• Every year, more than 2 million people die of work-related accidents and diseases.
• More than 160 million workers fall ill each year due to workplace hazards.
• The poorest, least protected - often women, children and migrants - are also among the most affected.
• Micro- and small enterprises account for over 90 per cent of enterprises where conditions are often very poor and the workers in them are often excluded from all labour protection.

Human suffering has no measurable cost, unlike economic losses. Estimates from, for example, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Norway put the direct cost of accidents in billions of dollars. In many developing countries, death rates among workers are five to six times those in industrialized countries. Yet the phenomenon is still largely undocumented and there is insufficient political will to address the problem. Global competition, growing labour market fragmentation and rapid change in all aspects of work creates a mounting challenge for labour protection, especially in developing countries. Workers in rural areas and the urban informal sector are often ignored or difficult to reach.
 

The programme has four major goals:

• preventive policies and programmes are developed to protect workers in hazardous occupations and sectors;
• effective protection is extended to vulnerable groups of workers falling outside the scope of traditional protective measures;
• governments and employers' and workers' organizations are better equipped to address problems of workers' well-being, occupational health care and the quality of working life;
• the social and economic impact of improving workers' protection is documented and recognized by policy- and decision-makers.
   

aims to create worldwide awareness of the dimensions and consequences of work-related accidents, injuries and diseases; to place the health and safety of all workers on the international agenda; and to stimulate and support practical action at all levels. With this in mind, the programme will launch ground-breaking research, statistical work and media-related activities, and will support national action through a global programme of technical assistance. Human suffering and the cost to society, as well as the potential benefits of protection, such as enhanced productivity, quality and cost savings, will be better documented and publicized. will promote, as a policy and operational tool, the primacy of prevention as an efficient and cost-effective way of providing safety and health protection to all workers.

will do first things first. It will focus on hazardous work and give primary attention to workers in especially hazardous occupations in sectors where the risks to life and safety are manifestly high, such as agriculture, mining and construction, workers in the informal sector, and those occupationally exposed to abuse and exploitation, such as women, children and migrants.

will adopt an integrated approach, including non-traditional aspects of workers' health and safety such as drugs and alcohol, stress and HIV-AIDS. The programme will also make extensive use of gender analysis and planning. There will be strong links within the social protection sector and links with other sectors, programmes and the field. A key component of is its global technical cooperation programme. Partnerships with donors will be strengthened to mobilize additional external resources.

Specific strategies are elaborated below for each of the four goals, and include advocacy, building of the knowledge base, capacity building for constituents and support for direct action programmes.

Showing that protection pays. The prevention of accidents, improvement of working conditions and enforcement of standards are often seen as a cost to business. Little is known about the costs of not preventing accidents or poor working conditions, or of the benefits of improvements for productivity and competitiveness. Better information and analytical tools can help increase firms' and governments' willingness to invest in prevention. This strategy will have two main thrusts: extending the knowledge base through a major drive for comprehensive, reliable and sustainable data, and new research on the economics of labour protection. The programme will foster the development of a safety culture worldwide. It will thus demonstrate that prevention policies and programmes benefit all ILO constituents.

Protecting workers in hazardous conditions. Priority must be given to workers in the most hazardous occupations and sectors, such as mining, construction or agriculture, or where working relationships or conditions create particular risks, such as very long working hours, exposure to hazardous chemicals, work in isolation and work by migrants, etc. The ILO will make use of its extensive experience in the development of standards, codes of practice and technical guides in exploiting the world's information resources, and in developing means of practical action. Member States will be encouraged to set objectives and targets for the protection of workers in hazardous conditions. Particular attention will be given to strengthening the advisory and enforcement capacity of labour inspectorates.

Extending protection. The large majority of workers whose conditions are most in need of improvement are excluded from the scope of existing legislation and other protective measures. Existing policies and programmes need to be reviewed to extend their coverage. This will go hand in hand with action to strengthen labour inspectorates' capacity to develop broad prevention policies and programmes and to promote the protection of vulnerable workers, particularly women workers. Alliances and networks will be extended to include ministries of health, industry, local government, education, and social services, as well as local community groups. Emphasis will also be placed on achieving tangible results through practical action and exchanges of information on good practices.

Promoting workers' health and well-being. The strategy to promote workers' health and well-being will involve the establishment of a data bank on policies, programmes and good enterprise-level practices so as to improve constituents' capacity to identify workers' protection issues and to provide guidance on new approaches. Governments' capacity for prevention, protection, and the application and enforcement of key labour protection instruments will be strengthened.
 

The major outputs will be the following:

• Protecting workers in hazardous jobs:
  • a World Report on Life and Death at Work, presenting the world situation regarding risks, accidents and diseases, policies and experience, and guidance for future action;
  • a film on safety and health, focussing on manifestly hazardous conditions;
  • new standards on safety and health in agriculture established through tripartite agreement;
  • a review of standards on occupational safety and health to determine the action needed to update and possibly consolidate them, and to translate them into practical policy and programmatic tools such as codes of practice and guidelines;
  • tools and guidance for member States to facilitate the ratification and implementation of ILO standards;
  • harmonized chemical labelling systems, safety data sheets and hazard communication methods;
  • guidelines for radiation protection and the classification of radiographs of pneumoconiosis;
  • a rapid response capacity, especially on chemical safety and health issues, including readily accessible networks and timely information.
     
• Extending protection to all workers:
  • training programmes and tools for owners of SMEs (Small and Medium size Enterprises) to promote labour protection and improve productivity;
  • strengthening the effectiveness, efficiency and coverage of labour inspection systems;
  • guidelines for the extension of labour protection to informal sector workers;
  • partnerships with community organizations and others to develop and implement approaches for reaching out to hard-to-reach groups of workers.
     
• Promoting workers' health and well-being:
  • a data bank on policies, programmes and good enterprise-level practices;
  • training methodologies and diagnostic tools;
  • guidelines on occupational health care for all;
  • programmes to prevent and deal with the effects of workplace problems, including drugs, alcohol and stress.
     
• Showing that protection pays:
  • a statistical programme to develop new survey tools, carry out national surveys;
  • better national and global estimates of occupational fatalities and injuries;
  • report on the economics of accidents and preventive measures;
  • tools for inspection services to promote the benefits of prevention;
  • guides on occupational safety and health management systems and safety culture;
  • tools to reduce work-related environmental damage.
     
• Promoting national and industry-based action:
  • a global technical cooperation programme on safety, health and the environment;
  • national and industry-level programmes of action to tackle priority issues.