Features

2012

1. 

   Article

   A green plumber for a greener economy

   21 June 2012

   The transition towards a greener economy is expected to affect about half of the global labour force or roughly 1.5 billion people. This means changes in terms of job types and workers’ skills – a topic that is high on the Rio+20 agenda.

2. 

   Article

   Rio+Social: social media must ‘defriend’ the waste of Earth’s resources

   20 June 2012

   A global online discussion highlighted the power social media can wield in the debate on our planet’s future. The daylong event was held as world leaders converged on Rio de Janeiro for the Rio+20 Summit.

3. 

   Article

   After the storm: Rebuilding livelihoods in the Philippines

   02 February 2012

   Natural disasters destroy livelihoods but the aftermath also offers opportunities to create jobs and revitalise the economy as there will be high demand for construction and other recovery works. For the last ten years, the ILO has engaged in post-disaster reconstruction in countries in Asia and the Pacific, including China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and beyond. So the Organization was also prepared to help when tropical storm Washi heavily affected villages and major cities in the Philippines last December. Minette Rimando from the ILO office in Manila reports.

2011

1. 

   Feature story

   Greying of the workforce in retail commerce: Questions and answers

   20 September 2011

   According to a recent ILO study, 2 billion people will be aged 60 or over by 2050. While most discussions about population ageing turn around the sustainability of pension systems, a forthcoming ILO meeting to be held in Geneva on 21-22 September, will focus on the impact of the greying of societies on labour supply in the retail commerce sector, an industry that has traditionally drawn a large proportion of its workers from people aged 30 and under. ILO Online spoke with John Sendanyoye, the ILO’s Commerce Sector Specialist.

2. 

   Article

   Youth join green jobs push in China

   15 February 2011

   Yang Shumbo, a Chinese electronic sciences student invented a device to save electricity. He developed this into a business under a pilot project of the Greener Business Option (GBO), an ILO Green Jobs Programme initiative. GBO aims to encourage entrepreneurship in green businesses among young people. Report from Chengdu, China, by Satoshi Sasaki, Specialist on Enterprise Development and Job Creation, ILO Beijing and Vincent Jugault, Senior Specialist in Environment and Decent Work, ILO Bangkok.

2009

1. 

   Environment

   Climate change in Asia: while awareness is increasing, the water is rising

   06 October 2009

   As global awareness on climate change increases, some regions of the world are already suffering from its consequences. In one such area in the Philippines, the ILO has launched a new project to lessen the impact of changing weather patterns on the local economy. This experience illustrates the challenge of adapting to climate change which will be one of the items on the agenda of Climate Change Talks involving 2,500 participants in Bangkok until 9 October to prepare for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. The ILO’s Communication officer Minette Rimando reports.

2. 

   Gender equality

   India’s barefoot solar engineers fight climate change and poverty

   04 September 2009

   The year 2009 marks the 10th anniversary of the ILO’s gender equality action plan, and the end of a year-long global ILO campaign on gender equality and the world of work. One of the themes of the campaign was the linkage between climate change and the role of women in the world of work. Mandy Cunningham, a freelance journalist, reports from Rajasthan, India where women are at the forefront of what the ILO calls Green Jobs; jobs which are created as a result of economies adapting to climate and environmental change.

3. 

   Natural disasters

   Gonaives: Preparing for the next big storm

   26 August 2009

   Come hurricane season, the citizens of Gonaives in northern Haiti brace for the worse. Five years ago, Hurricane Jeanne ripped through its shores sending walls of water and mud down the surrounding slopes and changing the face of the city forever. A project managed by the International Labour Organization (ILO) has been helping local residents organize themselves to build erosion control networks to protect the city from mudslides and heavy run-off. But as ILO Online reports, the challenge does not stop at the hillsides.

2007

1. 

   Article

   Green Jobs and global warming: ILO to discuss new initiatives for tackling climate change in the world of work

   08 November 2007

   Climate change is widely seen as a threat to our health, our wealth and our planet. Yet, it also presents huge opportunities for the creation of new jobs aimed at mitigating its effects through energy and industrialization policies. The 300th session of the ILO’s Governing Body will consider new initiatives for tackling the issue in the world of work.

2. 

   Article

   Green jobs initiative in Burkina Faso: From waste to wages

   11 October 2007

   Among the goals of the ILO’s new “Green Jobs Initiative” is linking development and job creation to the creation of a cleaner, more sustainable environment. Though the concept is relatively new, the practice is already growing in some parts of the world. ILO Online reports from Burkina Faso where a new project for removing plastic waste is not only improving the environment, but creating “green jobs” in the process.