bolsa Familia – to a larger number of poor families. ...

February 2009 

• Microfinance and the real economy: impacts and outcomes of the global economic crisis
  26 February 2009 - The current economic and social crisis provides an opportunity to re-think values and business models in finance. ILO Online spoke with Bernd Balkenhol, chief of the ILO’s Social Finance Programme.
• Achieving the seafarers’ international bill of rights: more than half way there!
  23 February 2009 - When the ILO adopted the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) on 23 February 2006, Director-General Juan Somavia called it a historic moment for the world’s more than 1.2 million seafarers. ...
  • Maritime Labour Convention, 2006

December 2008 

• ILO, China launch first HIV/AIDS prevention campaign for internal rural migrant workers
  17 December 2008 - The 200 million internal migrant workers in China play a vital role in the country’s mining, construction, and transportation sectors. But the lack of awareness about HIV puts them at risk of contracting the disease. Last November, the ILO and China’s State Council AIDS Committee Office jointly launched the country’s first HIV/AIDS prevention campaign for internal rural migrant workers. ...
• From high fashion ‘alta moda’ to dress-making in Ukraine
  17 December 2008 - At 16 per cent, the region of Chernivtsi in Ukraine has the highest unemployment rate in the country and the lowest number of women employed. ...
• Migrants in times of economic crisis: ILO/UNDP join forces to make Tajik migration safe
  16 December 2008 - Tajikistan is the poorest of the Central Asian republics and a huge supplier of migrants: 800 000 of its 7 million inhabitants, most of them men, are working abroad. While many migrants are already at risk of all kinds of abuse, they may also become the first victims of the current financial and economic crisis. ...