ILO LIAISON OFFICE – BRUSSELS
NEWSLETTER NO. 9/2004
Economic security promotes tolerance, happiness and development
A new ILO study shows that people's economic security promotes personal wellbeing, happiness and tolerance
while benefiting growth and development.
The report entitled Economic security for a better world, includes data on countries representing 85% of
the world's population. It says that economic security – coupled with democracy and government spending on social
security – not only benefits growth but also promotes social stability. The report cautions, however, that economic
security remains out of reach for the vast majority of the world's workers, three-quarters of whom live in circumstances
of economic insecurity, which foster what the report calls "a world full of anxiety and anger".
The report marks the first attempt to measure the social and economic security of individuals and countries worldwide.
It is based on statistics from studies on some 48,000 workers in over 10,000 workplaces throughout the world. Economic
security is measured against the yardstick of seven forms of work-related security: income, labour markets, employment,
skills, work, jobs and representation.
Click here to read the press release giving
further details about the report. The report itself cannot be downloaded free of charge but can be ordered from
the ILO (
click here).
Half of all those unemployed in the world are aged under 24
According to a recent ILO study, worldwide unemployment among young people has soared to a record 88 million over
the past ten years. Almost half of all unemployed people in the world today are aged between 15 and 24. According to
the study entitled Global employment trends for youth (
click here) young people accounted
for 47% of the 186 million unemployed in 2003 while they represented only 25% of the total population of working
age (15-64 years).
Click here to read a press release summarising
the main points contained in the study. The study also shows that the gap between the increase in the number of
young people on the labour market and the capacity of world economies to keep pace with their demand for jobs is
continuing to widen: although in global terms the worldwide population of young people has increased by 10.5% over
the past ten years and exceeded 1.1 billion in 2003, the number of those young people who actually have a job rose
by just 0.2%. Young people in developing countries are particularly vulnerable.
Providing jobs for young people is one of the ILO's priorities. The organisation recently published a guide
setting out underlying principles and information on which to draw up and implement measures such as national
action plans focusing on employment for young people.
Click here to download the guide.
Decent jobs and good governance to reduce poverty in Africa
For the first time, heads of state and government of the African Union decided to convene an extraordinary summit
on employment and combating poverty. The summit, which followed a Social Partners' Forum, was held in Ouagadougou
(Burkina Faso)
on 8 and 9 September 2004. The Director-General of the ILO,
Juan Somavia, emphasised the need to make the creation of decent jobs a focal point for policies aimed at reducing
poverty. He also underlined the importance of good governance strategies for national and international plans: good
national governance backs up the fact that "
Africa is entitled to expect global equality but good governance at the national level will only be successful
if it is accompanied by good global governance". The ILO also called for more determined efforts on the part of
the world community to develop a coherent international policy on global growth, investment and jobs in an effort to
combat poverty and unemployment in Africa. The summit's final conclusions will be sent out as soon as they are available.
Convention on Seafarers' ID to enter into force in February 2005
ILO Convention No. 185 adopted by the 2003 International Labour Conference to tackle the issue of worldwide seafarers'
safety was recently ratified by Jordan, the second country to do so after France. The fact that two ILO Member
States have ratified the convention opens the way for it to enter into force on 9 February 2005. This date will
also see the launch of the new biometric ID system for 1.2 million seafarers. The biometric model uses a fingerprint
encrypted into a standardised international bar code using numerical digits appearing on an individual's ID card.
For more information, please
click here.
Convention No. 185, adopted to replace the Seafarers' Identity Documents Convention No. 108, has been hailed as a
major step forward in enhancing security measures at sea and in the world's ports. At the same time, it is also
designed to safeguard the rights and freedoms of maritime workers and to give them greater mobility in exercising
their profession – for example when they board their ships to work, take shore leave or return home.
Click here to view the Convention, or
here to read the press release about it.
ILO programme to combat slavery in Pakistan
Debt bondage is one of the worst forms of human exploitation in Southern Asia. In Pakistan, for example, people
are hired by wealthy landowners to work as sharecroppers but the payment they receive is so minuscule that they are
forced to take out loans from these same landowners in order to survive and meet their basic daily needs. The
exorbitant interest rates applied to such loans make them very difficult to repay and after taking out one loan
after the other, the poor are eventually forced to work for the landowners for free. Since many are unable to read
or write, it is often impossible for them to check how repayment of their debt is being managed.
In Pakistan, the ILO supports independent assistance groups which are designed to help families who have been
forced into debt bondage first to find their way out of their debt and subsequently to join a programme to combat
long-term poverty.
Click here to read an article giving a
brief overview of activities.
Did you know?
For several years, through its Employment-Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP), the ILO has been helping its Member
States to optimise infrastructure investment to focus on jobs and development of local economies as part of its
"employment-intensive" approach. The approach entails using manpower as effectively as possible as a key resource
in infrastructure projects, while at the same time ensuring profitability and high-quality work. Over the past decade,
approximately 1 million direct jobs and almost 2 million indirect jobs have been created in this way via investment
programmes in which the EIIP has played a direct role. These projects have helped to improve basic infrastructure in
many countries, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 80% of activities have been concentrated. For more
information on the EIIP Programme,
click here.
New publications
The following recent ILO publication may be of special interest to our readers:
- Gender Roles and Sex Equality: European solutions to social security disputes
Ingeborg Heide
2004, xi+117 pp., ISBN 92-2-115771-7, €18
Sex equality in social security issues is regulated by European legislation. Such legislation provides a legal
framework within which to promote equality between men and women in statutory social security schemes and related
workplace issues. The statistics on social security benefits nevertheless highlight a significant gap between equality
on paper and everyday reality; it appears that there is not enough awareness of European law and that it is not
adequately applied. This book endeavours to bridge that gap. It places the issue of sex equality in the wider context
of historical and socio-economic development, the division of powers between the national States and the European Union,
the drafting of supra-national legislation and its transposition into national law. To order a copy, please
click here.
Schedule of meetings
Click here for a list of planned ILO meetings
in 2004 and 2005.