I-News
21 January 2011
A new United Nations interagency report on the gender dimension of agricultural work says women still benefit less than men from rural employment and face new challenges due to the current economic and food crises.
News
19 January 2011
Video
05 February 2010
More than one billion people worldwide earn their income from agriculture, working steadily to increase productivity and their standard of living. But farming brings risks that can undermine or even eliminate the gains hard won in the fields. From manual labour to machines, dangerous chemicals and unsanitary workplaces: farming families struggle with dangers at work and at home every day, but there's a WIND of change coming, as ILO TV reports.
Food security
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. Is the evolution of lower prices for grains cause for hope, or will the economic crisis provide cause for fear? The food price situation was discussed in Geneva at an ILO meeting last month. ILO Online asked Dr. Riswanul Islam, Special Advisor on Growth, Employment and Poverty Reduction, to take stock of the impact of the global food crisis on decent work and poverty.
Food security
09 March 2009
The ILO held a two-day workshop on 5-6 March 2009 on the global food crisis and its impact on decent work. The meeting recommended measures to achieve global food security and to involve networks of employers and workers organizations in the development and delivery of national plans to do so.
Occupational Safety and Health
17 December 2008
An ILO occupational safety and health training program for farmers and other agricultural workers in Kyrgyzstan has become a starting point for a broader political process of social dialogue between workers, employers and government.
Microinsurance
14 October 2008
A large insurance firm and an association of water irrigation users have teamed up to become the first providers of micro-life insurance for millions of small farmers in Peru. The project, which has received support from the ILO’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will allow a third of rural families in Peru to have access to social protection for the first time. ILO reports from Lima.
Article
16 June 2008
Providing decent employment in agriculture for young people is an immense challenge but mass migration from rural to urban areas has led to poverty in and around cities. Appropriate employment and training programmes can help regulate the rate of rural out-migration and ease pressure on urban centers, says a new ILO report on rural employment and poverty reduction issued at this year’s International Labour Conference in Geneva. ILO Online reports from Kyrgyzstan.
News
06 June 2008
The International Labour Office (ILO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today launched a new website designed to highlight the many areas in which they already work together and others in which they are contemplating joint activities.
Video
18 December 2007
There are over a quarter of a million children who work in the cocoa plantations of West Africa. It's hazardous work, which exposes children to highly toxic pesticides. This episode of the BBC World TV series "Survivors Guide" goes to Cameroon, where the International Labour Organization has been working to eliminate child labour from cocoa production and help children return to school. Produced by Rockhopper TV in cooperation with the ILO.