A sectoral approach in the ILO's Decent Work Country Programmes

Making decent work a global goal is the ILO’s leading policy theme for 2006-09, encompassing international, regional, inter-country, national and local ILO action. In each country, the ILO works with constituents to put decent work at the heart of economic and social policies. ILO action is directed at the adoption of decent work as a national objective and assisting ILO constituents in advancing towards that objective. It combines advocacy and technical cooperation in defining and implementing a decent work strategy in accordance with national characteristics and possibilities. Policy advice and technical cooperation are provided in areas in which ILO has a comparative advantage.

Sectoral activities can usefully address the technical subjects within the ILO's competence (e.g. employment, working conditions, labour-management relations, occupational safety and health), by helping to solve problems in selected industries or sectors. Within a given industry, enterprises the world over tend to share some basic features in production processes, technology, work organization and marketing patterns. In many countries, employers and workers also tend to be organized along sectoral lines, for collective bargaining or other purposes. This pattern can also be seen at the regional and international level. A large part of the ILO's work is in fact carried out in relation to specific industries and sectors, addressing challenges in occupational safety and health, wages, working conditions, export processing zones (EPZs), worker retraining and labour relations in a particular sector. Measures to address these issues need to take account of these features of the sector if they are to be appropriate and effective.

Questions of organization and work take on a special character where one or two sectors generate a high proportion of a country’s foreign exchange earnings, government revenue or GDP, where sectors provide key infrastructure or services vital for the daily functioning of the economy or where industries and services are faced with wide-ranging restructuring, as a result of change in technology, the privatization of public enterprises, making public services more efficient, or helping private enterprises to be more competitive in the face of trade liberalization. In all of these scenarios the stakes are higher, the leverage of employers and trade unions may be greater, specific legislation may apply, and a sectoral approach for ILO support is crucial to effectiveness.

A successful ILO response may also make use of the close links that exist between employers' and workers' organizations in different industries or services and the ILO. It can draw on the labour and social guidelines negotiated internationally in sectoral meetings, and on the experience of national or international sectoral employers' and workers' organizations.