GENEVA (ILO News) - The recent Summit of the Americas in Argentina succeeded "in an unprecedented way" in making the creation of decent jobs a central policy goal in the region, according to ILO Director-General Juan Somavia.
"The leaders of the Americas took a great step forward in tackling the challenge of creating more and better jobs", Mr. Somavia said on his return from the 4th Summit of the Americas held last week in Mar del Plata. "Until very recently, such a result would have been unthinkable, but now decent work and quality employment have become a priority as they form the basis for fighting poverty and improving governance in those countries."
The 34 heads of State participating in the Summit agreed on a Declaration and Plan of Action to put active policies into place that create decent work.
The Declaration calls on the ILO "to consider governmental and tripartite action" to implement the results of the Summit and to deal with the issue of putting people "and their work at the heart of globalization" at its next regional meeting for Latin America and the Caribbean in early 2006.
The Action Plan asks the ILO to "extend its support and technical assistance to countries in their efforts to promote more and better jobs".
"We will support efforts of countries in the region to put this unprecedented political engagement for decent work into practice with all our capacities," Mr. Somavia said, adding that the Summit in Mar del Plata had opened new opportunities to design strategies to improve the socioeconomic conditions of women and men living in the region.
According to ILO estimates, some 18.3 million urban workers in Latin America and the Caribbean are unemployed today, while 7 out of 10 jobs created over the last years are precarious and in the informal economy.
"Labour is not a commodity. Decent work is a basic tool guaranteeing a better future for workers and their families", the ILO Director-General said.
Print
Email
