About us

"The ILO seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognised human and labour rights. Its mission is to help women and men around the world to find decent working conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity through its Decent Work Agenda."

The ILO Office for East Africa covering the countries of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda was established in Dar es Salaam in 1962. Since then, the ILO has undertaken technical cooperation projects in a number of areas related to its mandate in close cooperation with the umbrella organizations for employers and workers, and its affiliates.

From 2006, the decent work agenda is operationalised through Decent Work Country programmes (DWCPs). It is the guiding framework for ILO support to poverty reduction programmes and other national development initiatives and implemented in cooperation with ILO social partners.

The DWCPs focus on the respective countries priority areas, which includes i) Poverty reduction through creation of decent work opportunities for young women and men; ii) Reducing the incidence of child labour; and iii) Mitigating the socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS at the workplace. iv) Entrepreneurship for disabled women, labour laws and HIV/AIDS at the workplace. v) Gender equality at work.

The office works closely with the East Africa Community as evidenced through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two institutions enabling them to work together in respect of planning and execution of programmes relating to matters of common concern and particularly those that fall within the EAC Labour and Employment Sector and the ILO Decent Work Agenda.