Articles

October 2010

1. 

   Trade and employment in the global crisis: Lessons for the future

   25 October 2010

   The International Labour Office (ILO) and the World Bank have jointly organized a conference on "Trade and Employment Post-Crisis: Global Shocks, Structural Changes and Policy Responses" on October 25. Held in the lead up to the G20 Summit in Seoul on 11-12 November, the conference discussed the role of open markets in supporting growth and job creation. Interview with ILO experts on "Trade and Employment in the Global Crisis".

September 2010

1. 

   Teachers and trainers for the future: Vocational training in a changing world

   30 September 2010

   The ILO estimates that unemployment is up by more than 30 million worldwide since 2007. The number of unemployed youth increased by 8.5 million between 2008 and 2009, the largest year-on-year increase in at least ten years. Against this sombre economic background, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems worldwide are under pressure to deal with a host of employment and workplace challenges. Interview with ILO specialists about how TVET systems can respond to these challenges.

2. 

   Implementing the Maritime Labour Convention is "almost there"

   27 September 2010

   When the ILO adopted the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006), in February 2006, Director-General Juan Somavia said the Organization had made "labour history" for the world's more than 1.2 million seafarers. Four years on, the Convention is expected to come into force in 2011 or early 2012. ILO Online spoke with Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, Director of the ILO's International Labour Standards Department, about recent developments in the implementation of the Convention, and what the ILO and its Member States are doing to bring the Convention into force.

3. 

   The ILO and the Millennium Development Goals: Questions and Answers

   20 September 2010

   Interview with Alice Ouedraogo, Deputy Director of the ILO's Policy Integration Department about the International Labour Organization's efforts to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in particular the first MDG on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

4. 

   After the ILO-IMF conference in Oslo, what's next?

   20 September 2010

   In the wake of the historic ILO and IMF conference in Oslo on “The Challenges of Growth, Employment and Social Cohesion”, what's next for the two Organizations’ campaign to address the global jobs crisis? ILO Online spoke to Stephen Pursey, Director of the Policy Integration and Senior Advisor to the Director-General, about the outcome of the Conference and the road ahead.

5. 

   Promoting job creation for young people in multinational enterprises

   01 September 2010

   Liberia’s 14 year war left gaping holes in the infrastructure critical to investment and recovery and delayed a generation of youth from entering the labour market. Today, almost two-thirds of the population live in poverty. Youth between ages of 15 and 35 make up 53 per cent of the workforce, yet constitute 58 per cent of the unemployed. The integration of young people into the labour market is critical for overall economic development and in securing stability in a post-conflict country like Liberia. ILO Online asked Yukiko Arai, senior specialist in the ILO’s Multinational Enterprises Programme, how multinational enterprises (MNEs) can contribute to the generation of more quality jobs for local youth.

August 2010

1. 

   Cooperatives and the crisis: "Our customers are also our owners"

   01 August 2010

   Cooperatives have been more resilient to the deepening global economic and jobs crisis than other sectors. Andrew Bibby reports from Sweden.

2. 

   Setting the terms of the child labour debate

   01 August 2010

   Though child labour has preoccupied the ILO since its first days, the practice remains a problem of immense social and economic proportions throughout much of the world. While there has been progress in reducing child labour over the last decade, the decline was uneven in different world regions and the global pace of reduction slowed between 2004 and 2008.

3. 

   Small premiums, long-term benefits: Why poor women need microinsurance

   01 August 2010

   Microinsurance coverage is an important safety net for households in developing countries, providing a tool to protect productive assets. For poor women, however, coverage can be even more critical.

4. 

   Paving a way out of poverty for people with intellectual disabilities

   01 August 2010

   Millions of people with intellectual disabilities and their families are inordinately affected by poverty and social and economic exclusion. In March 2010, the ILO–Irish Aid Partnership Programme gathered representatives from several East African countries, Australia and the United Kingdom at a three-day conference in Lusaka, Zambia to explore opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to train and work alongside non-disabled workers in their communities, thereby paving a way out of poverty.