BEIRUT (ILO News) – Under the patronage of H.E. the Prime Minister of Lebanon, the International Labour Organization (ILO) in partnership with the Arab Labour Organization (ALO) will host the Arab Employment Forum (AEF) in Beirut on 19-21 October 2009 (Note 1). Keynote speakers will include Mr. Juan Somavia, Director-General of the ILO, Mr. Ahmed Luqman, Director-General of the ALO and labour ministers from across the Arab world.
High-level participants from 22 Arab governments will join employer and worker representatives, as well as representatives of academia, the UN system and think tanks to address the broad challenges and opportunities posed to the region by the global economic and jobs crisis.
The Forum will seek to build on momentum created by the 36th Arab Labour Conference held in April 2009, which called for greater regional cooperation and coordination with the ILO to address the economic and jobs crisis. Participants will consider how the ILO Global Jobs Pact (Note 2) can provide a framework for developing national and regional initiatives to address both the effects of the crisis and the longer-term development agenda of countries in the region.
The Forum will receive a new report on the impact of the global economic crisis on labour markets in the Arab States, as well as thematic papers on a range of issues including, labour migration, labour standards, social protection, enterprise development, employment and the role of social dialogue in forging a response to the crisis.
Note for the media:
For more information or to request interviews please contact:
ILO Media and Communication Unit
Ms. Reham Rached
Tel.: +961-1-752400 (ext 108)
Mobile: +961-3292722
Email: rached@ilo.org
You may also visit the Arab Employment Forum website on www.ilo.org/arabstates/aef which includes background documentation prepared for the Forum.
Note 1 - The Forum will take place at the “Metropolitan Palace Hotel”, Sin El Fil, Beirut, Lebanon.
Note 2 - Faced with the prospect of a prolonged global increase in unemployment, poverty and inequality, ILO member States adopted a Global Jobs Pact during the June 2009 International Labour Conference. The Global Jobs Pact is the Decent Work response to the crisis. The strategic objective of the Pact is to place employment and labour market issues, together with social protection and respect for workers’ rights, at the heart of stimulus packages and other relevant national policies to confront the crisis. The use of social dialogue to define and implement policies is seen as a key consensus-building tool.
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