ABIDJAN (ILO News) - Despite a return to economic growth in many African countries, the condition of the vast majority of the continent's workforce at the close of the century is characterized by declining living standards, rising unemployment and increasing poverty, according to an ILO report prepared for the Ninth Africa Regional Meeting which opens in Abidjan on 8 December 1999.
The report notes that Africa has the fastest growing workforce in the world, with some 9 million new job seekers entering the labour market each year. Unemployment and underemployment are widespread, according to the ILO, with informal sector activities accounting for at least 60% of the existing jobs and virtually all new job opportunities. Social protection systems cover less than 10% of the labour force.
Nearly 70% of the African workforce is concentrated in agriculture, often at a subsistence level. More than half the population of Africa, almost 400 million people, live on less than one dollar a day.
The situation of these workers and the International Labour Organization's efforts to promote employment, social protection, social dialogue and protection of worker rights in Africa will take centre stage as tripartite delegations from Africa seek remedies for the hardships faced by millions of working men and women of Africa.
The ILO report suggests that the environment for economic and social progress is improving in Africa. However, it draws attention to the challenge of dealing with the legacies of previous decades of economic underperformance, including high levels of debt and poverty, the prevalence of child labour and the disastrous consequences of civil and ethnic conflicts. The report warns of the risk of deterioration since "the benefits of economic development have not been translated into just and equitable social progress."
One of the priority themes to be addressed by the meeting will be child labour. The ILO report observes that "child labour is widespread in Africa," with upwards of 16 million children working, often under dangerous conditions and in extreme forms of exploitation. The ILO, which recently adopted an international Convention banning the worst forms of child labour, deems the brutalizing economic exploitation suffered by so many of the world's children "an insult to humanity". In Africa, 40% of all children between the ages of 5 and 14 are forced to work; 32% of working children worldwide are African.
The ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) currently has ten partner countries 1 in Africa. An additional 15 have expressed their intention to join IPEC.
The meeting will also focus on achieving the increased ratification of international labour standards by African countries and the promotion of the ILO's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which was adopted by the International Labour Conference in 1998. 2 The ILO holds that "the democratization process in the region can be strengthened by better application of international labour standards." In Africa, ILO activities to promote the Declaration will include additional technical cooperation programmes and advisory services in support of freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining; the abolition of child labour with emphasis on its worst forms; and the elimination of discrimination in terms of employment and occupation.
Another issue to be taken up in Abidjan will be the effects of HIV/AIDS which, the report observes, have reached "alarming proportions".
A recent meeting of ILO experts in Windhoek, Namibia observed that AIDS had gone beyond a health problem and had become "a developmental crisis with potentially ominous consequences for Africa and the world." The ravages of HIV/AIDS on the working population will be highlighted in Abidjan. An ILO study carried out in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia showed that 80% of HIV-infected persons are between the ages of 20 and 49, in other words, people in the prime of their working lives. The victims suffer from neglect, discrimination and persecution and there are also negative consequences for their survivors, large numbers of whom are children left in single-parent households or as orphans.
The conference will examine the plight of these groups in Africa and seek to intensify the fight against HIV/AIDS and discrimination against infected workers.
The ILO report found on the positive side that "The democratization process that began during the 1980s continued right through the 1990s, accompanied in most countries by the revision of constitutions and electoral laws, the emergence of independent institutions, political parties and trade unions and the organization of elections in several countries." However, the report also notes that these gains have been fragile because "the democratization process has been characterized by many weaknesses: chronic poverty and widespread unemployment; numerous armed conflicts causing political instability in the countries concerned and forcing millions of people into misery."
The ILO's Director-General considers that the Organization's primary mission in Africa has to be to seize the opportunities afforded by democratization in order "to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity."
"Despite the conflicts that still persist, Afro-pessimism," the ILO says, "is receding." The ILO considers it "essential for the recovery of growth to be further consolidated and that such growth be highly employment intensive; it also deserves to be supported by more equity and democracy, respect for human rights and justice for all categories of persons, in particular vulnerable groups such as women, persons with disabilities, conflict affected persons, migrant workers and children."
1 Benin, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda.
2 In 1998, the International Labour Conference adopted a solemn ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, reaffirming the commitment of the international community to "respect, to promote and to realize in good faith" the rights of workers and employers to freedom of association and the effective right to collective bargaining, and to work toward the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour, the effective abolition of child labour and the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. The Declaration underlines that all ILO member States have an obligation to respect the fundamental principles involved, whether or not they have ratified the relevant conventions.