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International Labour Conference

87th Session
Geneva, June 1999

 

Report VI

 

 

The role of the ILO in technical cooperation

 

 

Sixth item on the agenda

 

 

 

 

International Labour Office  Geneva

 

 

ISBN 92-2-110815-5
ISSN 0074-6681 

 

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter I. Trends in technical cooperation

Chapter II. Technical cooperation in priority areas

Chapter III. Strategic responses to new challenges

Chapter IV. Moving ahead into the twenty-first century

Appendices

List of tables

List of figures

INTRODUCTION

Technical cooperation is a recurrent item on the agenda of the International Labour Conference. The resolution adopted at the 73rd Session (1987) of the Conference concluded that it would be desirable for the International Labour Conference to review the technical cooperation programme regularly, at least every five years. The last discussion took place in 1993. As a result of the busy agenda of the Conference in 1998 because of the discussion on the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up, the item was included on the Conference agenda for 1999.

The point of departure for the technical cooperation programme undertaken — and this report — are the conclusions contained in the resolution concerning the role of the ILO in technical cooperation, adopted by the International Labour Conference at its 80th Session (1993):

This report has been prepared within the framework of the above-mentioned conclusions. It is a forward-looking paper prepared in a fashion that will enable the Office to obtain guidance and direction for the future from the Conference. It reviews the major technical cooperation programmes and projects undertaken since the last Conference discussion on the subject and, citing the lessons learned, submits new orientations for the future. It analyses ILO's strategic responses to new challenges and advances proposals for the way ahead.

Technical cooperation programmes carried out during the period under review broadly fall under four categories: first, demand-driven programmes and projects that emanated from the identified needs of constituents through country objectives; second, programmes and projects undertaken more directly in pursuance of ILO's standard-setting functions; third, activities pursued as a follow-up to global conferences; and fourth, global programmes of the ILO, such as the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), which were developed internally in response to identified needs of the Organization's constituents and priorities. A number of programmes and projects cut across these four categories.

Chapter I of this report provides a quantitative picture of the technical cooperation programme for the period from 1993 to 1997. Although subsequent chapters refer to activities up to 1998, availability of statistical figures limited the quantitative description to 1997.

The resolution concerning the role of the ILO in technical cooperation, adopted at the 80th Session (1993) of the International Labour Conference, concluded that the ILO technical cooperation programme should focus on three major areas, namely, support for democratization, poverty alleviation which, inter alia, included employment creation, and the protection of workers. In Chapter II, which reviews programmes and projects focusing on these priority areas, an attempt has been made to highlight the approach adopted to analyse the major activities undertaken — especially with regard to the methodology and impact — to suggest the way forward and to raise points for discussion. The presentation is thematic; country- and region-specific examples are provided within that framework.

The past decade has witnessed unprecedented structural, political, economic and attitudinal changes. Globalization and liberalization, while providing enormous possiblities for growth, have added new dimensions to social and economic problems. There has been a series of United Nations reforms; perceptions of donors have changed — as have the modalities for technical cooperation. The ILO has had to make strategic responses to these new challenges. Chapter III gives a description of these responses and discusses possible refinements, corrective measures or new ideas. The issues covered include: the Active Partnership Policy (APP); global programmes; resource mobilization; programmes of the Turin Centre; monitoring and evaluation. The last section of the chapter puts forward proposals concerning activities envisaged on technical cooperation related to the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up.

This report concludes with some thoughts on moving ahead into the twenty-first century and raises a number of additional issues on which the Office might receive guidance and direction from the Conference.

CHAPTER I

TRENDS IN TECHNICAL COOPERATION

Overview

Technical cooperation expenditure grew for five consecutive years between 1987 and 1991, rising to a high of $169 million. The following year marked the start of a decline which continued until 1996, by which time expenditure had dropped to a low of $98.2 million. The evolution of technical cooperation expenditure over the period 1988-97 is shown in figure 1.1. In terms of expenditure, the technical cooperation programme contracted between the two five-year periods of 1988-92 and 1993-97, with expenditure in the former period amounting to approximately $754.1 million and in the latter period falling to about $581.2 million. This contraction should be viewed in the context of the overall decline in official development assistance (ODA) resources and the correspondingly more difficult environment for the mobilization of resources. It also reflected a transition period during which the ILO adjusted to internal reforms, as well as to those within the United Nations system, including the introduction of new modalities for the execution of programmes which had implications for the volume and nature of technical cooperation. These new modalities placed a strong emphasis on national capacity building and the use of national personnel and institutions for project implementation, which in turn led to reduced involvement of specialized agencies in project execution.

 

 

A significant feature of the period under review was therefore the change in the UNDP's traditional position as the major contributor to the ILO's technical cooperation programme. From 1993, expenditure on the trust fund programme (financed by multi-bilateral donors, development banks and recipients themselves) exceeded that of the UNDP programme. The shift in the funding of the ILO's technical cooperation programme over the period 1988-97 is illustrated in figures 1.1 and 1.2. For the period 1988-92, the UNDP programme accounted for 46.6 per cent of the ILO's technical cooperation expenditure. However, in the following five-year period the share dropped to 40.1 per cent and the trust fund share increased from 37 per cent to 43.4 per cent. Expenditure on the UNDP programme plummeted from $81.6 million in 1992 to $23.5 million in 1996. As can be seen from figures 1.1 and 1.2, the decline was arrested and expenditure rose to $31.2 million in 1997, with increased UNDP approvals in 1996. The start-up of projects funded under the UNDP's new cycle and the complementarity between the UNDP's current focus on sustainable human development and the ILO's programme priorities and areas of technical competence, which made it well-placed to tap the available resources, were some of the factors accounting for the revitalization of the UNDP programme. Despite its increased share in the overall programme, the trust fund programme contracted during the period under review and expenditure fell from $64.8 million in 1992 to $54 million in 1997. Given the approval levels in recent years, trust fund expenditure should increase in the next few years.

The number of projects executed by the ILO rose from 1,315 in 1991 to 1,431 in 1993 and 1,526 in 1997.

Expenditure by region

Between the opening and closing years of the period 1993-97, expenditure declined in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia, as indicated in figure 1.3. Throughout this period, Africa received the largest share which remained fairly stable at an average of 39 per cent (see table 1.1). Continued support for countries in transition led to an increase in Europe's share from 4 per cent in 1993 to 6 per cent in 1997. Similarly, the share of the Arab States rose from about 2 per cent in 1993 to 4 per cent in 1997, reflecting in particular the support extended to Palestine during this period. Expenditure on interregional programmes increased over the period, a trend which is likely to continue with the expansion of major programmes such as IPEC and the recent development of new programmes with wide geographical coverage. It should be borne in mind that interregional expenditure is ultimately associated with activities conducted principally at national level in the various regions and this should be taken into account when reviewing the apparently declining trends in certain regions. All regions, except Asia and the Pacific, registered increases in expenditure between 1996 and 1997.
 

Table 1.1. Share of expenditure on ILO technical cooperation by region (percentage)

 

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

Africa

40.4

41.0

37.6

37.4

38.8

Americas

14.8

12.6

11.1

10.4

12.3

Asia

27.8

25.3

25.0

25.2

21.7

Europe

4.1

5.5

7.8

6.2

6.3

Arab States

1.5

1.2

2.4

2.7

3.8

Interregional

11.3

14.4

16.0

18.2

17.2

Expenditure by major technical cooperation programme

Figure 1.4 shows the distribution of technical cooperation expenditure (all sources of funds) by major technical cooperation programme. During the period under review, the Enterprise and Cooperative Development Department (ENTREPRISE) and the Development Policies Department (POLDEV) consistently registered expenditure in excess of $20 million per annum. With the exception of 1995 and 1996, this has also applied to the Employment and Training Department (EMPFORM). The combined expenditure of projects in the areas covered by EMPFORM, ENTREPRISE and POLDEV accounted for about 64 per cent of technical cooperation expenditure in 1997. This reflects the high priority which donors continued to give to ILO activities related to employment promotion for poverty alleviation. There has been a steady increase since 1995 in expenditure recorded under the Working Conditions and Environment Department (TRAVAIL) principally associated with the expansion of the IPEC programme. This should become even more pronounced in the future as the programme has attracted significant levels of new funding in recent years. Although still modest, expenditure under the International Labour Standards Department (NORMES) also increased during the period under review.

Expenditure by source of funds

A review of technical cooperation expenditure by source of funding shows that UNDP expenditure is highly concentrated in employment creation and training activities related to EMPFORM, ENTREPRISE and POLDEV's areas of competence. There was no UNDP funding for standards-specific projects, nor for employers' activities which were financed from the regular budget for technical cooperation (RBTC) and trust funds. RBTC expenditure has been highest on EMPFORM-related activities. However, in contrast with both UNDP and trust funds, workers' activities generally accounted for the second highest level of RBTC expenditure over the period. With respect to standards-specific projects, between 1993 and 1995, RBTC expenditure exceeded trust fund expenditure, although the reverse has been the case since 1996. Trust fund expenditure for industrial relations and labour administration projects has also been consistently higher than equivalent RBTC or UNDP expenditure and has, more often than not, been the most important source of funding for employers' and workers' activities during the period under review. Trust fund sources have therefore been very important in financing key areas of the ILO's technical cooperation activities.

Expenditure by type of assistance

Figure 1.5 shows technical cooperation expenditure according to the main components. The figures are beginning to reflect certain changes in the approach to technical cooperation which have taken place during the period. First, there is a clear trend towards a reduction in expenditure on non-regular (experts including chief technical advisers) technical cooperation personnel experts. In 1992, there were 243 international experts from developed countries and 161 from developing countries serving on the ILO's technical cooperation programme. By 1997 the numbers were 112 and 61 respectively. Total expenditure on international experts amounted to about $65.1 million in 1992, dropping by 50 per cent to $32.2 million in 1997. Expenditure on other project personnel comprising national experts, external collaborators, locally recruited project staff, United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and other staff costs also fell, but less drastically, from $38.3 million to $28.7 million between 1992 and 1997. These indicators suggest that more strategic use of technical cooperation personnel for specialized purposes is being made than resident expertise on a long-term basis; that attention is being paid to the use of national personnel consistent with the renewed emphasis on national capacity building; and that more cost-effective forms of securing the necessary technical services are being pursued. Another indication of initiatives to strengthen national capacity is expenditure on subcontracts which increased during the period. Such development is usually associated with the use of national institutions for project implementation. Finally, although expenditure on training fell by about 12 per cent between 1993 and 1997, it has remained around $20 million per annum, except for 1994. Its share also rose from 17 per cent in 1993 to 21 per cent in 1997 which is consistent with the emphasis placed on strengthening national capacity. Expenditure on equipment dropped by 35 per cent between 1993 and 1997, reflecting changes in the nature of technical cooperation resulting in reduced involvement in projects with large equipment purchases.

Expenditure by priority themes

Since 1994, ILO action, including technical cooperation, has been guided by three priority objectives: promoting democracy and human rights; the fight against poverty and unemployment; and the protection of working people. Figure 1.6 highlights the distribution of expenditure according to these priorities. It will be seen that following the clear identification of these objectives, although the fight against poverty and unemployment continued to receive the largest share (65 per cent), there have been increases in the share of the other two areas as compared with the distribution of expenditure in the preceding five-year period. It may be said, therefore, that these objectives have brought greater focus to the ILO's technical cooperation programme and helped to strengthen ILO action in key areas of its mandate.

Approvals

Figure 1.7 shows the approvals for the period 1993-97. Approvals, which fell in 1994, have since been on the rise and stood at $121,480 million in 1997. Trends in approvals are examined in more detail in the section on resource mobilization in Chapter III.

CHAPTER II

TECHNICAL COOPERATION IN PRIORITY AREAS

In line with the resolution adopted at the 80th Session (1993) of the International Labour Conference, technical cooperation has focused on three major areas established at that time, namely, support for democratization, poverty alleviation which, inter alia, included employment creation, and the protection of workers. In this chapter, substantive activities are grouped under these three priority areas. Needless to say, there are times when, conceptually as well as operationally, activities in these areas overlap; artificial divisions have therefore occasionally had to be drawn for reporting purposes. No attempt has been made to list or even refer to all the activities, programmes or projects covered under each area. The chapter sets out to present an analytical summary of technical cooperation carried out during the period under review, focusing on the lessons learned in terms of impact and effectiveness and to chart, on the basis of that experience, the way forward. International labour standards and technical cooperation — an issue which cuts across all three priority areas — is dealt with at the end of the chapter.

Poverty alleviation and employment promotion

Over the years, ILO operational activities have been undertaken on the premise that the creation of full, productive and freely chosen employment is the most effective means of fighting poverty and ensuring equitable and sustainable development. This basic principle, reflected in the Declaration of Philadelphia (1944) and considered an integral part of the ILO's core mandate, has been reaffirmed over the years in a number of ILO instruments and resolutions including the Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122), and two resolutions concerning employment growth and employment promotion adopted by the International Labour Conference at its 79th Session (1992).

A more recent development in this area has been the Programme of Action adopted at the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995; of particular significance is Commitment 3 in which the nations of the world undertake to promote the goal of full employment as a basic priority in economic and social policies and to put the creation of employment at the centre of strategies and policies of governments, with full respect for workers' rights and with the participation of employers, workers and their respective organizations. The World Summit for Social Development called upon the United Nations General Assembly to request the ILO, because of its mandate, tripartite structures and expertise, to contribute to the implementation of the Programme of Action.

During the period under review, ILO's programmes on poverty alleviation and employment have focused on: helping constituents to contribute to the formulation of economic policies which both increase employment and sustain the process of economic reform; strengthening labour market institutions and organization through assistance in collection and dissemination of labour market information and formulation of labour market policies; training for self-employment and income generation; trying to prevent the social exclusion from the labour force of vulnerable groups such as ex-combatants, refugees and displaced persons in countries emerging from conflict; promoting enterprise and cooperative development; and improving access to and use of micro-finance. Multifaceted programmes have thus aimed at increasing the capital (human as well as credit) and labour (employment) resources of the unemployed and underemployed members of the labour force, especially those of the poor.

Activities at the policy level

A number of programmes were carried out to strengthen the capacity of policy-makers to take more appropriate decisions on employment and poverty alleviation policies. Due attention was paid to labour market information, given that it is a key element behind sound employment policies, and estimates on poverty levels were made to ensure that poverty alleviation programmes addressed the problem adequately.

Technical assistance was provided to national statisticians in collecting labour market data in market operating systems. National enterprise surveys were also carried out in various countries, particularly in some transition countries. With a view to assisting the constituents in setting up and/or developing labour market information, employment and training observatories were established in some French-speaking countries (Cτte d'Ivoire, Mali, Benin, Chad, Gabon and Togo) with UNDP and World Bank assistance. A methodological guide on observatories has been produced for training purposes. The Key labour market indicators project aimed at increasing information flows to policy-makers and social partners.

Technical cooperation assisted many employers' organizations to formulate and develop policy positions pertaining to labour markets and to increase their capacity to debate on related issues with policy-makers, other tripartite constituents and, where necessary, the public.

In Asia the ILO has stepped up its assistance in the collection and analysis of labour market data to the Governments of the following countries: Thailand, Viet Nam, Lao People's Democratic Republic, China and Mongolia.

In Egypt, a complete revision of the existing labour force survey provided reliable estimates of employment and unemployment. A policy framework entitled "Job creation and poverty alleviation in Egypt: Strategy and programmes" has since been adopted. The policy framework has been designed to create jobs to absorb half a million new entrants to the labour market every year, while maintaining the quality of employment. In Sudan, information on poverty levels was compiled with a view to preparing poverty eradication strategies. In Uzbekistan a social policy framework has been adopted; this includes the setting up of a Social Transformation Fund with support from the World Bank to ensure that employment-intensive growth is both rapid and sustained.

As a direct follow-up to the Copenhagen Social Summit, a large number of country employment policy reviews were undertaken to assess whether the countries concerned were able to implement the recommendations of the Programme of Action, and to gauge the extent to which employment policies were integrated into general policy-making in these countries.

Various action programmes have been initiated to focus on the implementation of various Commitments of the Programme of Action of the Social Summit. In line with Commitment 6, an action programme was established to respond to the multidimensional problems of youth unemployment. This programme has carried out investigative work in a number of countries (Canada, Chile, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Poland, United Republic of Tanzania, the United Kingdom, Viet Nam and Zimbabwe), and has looked at several specific policy issues such as minimum wages and youth employment, policies for disabled youth, the role of public services, policies for disadvantaged youth, and self-employment programmes for young people. As a result of this work a comparative report on youth employment policy in a global perspective is currently being finalized.

Within the Action Programme on Globalization, Area-based Enterprise Development and Employment, the problems of local adjustment to change brought about by globalization have been examined in Bulgaria, Hungary, Peru, Thailand and Zimbabwe. Work has concentrated on ways in which local institutions at the community, municipality or regional level might foster linkages between local producers and global markets and improve local employment prospects.

In order to help member States with the implementation of Commitment 8 (under which signatories commit themselves to ensuring that structural adjustment programmes include social development goals) an Action Programme was initiated on structural adjustment, employment and the role of the social partners. The ILO is advocating a new generation of adjustment programmes which seeks to include people and institutions as actors, thereby promoting participation and consultation between the social partners. Government, employers' representatives and workers' representatives have been of the opinion that instead of being dominated by central banks, finance ministries and related institutions, adjustment programmes should be brought back into the realm of national policy-making with the objective of economic and social development — not only for the people, but also by the people. These recommendations were fully supported by representatives of the Bretton Woods institutions.

Another follow-up to the World Summit for Social Development has been — with the financial assistance of the UNDP — the launching of Jobs for Africa. This programme will address the problems of job creation and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Policy advisory missions have already been undertaken in Cameroon, Mauritius, Senegal, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The main thrust of the programme is to design and adopt poverty-reducing employment strategies based on investment-led macroeconomic policies that are explicitly targeted to achieve sustained growth and are coherent at the micro middle and macro levels. The major challenge for this programme will be its translation into effective labour market policies and private sector development.

The focus of programmes and activities relating to the informal sector has been on developing the capacity of constituents to create jobs and alleviate poverty in the informal economy. Both as a follow-up to the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and as part of the 1994-95 interdepartmental project on the informal sector, the ILO has been further developing and demonstrating approaches for the creation of employment in urban areas. These approaches target job creation in the informal sector and the adoption of employment-intensive methods for the construction of infrastructure. Pilot activities showing how to put these approaches into practice have been undertaken in such countries as Burkina Faso, Kenya, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda.

A series of workshops was held in Asia, Africa and Latin America on the rural and urban informal sector. One example of action taken as a result of these workshops was the preparation of training modules on the informal sector for municipal officials in Asia. Assistance provided to the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania contributed to the adoption of that country's first national policy for the informal sector. In the Philippines, the Government was advised on ways to restructure the public agencies involved in enterprise development by gradually transforming them into private or semi-private bodies, so that they might improve services to informal sector enterprises. In French-speaking Africa, assistance to workers' organizations took the form of pilot activities to address problems in the informal sector. ILO activities have no doubt helped to place the informal sector on the trade union agenda and to formulate union policy in this area; they have also contributed to an increased participation in tripartite deliberations at the national, regional and international levels.

Human resource development: Training for employment
generation and poverty alleviation

ILO technical assistance on improving the quality of human resources, through training, has been based on the following major operational considerations:

Community-based training for self-employment

In 1993, an experts' meeting on income generation reviewed technical assistance experiences in the development of national capacities in training and employment in light of poverty alleviation initiatives. It was confirmed that, in view of the failure of conventional training and employment promotion programmes, community-based and community-owned demand-driven initiatives appeared to be the only viable and feasible approach in responding adequately to the needs of poor communities. The Meeting recommended developing a generic approach, under the umbrella term of Community-Based Training for (Self-)Employment and Income Generation (CBT). The CBT approach ranges from awareness-building and organization of support at the national and local levels, identification of potential and actual employment opportunities and resources and design and implementation of appropriate training programmes to the provision of post-training support services and evaluation of programme impact and sustainability.

Technical assistance experience with CBT-type programmes has shown that this approach is very relevant and may be suitably applied to the current and planned activities of employment and training organizations dealing with poverty alleviation. The ILO had a catalytic role in introducing this approach by organizing national and regional technical-cum-project formulation workshops and providing technical assistance advice to familiarize the participants with technical cooperation projects — particularly in the initial stages when the CBT-based approach was being piloted or field tested for nationwide replication.

Advisory services on the practical application of CBT have been supplied in Japan, Cambodia, Kenya and Pakistan to help these countries enhance their regional and national programmes. Technical assistance was provided to Jamaica within the framework of the World Food Programme (WFP)-assisted rural development project.

Skills training for owners and managers of small-scale enterprises

A striking example of ILO work in this area is the Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme. It consists of a range of interrelated training packages and support materials — including a business game — which provide small-scale enterprise owners and managers in developing countries with practical skills for starting, consolidating and expanding their enterprises. Although the programme is essentially a training instrument, it includes components on counselling, promotion of self-help associations and networking and linkages to financial institutions. Manuals are available in some 35 languages and about 3,500 instructors have been trained in the methodology, which is used by national small enterprise development institutions, including employers' organizations, government and semi-government institutions, small enterprise support organizations, government departments and workers' organizations. ILO's assistance is usually limited to the training of trainers and advice on ways to adapt the materials to local conditions. The SIYB materials have been used in some 70 countries worldwide, with more than 100,000 entrepreneurs in developing countries benefiting to date. Evaluations of the programme have concluded that SIYB training has had a substantial impact on entrepreneurs in terms of business performance, profits, and employment generation.

Support continued to be provided through the interregional programme COOPNET; during the period under review it concentrated on the development of curricula, training methods and materials, as well as the strengthening of capacities to improve cooperative entrepreneurship, with emphasis on developing entrepreneurial attitudes, management consultancy, auditing and modern personnel policies.

ILO programmes to promote an enterprise culture have mainly been aimed at education and training systems, by ensuring that their curricula contain components to make students aware of the career options of self-employment and becoming an entrepreneur. One example was the entrepreneurship education programme in Kenya, which successfully introduced entrepreneurship components into the national training and education system. In Bulgaria, a similar but smaller programme was implemented in collaboration with UNESCO and UNIDO.

In addition, the ILO and the Turin Centre have developed a special training package, Know About Business, for use by vocational and technical training institutions which are committed to introducing an entrepreneurship component into their curricula to raise awareness of the opportunities in this area.

National and subregional workshops in Africa, organized as part of the employers' activities, have focused on the role of employers' organizations in helping to develop the private sector through training entrepreneurs to sustain their businesses. A series of national seminars on how to start and sustain a business were held in Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Retraining of the unemployed

The longer workers remain unemployed, the less chances they have of ultimately finding jobs. Their skills level is in danger of being eroded and employers are increasingly hesitant to employ them. The social dimensions of this problem are enormous and have to be tackled with policy measures and programmes aimed at reintegrating the unemployed into the labour market. ILO's Modules of Employable Skills (MES) facilitate cost-effective skills upgrading for workers currently employed, as well as training and retraining of the unemployed; they also place emphasis on employability to ensure that training matches the skills requirements of the employment market.

With ILO assistance, significant progress has been made in the introduction of employment-oriented modular training methods and programmes in Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Kenya, Sri Lanka and, in the recent past, Poland and the Russian Federation. Indeed, in the Russian Federation, a national network of 150 training institutions were set up and modular training programmes developed for more than 100 jobs. In addition to the 500 persons or so trained in modular curricula development, regular seminars have been organized to train coordinators and representatives of enterprises and training institutions. Technical assistance projects to introduce the competency-based modular approach to training and retraining of adults and the unemployed commenced in 1997 in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine.

Direct job-creation programmes

Employment-intensive investment

Labour-based methods and public works programmes provide an effective means of promoting employment and reducing poverty. They are in line with the Employment Policy Recommendation, 1964 (No. 122), and the Employment Policy (Supplementary Provisions) Recommendation, 1984 (No. 169). The Tripartite Seminar on the Socio-Economic Implications of the Devaluation of the CFA Franc for French-speaking countries (Dakar, 1994), its follow-up meeting in Yaoundι in 1997, as well as the High-Level Tripartite Meeting on Social Responses to the Financial Crisis in East and South-East Asian Countries (Bangkok, 1998), have all reiterated the urgency of creating employment on a cost-effective and sustainable basis. The Employment-Intensive Programme (EIP) provides a very specific contribution to the Programme of Action adopted by the World Summit for Social Development (1995) by promoting patterns of economic growth that maximize employment creation and encouraging, as appropriate, labour-intensive investments in economic and social infrastructure that use local resources and create, maintain and rehabilitate community assets in both rural and urban areas.

EIPs have been set up by the ILO in more than 35 developing countries — including 14 in Asia and the Pacific — with active government and donor support. The focus of the programmes has been based on: local resource intensity; poverty alleviation through demand-driven area-based community investments; enterprise development for private sector execution of public works; the development of the necessary capacity among government officials for contract preparation and management; and the introduction of the relevant labour standards in contracts to protect workers in a competitive private sector environment.

Comparative studies carried out by the ILO in such countries as Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ghana, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Madagascar, Rwanda, Thailand and Zimbabwe have shown that, without compromising the quality of the infrastructure, labour-based infrastructure investments are between 10 and 30 per cent less costly than more equipment-intensive options, reduce foreign exchange requirements by some 50 to 60 per cent, and create between two and four times more employment than more capital-intensive alternatives.

A recent independent evaluation of EIP confirmed that labour-based projects offer an innovative and practical way to address employment creation and other ILO concerns such as labour standards, child labour, democratization, training and enterprise development. The evaluation recommended that EIP should be aimed at the "working poor" who may not necessarily be the poorest of the poor. Community-based investments which improve access to productive resources and basic social services have the most direct impact on poverty alleviation.

The levels of structural unemployment, particularly in the developing world and in those countries in transition to market economies, are such that demand for ILO's technical advisory services in employment-intensive programmes will continue to grow. Demand from countries facing economic and financial crisis or man-made and natural disasters is also growing rapidly in several regions.

Enterprise and cooperative development

In view of the important role that private enterprises — including cooperative enterprises — have in job creation, the ILO has further strengthened and intensified its efforts to help countries create conditions which facilitate the creation and growth of such enterprises. Technical cooperation activities in this area have concentrated on: the introduction of a conducive legal and regulatory environment; the promotion of a more positive attitude towards entrepreneurship; a more cost-effective delivery of support services, including credit; and development of human resources. Attention has also been increasingly paid to the quality of the jobs created.

ILO enterprise-based job-creation activities have focused on involving employers' and workers' organizations during the design as well as the implementation stages and on developing their capacity to promote small business and self-employment. Tripartite approaches are being promoted through the establishment of tripartite national productivity councils and centres and through technical seminars and publications. During the period under review productivity training activities for employers' and workers' organizations covered employers' organizations in South Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Eastern Africa.

Employers have seen their role in employment generation as one of promoting enterprise growth and training for employment. Selected projects carried out in Africa and Latin America, Bulgaria, the Russian Federation and Ukraine have concentrated on: enhancing the capacity of employers' organizations to lobby for an environment conducive to enterprise creation and growth; providing advice and services; and coordinating training activities in the field of small enterprises. Several workshops in Latin America addressed the role of export processing zones in generating employment and promoting economic development.

The demand for ILO advisory services and technical cooperation has continued to increase, which the ILO endeavoured to meet by providing short-term advisory services and mobilizing extra-budgetary resources for longer term technical cooperation activities. During the period under review, an average of 250 advisory missions were undertaken each year by headquarters' staff, specialists from the multidisciplinary advisory teams and short-term international consultants. ILO was actively involved in the promotion of job creation through enterprise and cooperative development in some 65 developing and transition countries worldwide.

Emphasis was placed on pilot projects to develop and test methodologies likely to have a significant demonstration effect and potential for replication. To ensure that they were cost-effective, almost all projects aimed at capacity building.

Experience has shown that an integrated approach is essential to ensure programme impact and adequate coordination between components such as policy and regulatory support, business training, development activities and access to credit and finance. With this in mind, the ILO launched a global programme in 1998 — the International Small Enterprise Programme (ISEP) — to assist constituents in the implementation of the Job Creation in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Recommendation, 1998 (No. 189).

The bulk of technical cooperation activities in this area concentrated on developing effective business services. Most were designed to build the capacity of local intermediary organizations to deliver high-quality, cost-effective and sustainable business development services to large numbers of clients, usually in small enterprises. The overall objective was to enhance their competitiveness and productivity.

The small enterprise component of the ILO employment-generation programme in Cambodia promoted local economic development through financial and non-financial assistance to micro- and small enterprises. Local Economic Development Agencies (LEDAs) were established in nine provinces, which in turn set up a national NGO as the project's counterpart organization. The LEDAs assisted some 10,000 small and micro-business clients. Employment in the small businesses concerned increased by an average of 1.8 jobs, at a cost of $126 per job. A World Bank evaluation in 1996 recommended replication of the project concept globally. In recognition of the project's performance, a total of $11 million was made available by a wide range of donors, of which $5 million was for credits. The experiment is now leading to the development of a rural banking system.

In the Maghreb region, a regional project was launched to establish business development services, combining institutional capacity building and direct assistance to the communities. In Madagascar the ILO helped to establish a private sector agency which promotes private investment and assists in the creation of micro- and small enterprises in all regions of the country. In its first two years of operation it has helped create more than 5,800 rural and urban service and production enterprises, while more than 25,000 entrepreneurs have benefited from consulting services and business training.

The ACOPAM programme, which provides organizational and cooperative support to grass-roots initiatives, was originally designed to combat the effects of the drought in the Sahel region in Africa. It has been one of the ILO's most successful employment and income-generation programmes and has shown clearly that programmes are effective when they are based on integrated strategies comprising training, skills development and financial services with a local focus, bringing together the key stakeholders to develop strategies adapted to local conditions and opportunities. Operational in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal, ACOPAM has developed a methodology based on organizing people at the grassroots level into cooperatives to improve their food security and living conditions, particularly through joint land management and irrigation schemes, cereal banks, the marketing of products and savings and credit schemes. Through its pilot activities alone, ACOPAM has enabled some 40,000 people to become self-employed particularly through cereal banks. The programme has had a particularly important impact on the employment of women. Similar strategies have been applied in Mozambique and Bulgaria. In Central America the PROMICRO project has provided support to micro-enterprises in the informal sector in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, strengthening associations of micro-enterprises, improving their access to information and disseminating innovative approaches for the promotion of micro-enterprises.

Cooperatives continue to play an important role in employment promotion and poverty alleviation, both as production enterprises — mainly of the self-employed — and as providers of services to members. In the developing world, approximately 460 million persons are members of at least one type of cooperative enterprise, while the figure is approximately 180 million in the developed market economies.

An important element in technical cooperation programmes has been the creation of an environment conducive to the development of cooperatives. This was particularly relevant in countries in which, under previous regimes, cooperatives had speci- fic economic or political functions on behalf of governments. The interregional COOPREFORM programme, funded by DANIDA, has provided assistance to policy-makers to create a favourable climate for cooperative enterprises by formulating legislation which encourages the development of autonomous and viable cooperatives.

In Kenya, ILO assistance led to the adoption by Parliament of a sessional paper on the promotion of the informal sector. In the United Republic of Tanzania, ILO support for a review and reformulation of important areas of legislation has improved the capacity of micro- and informal sector enterprises to develop and generate jobs. A programme undertaken in partnership with central banks in 15 African countries has resulted in an improvement in the policy framework for micro-finance institutions. Nearly 2,500 village banks and savings cooperatives in the subregion, with over 715,000 members, have collected $5 million in deposits from some of the poorest members of society. These village banks are the only source of financial services for most households and enterprises.

Micro-finance for employment generation

Over recent years, the issue of micro-finance has considerably influenced the way policies and programmes for employment creation and poverty eradication have been designed and implemented. Grameen Bank and its replications — BRI Unit Desa, ACLEDA and BancoSol, to name just a few — have shown that it is possible to lift large numbers of the destitute out of poverty and give them a sense of pride and relative autonomy.

ILO technical cooperation programmes have focused on capacity building, ap-plied and policy-oriented research and dissemination of best practices. The following activities have been carried out in partnership with central banks in Africa, under the PA-SMEC programme: maintaining data banks; staff training; draft legislation; policy dialogue; and hands-on technical advice.

Social Development Funds (SDF) can provide the necessary start-up capital in situations in which the banking sector is unresponsive to workers laid off after structural adjustment programmes. Where such micro-finance windows within SDF exist (as in some 25 African countries) ILO, in cooperation with the African Development Bank (ADB), has sought to transform direct lending mechanisms into a comprehensive, wholesale mechanism which has a better chance of reaching out to larger numbers of eligible people through suitable banks, NGOs and village banks.

A large number of support NGOs and self-help organizations of micro-entrepreneurs operate guarantee funds. However, funds management is poor and often the guarantee capital vanishes after a few years. ILO is continuing with a second phase of an interregional management training programme that will enable the owners and managers of such guarantee funds to run their operation more transparently.

More targeted programmes for employment and poverty alleviation

Women in development

The activities and programmes outlined in this section relate to employment and economic reform, women entrepreneurs, and social safety nets. The ILO has launched an International Programme on More and Better Jobs for Women (WOMEMP). This programme has been described in detail in the section on global programmes.

Gender, employment and economic reform

Programmes undertaken in this field were aimed at enhancing the ILO constituents' capacities to develop policies and design targeted programmes that promote gender equality in access to employment and combat the feminization of poverty. These activities might be viewed as part of ILO's contribution to the follow-up action to the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995. The focus has been on five substantive areas of work:

Technical cooperation programmes in this area focused on capacity-building activities. Particular mention should be made of the capacity-building programme on gender, poverty and employment, developed to respond to the number one critical issue identified in the Beijing Platform for Action, i.e. the feminization of poverty. This programme draws lessons from more than two decades of practical experience with targeted employment promotion policies with a particular focus on poor and disadvantaged groups. It also provides sophisticated types of action to be initiated in various technical areas and promotes a multidisciplinary approach, combining policy reform with direct targeted programmes in the three areas of employment promotion, organization building and social protection.

Activities initiated under this programme at the country level responded to an important lacuna in the debate on the impact of the economic reforms and structural adjustment measures on women's employment and equality — and hence on the appropriate policies to mitigate possible negative effects and to promote effective use of new opportunities created. Depending on the socio-economic context and specific priorities at the country level, three types of programmes were initiated in five countries in Asia and Africa (India, Sri Lanka, United Republic of Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Cτte d'Ivoire).

Promotion of tripartite policy debate on gender, employment and economic reforms, often for the first time at the country level, was facilitated through the organization of workshops and open forums for discussion. This was generally followed by the establishment of specific task forces and networks to pursue the dialogue initiated and to implement the priority actions identified.

In almost all cases, policy dialogue resulted in the adoption of action plans identifying priority areas for data collection, legislative reforms, employment promotion in specific sectors and social protection measures. Memoranda of understanding were signed and provided a framework for ILO's assistance in the implementation of the activities identified.

Lack of accurate data on the impact of economic reforms and specific sectors or groups of the population has been a major bottleneck in developing appropriate policy responses. Collection of information and data, undertaking specific research studies and surveys, were thus important elements of the technical cooperation programme.

Women entrepreneurs

Activities designed specifically for women entrepreneurs have included the recently completed programmes on Women's Entrepreneurship Development (WED) and Economic Empowerment of Women (EEW). Between 1994 and 1997, the WED project was implemented to promote entrepreneurship among women in small and cottage industries in five Asian countries. Technical assistance was provided to 15 national organizations, which in turn provided support to women's entrepreneur target groups. Training programmes were organized to develop the capacities of local trainers and resource persons and a manual was published on entrepreneurship development for women. Demand for the manual was such that a commercial version has now been published. Studies were also carried out on the status of women's entrepreneurship. The constraints and opportunities were identified and a number of policy recommendations formulated.

Social safety nets, employment promotion and poverty reduction

In a number of countries, social safety nets are once again being considered as an instrument of social policy to redress the effects of economic crises and downturns and cope with the repercussions of structural reforms and transition to market economies on the most vulnerable sections of society. An ILO action programme, Economic reforms and structural change: Promoting women's employment and participation in social funds, undertaken in the 1996-97 biennium, provided the opportunity for an in-depth analysis of the experience of social funds in seven countries in Latin America and in Africa. This evaluation highlighted a number of shortcomings: insufficient social dialogue prior to and during the operation of social safety nets; the limited role of employment promotion programmes within the investment portfolio of the funds; and the limited outreach to women. The guidelines developed on the basis of this evaluation paved the way for intensive dialogue at the national level, and within the international donor community, the World Bank and regional banks, as to the appropriate design of social safety net programmes.

Employment and social protection of social groups

Homeworkers in the global economy

The increasingly informal nature of employment and the rapid growth of atypical forms of employment such as home work, have created the need to develop new approaches to social protection for these "invisible" groups of workers which are difficult to reach. Under pilot technical cooperation activities in Asia and in Latin America, a two-pronged approach was adopted; this not only set out to maximize the employment potential of the sector but also to devise innovative social protection measures. Activities included data and information collection, which provided the basis for tripartite discussion and the adoption of national action plans. This work contributed to: the creation of an institutional framework for social dialogue at the national level; the formulation of national development policies for this sector; and the enhancement of the socio-economic status and capacities of homeworkers.

Support to self-reliance of indigenous and tribal peoples through
self-help and cooperative approaches: ILO-INDISCO programme

Inspired by the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), and in an attempt to contribute to the efforts of the United Nations family during the International Year for the World's Indigenous People (1993) and beyond, the ILO launched an interregional programme to support self-reliance of indigenous and tribal communities through cooperatives and other self-help organizations (INDISCO) in 1993. The programme aims at strengthening the capacities of indigenous and tribal peoples, helping them to design and implement their own development plans and initiatives, and ensuring that their traditional values and culture are safeguarded. It has 20 projects in ten countries in Asia, Africa and Central America funded by a group of donors including DANIDA, Netherlands, CIDA, the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND), UNDP, WFP and Rabobank.

Working with indigenous and tribal peoples through their traditional institutions, cooperatives and self-help organizations, INDISCO projects have successfully put into practice innovative approaches directed towards the preservation of the resource base of indigenous and tribal peoples. These have included: cost-effective and sustainable water harvesting systems; plant nurseries to regenerate forests; biogas plants; and dairy schemes. More than 1,000 traditional jobs have been secured through income-generating schemes and as a result of financial support from community-based revolving funds. More than 12,000 men and women have been trained in technical fields, using local experts and specialists, on various income-generating schemes.

A major lesson learned from this experience has been that any development initiative for indigenous and tribal peoples needs to assess the social organization of indigenous groups and preinvest significant efforts in skills acquisition and capacity-building. Preinvestment in training and capacity building is the most urgent need, not project financing. Only through human resource development and institutional strengthening will indigenous and tribal peoples be able to take over their own programmes.

Employment and poverty challenges following armed conflicts

The successful reintegration of ex-combatants is a key factor for the stability of post-conflict countries. The ILO has worked in this area in Mozambique and Angola. In Angola, a project launched in 1996 with funding support from UNDP, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, successfully tested a decentralized strategy involving innovative approaches and institutional mechanisms which have been effective in reducing training costs. Of the 14,000 ex-combatants targeted for training, more than 42 per cent have been signed with local training centres.

In Mozambique the ILO designed a skills and entrepreneurship training project for demobilized soldiers and assisted the Ministry of Labour in its execution between 1994 and 1998. This project combined accelerated vocational training, the provision of tool kits and basic business skills training to facilitate the access of demobilized soldiers to employment — especially self-employment. It also included a micro-enterprise component to help demobilized soldiers with viable business ideas to start their own enterprise by assisting them in the preparation of a business plan and facilitating their access to micro-credit schemes. Some 10,000 demobilized soldiers were trained under this project, of which over 70 per cent became (self-) employed in a sector related to their training. On average, their income was considerably higher than the minimum wage. The project also assisted in the creation of some 750 micro-enterprises. It succeeded in establishing a technical capacity in the Ministry of Labour to apply the project methodology on a wider scale to other target groups.

Training of workers with disabilities for employment

During the 1993-97 period there was a targeted strategy to promote the inclusion of persons with disabilities into mainstream training and employment programmes. This approach was totally in line with the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159), which advocates the promotion of "employment opportunities for disabled persons in the open labour market" and states that "equality of opportunity and treatment for disabled men and women workers shall be respected". The Convention and its accompanying Recommendation (No. 168) have been valuable legal instruments for the ILO technical cooperation programmes encouraging the inclusion of people with disabilities into mainstream structures.

Research, advisory services and consultations with member States have shown that general training and employment services need to be adapted considerably to cater to persons with disabilities in order to ensure their integration, wherever possible, into open training settings and the open labour market. A large number of technical cooperation projects were implemented to ensure equal access of workers with disabilities to training and employment. An example of one of these at national level is a project on vocational training and micro-enterprise promotion for demobilized soldiers started in Angola in 1996. This project has been using a mainstreaming approach to integrate ex-combatants with disabilities in business and vocational skills training and in its toolkit distribution. In Yemen a project has helped upgrade the existing rehabilitation services in the country by improving the staff competence and developing initial community-based rehabilitation services.

There were also, during the period under review, several regional or subregional technical cooperation activities. A case in point was a project on the mainstream integration of persons with disabilities in vocational training institutions, which increased the capacity of vocational training centres in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay to integrate trainees with disabilities. A major output of the project was the production of a capacity-building training package with 12 modules for different target groups on ways to integrate persons with disabilities into vocational training programmes.

At this point it may be mentioned that RBTC resources have been instrumental in enhancing the technical cooperation activities in this area. Operational and analytical work carried out during the period under review have consolidated recognition that the ILO is a centre of excellence, capable of providing the most recent thinking and policy advice to its member States. A well-balanced interaction between regular budget programmes research and technical cooperation therefore clearly reinforces ILO's capacity as a catalyst for change in a given field.

Drug and alcohol subprogramme

In close partnership with the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), a number of projects were initiated and implemented by the ILO. The focus of technical cooperation projects in Asia and Africa was on rehabilitation and social reintegration of recovering persons. Around 200 social workers, counsellors and rehabilitation officers from over 20 countries received specialized training. This project has successfully combined the strengths of the ILO, UNDCP, international and regional partners and is a model that lends itself to easy replication in other regions and fields of activity.

The Resource Centre on Drugs and Alcohol in Harare, established with ILO/UNDCP collaboration, has proven to be a model appropriate for Africa. With Norwegian funding the model has already been replicated in Malawi, Namibia, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia. Similar centres are also to be set up in Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa under a new project currently being finalized. The key elements in what has evolved into a sustainable programme have been its community-based emphasis, mobilization and utilization of existing community services and close links to the corporate world.

Thoughts on some future programmes on employment and poverty alleviation

Persistently high levels of poverty, unemployment and underemployment, a reversal of gains made in employment and poverty alleviation in countries affected by crises of various types, and social exclusion are compelling reasons to pursue technical cooperation in this field. ILO's ongoing work, including the Country Employment Policy Reviews (CEPRs), provide a sound basis upon which to build.

In the case of poverty alleviation, the ILO's intervention should continue at two levels: poverty-reducing job-creation strategies and policies; and programmes of direct job creation for the poor. As regards employment, CEPRs should result in specific action programmes at country level. Modalities for collaboration with and assistance to partners outside the ILO constituents also need to be put in place.

At the level of direct job creation, two types of programmes spring to mind: wage employment through labour-intensive infrastructure programmes; and self-employment. In the first case, the ILO has demonstrated its expertise and comparative advantage through years of work. This capacity needs to be reinforced and consolidated. Considering the vital role of the private sector in the promotion of employment and the elimination of poverty, future activities will need to aim at strengthening the capacity of member States to design and implement policies and programmes that promote and facilitate the creation of productive and sustainable quality jobs, particularly in small enterprises and cooperatives — in both the formal and informal sectors.

Given the complex implications of globalization for national economies, the integration of a gender perspective in economic and social reform agenda and in social safety nets, particularly as regards equality of access to employment and equal terms of employment, will continue to pose highly important challenges for the ILO constituents. The ILO has successfully engaged social partners in several countries in policy dialogue and action on women's employment in the context of economic reform and crises; and on the promotion of employment opportunities as the principal means for eradicating poverty. Building national capacities will be imperative.

With respect to human resource development, the retraining of retrenched/redundant workers, continuous skill upgrading and diversification, increased coverage of women, training for self-employment and informal sector are all areas for future work.

Past experience shows that crises of various types (those caused by financial and economic factors, natural disasters such as floods and cyclones, man-made disasters such as war, etc.) can reverse even solid gains made in employment promotion and poverty alleviation. In the case of countries at low levels of development, such crises only tend to aggravate an already fragile situation. The ILO should be able to respond to such short-term requirements for assistance. What is needed is the capacity to act quickly (including a minimum resource base of its own), an innovative approach combining various elements of intervention into a package, and a mechanism to launch such assistance. Careful thought needs to be given to the creation of such a capacity.

Democracy and human rights

One of the major priorities of the ILO during the period under review has been to provide support for democracy and fundamental workers' rights; this priority has been strengthened with the adoption of the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up at the 86th Session (1998) of the Conference.

In its resolution on technical cooperation adopted in 1993, the ILO reiterated that its action to promote democratic and representative institutions, consistent with the relevant international labour standards, should be in the forefront of its concerns. Consequently, technical cooperation has been in line with the principles underpinning the fundamental Conventions. These instruments are themselves a basic component in promoting democracy and protection of human rights. In fact, only a small number of ILO standards are classified as fundamental human rights Conventions; however, there are many others, such as instruments on labour administration and labour inspection, which are essential to the full realization of human rights. Others advocate national policies and means adapted to ensure protection of special categories such as women, children and the disabled. In the context of democratization, ILO's sustained support towards the creation and strengthening of employers' and workers' organizations at the national level is a direct contribution to industrial democracy around the world. Democracy is underpinned by the existence and recognition of interest groups in society with whom the State negotiates, thereby avoiding centralization of power. Workers' and employers' organizations represent two important interest groups which contribute to the preservation of democracy; hence the importance of tripartism to the promotion of democracy. In many countries, trade unions and employers' organizations have at times been the only organized elements of the civil society contributing to the establishment and restoration of political democracy. The Office provides assistance for the implementation of the ILO's principal instruments in this area.

Focus of activities

During the period under review, direct assistance was provided for the implementation and ratification of international labour standards relating to democracy and fundamental human rights. Member States were helped to adjust their law and practice to the requirement of these instruments and to eliminate immediate obstacles to their ratification. Where early ratification has not been possible, the Office has assisted governments to understand more clearly the obstacles to ratification so that they might plan for the measures needed to overcome them.

Activities undertaken during the last five years also included: providing support to employers' and workers' organizations; promoting social dialogue, industrial relations, labour administration and gender equality; and strengthening the tripartite institutions in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Arab States. Priority was given to combating discrimination in all its forms, more particularly to the protection of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, the promotion of equality in employment for women and the protection of migrant workers.

An attempt has been made in the following paragraphs to give a clear idea of the major programmes with a focus on democracy and human rights; they are presented under four headings: workers' activities; employers' activities; industrial relations and labour administration; and gender equality. Technical cooperation activities directed specifically to implementation and ratification of standards are described separately in the last section of this chapter.

Workers' activities

Workers' organizations are prominent actors in the defence and promotion of universal respect for democracy, basic human rights and social justice. As essential partners in tripartite dialogue, the major function of trade unions is to translate the aspirations of workers into coherent and structured strategies and actions at the national, regional and international levels. Where trade unions are well established and operating freely, they constitute a major guarantee for the continued democratic functioning of society and have often been the main force behind the democratization of society.

However, the application of standards is not only the ILO's major tool for the protection of workers and the promotion of basic human and trade union rights; it is also a prerequisite for stable industrial relations, economic development and fair international competition. Technical cooperation assistance provided to workers' organizations has addressed the promotion of international labour standards and stressed the use trade unions might make of ILO mechanisms to further the application of these standards. Emphasis has been placed on a selected number of standards of particular importance to workers: forced labour, freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, rural workers' organizations, tripartite consultation, discrimination, equal remuneration and child labour.

ILO technical assistance to its worker constituents has focused on the development and strengthening of independent, democratic and representative trade unions with a view to increasing their capacity in defending and furthering their members' interests, living and working conditions, and effective participation in tripartite dialogue.

Technical assistance has been provided to train trade union leaders in organizational development and modern and democratic management methods, including the application of strategic planning. Training in communication techniques, information technology and distance-learning programmes was also dispensed to educators and administrators.

Globalization, regional economic integration, deregulation, privatization and the introduction of structural adjustment programmes — often without any consideration to their social consequences — have had a direct impact on the world of work and have required an effective and appropriate response from workers' organizations. In order to mitigate the most undesirable effects, trade unions have been required to: develop the necessary capacity to undertake transnational collective bargaining with multinational enterprises; establish linkages and common campaign strategies on social and labour issues, including the social dimension of the liberalization of trade work for the implementation of codes of conduct for major enterprises and their suppliers; exercise pressure for the adoption of social and labour charters to complement regional free trade agreements; and exchange information and establish common databases.

Assistance to the worker constituents has been provided in the form of advisory services, research, information dissemination and training activities emphasizing the ILO's Tripartite Declaration of Principles on Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy and relevant ILO standards. Special attention has been paid to assisting workers in export processing zones, where basic trade union rights are often severely restricted and the enforcement of national legislation inadequate.

A large share of the labour force in developing countries consists of rural workers who tend to be poorly organized and open to exploitation and harassment; women account for a significant proportion of these workers. Substantial assistance has been given to rural workers' organizations to help them strengthen their capabilities to organize, defend their members' rights and provide basic services to the membership.

As regards activities to eliminate child labour, assistance to trade unions has consisted in helping them specifically address the problem, often by means of campaigns of ratification of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), and the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138). This assistance has been provided through close collaboration between the trade union movement and the ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). In addition, educational materials have been developed, awareness-raising activities carried out and support provided for the efforts of trade unions in this respect.

Orientation for the future

For many years to come, most trade unions, especially in developing countries, will still face the need to improve their basic organizational structures; furthermore, the continuous turnover in membership and changes in leadership at various levels will require a major element of basic workers' education programmes. Capacity building and the development of trade union's educational structure will therefore continue to be a cornerstone of direct assistance to workers' organizations.

At the same time there has been an increasing demand by workers' organizations for assistance in non-traditional areas — of which globalization and the informal sector are two such issues. However, trade unions are increasingly expected to express their views and take action on a wide range of issues that directly or indirectly affect the working and living conditions of workers.

This means that while long-term planning can be exercised for the substantial part of assistance delivered for capacity building and basic workers' education programmes, there is a need, at the same time, for programmes that are both easily adjustable and able to be developed dynamically in order to assist trade unions to respond to economic and political development and the resulting issues that affect workers' lives.

In addition to facing the same rapid changes as other trade unions throughout the world, workers' organizations in transition countries have also had the task of redefining their roles; indeed, they have been confronted with new and often unknown challenges such as collective bargaining, unemployment, social protection, the handling of grievances, organizing techniques and the impact of private sector activities — all of which constitute important building blocks in the process of establishing and consolidating genuine democracy in transition countries. Special attention has to be paid to address the special requirements of trade unions in these countries.

In many countries the proportion of trade union members in the labour force has been declining over the past decade. Although numbers alone are not the only aspect to be taken into consideration, trade union density is a decisive factor in trade unions' capacity to promote democracy and basic human rights effectively and to defend and further their members' rights and interests. While it is important to have well-adapted organizational structures and effective management, it is also necessary to promote, as a priority trade union activity, organizing campaigns and techniques which historically were a driving force in the development of trade unions.

Finally, given the pivotal role of the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up, activities will be undertaken to enable trade unions worldwide to analyse the relationship between economic development, trade and observance of human rights.

Employers' activities

The work of the ILO in this area has consisted of promoting the capacity and growth of independent, representative and strong employers' organizations to enable them to engage in meaningful and effective bipartite and tripartite dialogue.

With the onset of globalization and deregulation, and the consequent rapid changes in the business environment, it became clear during the first few years of this decade that employers' organizations would have to reassess their role and services to cater to the changing needs of their members. In order to make this reassessment, the ILO decided that a way should be found to ascertain the needs of the private sector on a continuing basis. It was felt that the most effective means was to collaborate with employers' organizations and help them develop strategic plans which would identify their specific development paths more clearly, encompassing both national and regional perspectives. This strategic approach, followed up by actual plans, was introduced in all the regions — with a fair degree of success. In terms of technical cooperation, the process resulted in a much clearer perspective of those ILO interventions which would be most effective in contributing to strengthening the organizations in question and thus identifying where its resources should be directed.

Technical cooperation to promote sustainable and effective employers' organizations' development needs to be built around four key areas: first, it must provide a clear vision of what the organization is trying to attain and a plan to translate this vision into reality; second, it must have staff with the requisite knowledge and skills; third it must have at its disposal an up-to-date information and knowledge base with the means to analyse and apply such information and knowledge; and fourth, it must provide services to meet the needs of enterprises.

A priority in this regard is staff development; indeed, the quality of the staff in an employers' organization affects its professionalism, its core competencies, its potential to attract new members and its capacity to generate new sources of income. During the last five years, more particularly since the mid-1990s, greater emphasis has been laid on the development of the staff in these organizations. For instance, the Latin American Institute for the Management of Employers (ILGO) continued to benefit from an annual training programme on management subjects specially designed for the executives of employers' organizations. A part of the cost was met by the employers' organizations themselves.

In the area of service development and information networks, the Palestinian Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture received assistance to establish an information network, consisting of surveys and the publication of a business directory and a biannual magazine. A number of organizations (as was the case in Mongolia) were helped to develop business support services to small enterprises on matters such as preparing business plans.

In response to the increasingly proactive approach adopted by employers and their organizations in combating child labour, the ILO played a significant role in the identification of strategies and the mobilization of action by employers at the international, regional and national levels, particularly in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, India, Kenya, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, United Republic of Tanzania, Turkey and Uganda. Support was provided to the International Organization of Employers (IOE) for the preparation of a handbook on child labour; policies on child labour were also adopted by employers' organizations in Peru, Colombia and Kenya. A project on child labour with selected employers' organizations in Latin America and Africa is now under way.

The role of employers' organizations in the field of industrial relations continues to be a vital aspect of the ILO's work, given that globalization has impacted on national industrial relations systems and resulted in greater emphasis being placed on workplace relations at the enterprise. It is becoming increasingly important for employers to develop a strategic perspective of employment relations, in other words to determine how they might contribute to productivity, quality and competitiveness and the establishment of a sound system at both the enterprise and national levels — the latter being a significant component of an efficient labour market. A number of programmes on industrial relations issues have focused on the impact of globalization on industrial relations and on ways to develop strategic perspectives of industrial relations by, for instance, linking it to productivity and competitiveness.

Orientations for the future

Technical cooperation activities will continue within the framework of more focused medium- and long-term cooperation plans between the ILO and the constituents.

In economies in transition, the enabling regulatory environment which provides the checks and balances in a market economy are not yet functioning adequately. In many such countries the private sector is still in an embryonic stage or the process of privatization is slow, while political or economic instability has been disruptive. There is considerable work to be done by both the employers' organizations and the ILO to position the former to assume a pivotal role in socio-economic development during this and the next decade.

Given the fact that better qualified and well-trained staff are critical for organizations to adapt to the needs of enterprises, and since there are no institutions as such catering to the development of the staff of employers' organizations, employers' activities will continue to focus on staff development, partly through the cooperation of developed organizations. This does not discount the need for the organizations themselves to pay particular attention to recruitment and retention policies and to on-the-job training.

The following represent some of the issues and challenges which will need to be addressed in the future:

Industrial relations and labour administration

While a major economic function of industrial relations is to determine the price and quantity of labour, its social and political function, which is to establish democratic machinery governing the employment relationship, tends to predominate.

The Office provides assistance and advice in the broad areas of labour law reform, and that of promoting recourse to collective bargaining and social dialogue on the process and the means of achieving better industrial relations. Through its work with ministries of labour in strengthening their labour policy formulation, labour administration capacities and labour inspection functions, the ILO works with member States, seeking to ensure that labour legislation is enforced and respected.

Major functions of labour law are to establish certain common rules of the labour market, to regulate the employment relationship and to uphold individual and collective rights of all the players in the labour market. Member States increasingly request help in revising their labour law, either when undergoing a transition to democracy or in undertaking structural adjustment programmes. Under these circumstances, the legislative framework no longer tends to correspond to political and socio-economic reality. The Office has therefore provided assistance in the elaboration and reform of labour legislation in a large number of countries, particularly those characterized by developing economies and economies in transition.

Progressively, the Office has moved away from "assistance" to "cooperation", or from a "technocratic" approach to a more "participatory" one. "Cooperation" implies a closer, more interactive process with the constituent government and its social partners. This is a more difficult and complex — but clearly more effective — approach, because it can ensure that the tripartite constituents are truly committed and that the draft legislation proposed is more likely to be adopted and implemented. This approach involves several short missions to the country by the expert, greater involvement of regional and national consultants and more meaningful consultations with the social partners. The proximity of the multidisciplinary teams has proven to be a positive asset in this process.

An example of such an approach is the tripartite task force established to review labour legislation in the democratizing Republic of South Africa very soon after the elections in 1994. A new labour code was drafted in record time. Similar approaches have been adopted in Egypt and in a large number of Central and Eastern European countries. A notable recent example is cooperation with the Russian Federation on the reform of civil service legislation.

Legislative activities are complemented by the use of tripartite seminars which allow the social partners to come together at an early stage. In many instances, these represent the first steps in a process of open dialogue in societies that have just embraced democracy. Virtually all the Central and Eastern European countries have benefited from such seminars. Countries in different subregions of Africa and Latin America have also held such seminars at different stages of their transition towards democracy.

Another important area of innovation has been greater recourse to regional expertise and information from countries with similar experience. This has been the norm in some programmes carried out over the years in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). More recent examples of projects that have used the method of learning from countries within the region or subregion include the MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market) project on labour relations in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Countries in Central and Eastern Europe have also drawn lessons from other countries in their subregion which have had particularly noteworthy experiences in reforming their industrial relations systems.

A project on the promotion of social dialogue in French-speaking African countries was carried out at a time when the nature and form of relations between the three social partners were changing — alongside the transformation of the one-party State. The countries in this project have benefited from international expertise and information on social dialogue on social and economic issues to such an extent that the project is leading to an institutional transnational forum for the promotion of social dialogue.

The project for the prevention and resolution of conflict and the promotion of workplace democracy in South Africa provided training to a large number of mediators, conciliators and arbitrators. This project was carried out in a context in which the resolution of conflicts had not been limited to traditional workplace issues and had major racial and class overtones. As such, it contributed greatly towards bolstering national efforts to promote democracy and human rights in South Africa. This successful experience has led to other Swiss-funded projects for improving labour relations in southern Africa.

Labour administration systems in member States are the administrative arm of governments for the preparation, implementation, coordination, enforcement and review of labour policy, employment policies and programmes, human resources development, industrial relations, and information and research on labour matters; they are thus expected to respond to the many rapid changes taking place in the world of work, often with limited financial and human resources.

The Office is paying increasing attention to the organization and management of ministries of labour. During the 1996-97 biennium, institutional and management capacity-building programmes took off.

Assistance provided to constituents included a series of "audits" of ministries of labour and labour administration systems. These exercises were carried out in countries in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern and Central Europe. These exercises often led to the development of proposals for specific technical cooperation projects to assist in the implementation of reforms, capacity-building activities and training of the labour administration staff.

Support was provided to member States in the form of technical advisory services in Brazil, Chile, Niger and Yemen, and through national technical cooperation projects in Azerbaijan and Bulgaria. The assistance provided to the Baltic States and Slovakia produced some encouraging results, as the focus was widened from labour inspection and safety and health issues to broader employment policy issues.

Labour inspection is one of the most important instruments available to member States for the development of a culture of prevention, not only in terms of occupational safety and health but also with regard to the enforcement of fundamental human rights of workers, industrial relations, employment, and general conditions of work. It can be instrumental in the institutionalization of a national machinery for social dialogue and democracy. Experience with labour inspection systems has shown that a shift from a relatively rigid concept of reactive control to one of anticipatory prevention almost invariably leads to substantial progress.

Indeed, the ability of many labour administrations to operate efficient and effective labour inspection services, as defined by the relevant international labour standards, is still quite limited and their scope is often confined to larger establishments in the formal sector. Extensive technical support therefore continued to be provided to countries in Eastern and Central Europe to assist in the development of modern labour inspection systems.

Technical assistance was provided to a number of countries, including Albania, Jordan, Lebanon, South Africa and Viet Nam, as well as in the occupied Arab territories, to help in the development of public employment services.

A more relevant approach for the twenty-first century: Critical issues

How might better synergy be promoted between the Office and its constituents, as well as within the Office, in order to respond more effectively to the needs of member States? Some ideas that could be pursued are listed here below:

Gender equality

Women and gender-specific activities with a focus on democracy and human rights remained a high priority for the ILO during the period under review. The work carried out under two major regional projects illustrates this well. The first, Training and information dissemination on women workers, was carried out in nine countries in different regions (China, Egypt, Hungary, Mali, India, El Salvador, Suriname, Viet Nam and Zimbabwe). The outputs included the setting up of National Tripartite Steering Committees, the adoption and implementation of National Plans of Action to promote women's equality of opportunities and women workers' rights, the adoption of an ILO training package on women workers' rights and national conditions and needs, and the establishment of a group of trainers and resource persons. The lessons learned included the need to tailor programmes on dissemination of women workers' rights in the informal sector.

The second project, Gender training for ILO staff and constituents, focused on the capacity building of the ILO's own staff, and those of the constituents, in women workers' rights and other gender-related issues through training and production of training materials. One of the conclusions drawn from this project was that there was a need to link the training content with the specific work environment of the participants and to evolve action plans at the end of the training activities for necessary follow-up.

Employers' organizations have been contributing in this area by integrating gender issues for the fuller use of human resources for economic and social development at the enterprise level. Current programmes are not only helping to identify and categorize the fundamental problems affecting gender equality, but are also helping to lay the groundwork for equality practices at the workplace. Responses from employers' organizations have ranged from national workshops to raise gender awareness; survey reports to identify the obstacles; and plans of action and in-house policies to promote equal opportunity policies at the workplace — especially in Africa (Swaziland, Lesotho and Mauritania) and Asia (Bangladesh and the Philippines). Technical assistance was also provided in the form of "gender guidelines" — training materials written by employers, for employers, on gender equality at the workplace.

Enhancing the bargaining power of indigenous and tribal peoples

In a number of developing countries, the deregulation and privatization of the energy and oil sectors are jeopardizing the employment and development opportunities of many indigenous and tribal peoples. Much of the poverty and social unrest may be att