Tripartite Meeting on the Impact of Global Food Chains on Employment

Geneva, 24-27 September 2007

Participation

A Tripartite Meeting to examine the impact of global food chains on employment was held at the International Labour Office, Geneva, from 24 to 27 September 2007. The Meeting was attended by Government representatives from 24 member States: Angola, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, China, France, Gabon, Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mali, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and Zimbabwe, as well as 16 Employer and 17 Worker representatives.

Observers from the International Trade Centre/United Nations Conference for Trade and Development attended the Meeting, and representatives from the following non-governmental organizations also attended as observers: the International Confederation of Trade Unions; the International Organization of Employers; the International Union of Food, Agriculture, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations; Union Network International; and the World Federation of Trade Unions.

Purpose of the Meeting

As a basis for its discussion, the Office had prepared an issues paper, providing indications on employment trends around the world in the food and drink industry, the rise of retailers as they gain more control over global supply chains as well as consumer information; further company concentration which in turn has repercussions at the level of processors, manufacturers and seed suppliers, who cluster even further to supply mass-produced, uniform products at margins acceptable to such firms.

The Meeting focused essentially on five themes: how recent trends in employment in the food and drink processing sector are influenced by the growth and development of global food chains; the impact of global supply chain management on employment and work organization; future skills requirements; social dialogue and global food chains; and future ILO activities for the food and drink sector. The Meeting adopted conclusions that included proposals for action by governments, workers and employers’ organizations and the ILO, and a report of its discussions.

Other activities included presentations on SECTOR's one-stop-window, export-processing zones, and the SECTORSource statistical database.

This Tripartite Meeting fell within the ILO’s Sectoral Activities Programme, which strives to assist governments and employers’ and workers’ organizations to develop their respective capacity to recognize and deal fairly and effectively with the social and labour problems of economic sectors. Such meetings bring together a cross-section of government, employer and worker representatives from countries that are prominent or have a strong interest in a given sector. In line with the ILO’s strategic objectives, these meetings also aim to strengthen tripartism and promote social dialogue at the international level. The ILO, in selecting the theme of this meeting, provided the social partners with an opportunity to strengthen social dialogue and achieve better policy coherence in global food chains.

The Note on the proceedings provides a summary of the debates as well as the evaluation questionnaire and the list of participants.

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