Sectoral Activities Department - Tripartite meeting on moving to sustainable agricultural development through the modernization of agriculture and employment in a globalized economy

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Tripartite Meeting on Moving to Sustainable Agricultural Development
through the Modernization of Agriculture and Employment
in a Globalized Economy

Geneva, 18-22 September 2000

Participation

The meeting was one in a series of regular tripartite meetings covering one of the 22 sectors falling under the Sectoral Activities Department. Altogether 70 delegates participated, comprising 18 from governments and 26 each from employers and workers. As per ILO practice, 26 countries were invited but last-minute problems reduced the number to 18. The participating countries represented a wide spectrum at all stages of development, with a natural bias towards developing countries:

Benin, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Philippines, Romania, South Africa.

Employers' and Workers' delegates were selected, as per ILO practice, based on nominations by the Employers' and Workers' groups of the ILO Governing Body. Relevant NGOs and IGOs also participated as observers.

Agenda and report for the meeting

The basis for the discussion was a report prepared by the ILO entitled Sustainable Agriculture in a Globalized Economy (pdf, 606k). The subject, as with other sectoral meetings, was decided by the ILO's Governing Body. The report:

underlined the importance of the agricultural sector for sustainable development, something that had been obscured by the last two decades of fast manufactured-export-led growth;
showed that the greatest impact of globalization so far had been through the transmission of new ideas, often in the form of pressures to upgrade working conditions in exporting sectors. Private voluntary initiatives were at the heart of this;
cautioned vigilance in attracting foreign direct investment into agriculture since the sector still employed 60-70 per cent of the labour force in most developing countries and alienation from land could have major employment and social implications;
showed that trade had increased in nonconventional exports, such as flowers and fruits and vegetables, thus helping to diversify the export base away from a reliance on a narrow range of traditional exports whose markets were mostly stagnant;
showed that a great proportion of people in developing countries lived in poverty in conditions of undernourishment and that a majority of these were on the farms.

In keeping with the ILO's mandate, employment, incomes, and working conditions constituted the focus of the report. In a departure from normal practice, an issues-oriented report was prepared, focusing on three macro-level issues:

policies needed for facilitating sustainable agriculture;
role of the State in marketing; and
governmental stance vis-à-vis globalization;

and five social issues - child labour, gender, occupational safety and health, genetic engineering, and private voluntary initiatives.

The eight selected issues constituted the points for discussion at the meeting during its plenary sittings, with the three macro-level issues being taken together as one point. Three topics - social dialogue, occupational health and safety, and voluntary private initiatives - were further elaborated in panel discussions.

Conclusions and resolutions

The conclusions of the Meeting suggested a programme of follow-up work. Globalization and its impact on the agriculture sector should continue to be researched. Successful examples of agricultural practices should be studied. Further research should be carried out on the role of women in agriculture to enhance their role in decision making. The results of the suggested programme of work should be disseminated through national tripartite workshops and publications. The overall goal of the suggested follow-up activities should be the promotion of core ILO labour standards.

A resolution passed at the Meeting invited the Governing Body of the ILO to allocate the necessary resources to facilitate the implementation of the Meeting's conclusions and resolutions; to prepare a study on collective bargaining in agriculture; and to convene the next meeting for agriculture on the theme of 'social dialogue as a means to promote the application of core labour standards'. Other resolutions concerned freedom of association and labour standards for agricultural workers (all member States to be urged to ratify the eight core Conventions and other relevant standards concerning the agricultural sector); and increased participation of women in future meetings.

Note on the proceedings

A Note on the Proceedings (pdf, 264k) including a summary of the principal speeches, debates, panel and roundtable discussions, and adopted conclusions and resolutions, is available on this site.

Contact address for more information

Ms. Ann Herbert,
Sectoral Activities Department,
International Labour Office,
4, route des Morillons,
CH-1211 GENEVE 22 -- Switzerland
Tel. +41.22.799.7111, Fax +41.22.799.7967,
e-mail: herbert@ilo.org or sector@ilo.org

Updated by EA/BR. Approved by AH/OdVR. Last update: 11 June 2001.

Tripartite Meeting on Moving to Sustainable Agricultural Development through the Modernization of Agriculture and Employment in a Globalized Economy