About Us

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is devoted to advancing opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Its main aims are to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue in handling work-related issues.

In promoting social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights, the organization continues to pursue its founding mission that labour peace is essential to prosperity. Today, the ILO helps advance the creation of decent jobs and the kinds of economic and working conditions that give working people and business people a stake in lasting peace, prosperity and progress.

The ILO was founded in 1919, in the wake of a destructive war, to pursue a vision based on the premise that universal, lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon decent treatment of working people. The ILO became the first specialized agency of the UN in 1946.

The ILO is the only 'tripartite' United Nations agency in that it brings together representatives of governments, employers and workers to jointly shape policies and programmes. This unique arrangement gives the ILO an edge in incorporating 'real world' knowledge about employment and work.

The ILO is the global body responsible for drawing up and overseeing international labour standards. Working with its Member States, the ILO seeks to ensure that labour standards are respected in practice as well as principle.

Poverty remains deep and widespread across the developing world and some transition countries, with an estimated 2 billion people in the world today live on the equivalent of less than USD 2 per day. In the view of the ILO, the main route out of poverty is work.

ILO Cairo Office

The ILO Cairo Office was established in 1959 with a mandate to oversee ILO activities and relations with constituents (government, employers’ and workers’ organizations) in Egypt and Sudan, and has been expanding ever since in size, scope and geographic coverage.

In 2005, the Cairo Office’s geographic coverage was further extended to include Eritrea and finally Somalia in 2009.

Today, ILO DWT Cairo Office covers eight countries: Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Somalia. The Office relies on a team of high-caliber local staff in addition to the Support of senior technical specialists based in Cairo. The office can also count on additional support from the Regional Office for Africa in Addis Ababa as well as ILO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland in all areas of expertise.