Feature articles

July 2008 

• Road building in Liberia: One UN, many new jobs
  17 July 2008 - After 14 years of conflict, Liberia has begun working its way back to peace and prosperity. But with unemployment estimated at about 85 per cent – significantly among its unskilled youth – job creation is a daunting challenge. ILO Online reports from the capital, Monrovia.
  • Road-Building for a New Liberia -
• The AREA programme in Argentina: working together to create jobs
  11 July 2008 - The ILO-run AREA project, funded by the Italian government, has helped many Argentine workers and companies recover from the 2001 financial crisis by creating jobs and improving livelihoods. ILO Online reports from Argentina.
  • Working out of financial crisis in Argentina -
• International Day of Cooperatives - Cooperating in times of crisis
  03 July 2008 - This year, the growing role of cooperatives in confronting global crises of climate change and food price rises is garnering growing attention. Cooperatives can play an increasingly important role in balancing economic, social and environmental concerns as well as in contributing to poverty reduction and prevention. ILO Online interview with Hagen Henry, Head of the ILO’s Cooperative Programme.
  • Message from Juan Somavia Director-General of the International Labour Office: "Confronting Climate Change through Cooperative Enterprise"
• Microinsurance and OSH: helping to cope with workplace risks
  02 July 2008 - Work-related accidents and diseases take a grim toll every year. Although prevention can help improve occupational safety and health (OSH), microinsurance can also play a complementary role in coping with workplace risks and provide direct benefits to employers and workers. ILO Online reports.

June 2008 

• “We will continue to move forward”: managing risk at work in Kazakhstan
  17 June 2008 - The 18th World Congress on Safety and Health at Work in Seoul, Republic of Korea, will unveil best practices and examples in promoting effective occupational safety and health (OSH) systems as one of the key factors in sustainable economic growth and development. ...
• Extending occupational safety and health to the informal economy - Article for the XVIII World Congress on Safety and Health at Work
  17 June 2008 - Over 1 billion people, more than 60 percent of Asia’s workforce, are still working in the informal economy, with little or no social protection. Experience shows that workers and small businesses in the informal economy are usually motivated to improve safety and health conditions out of their own initiative, but they still need practical support. ...
• In Kyrgyzstan, employment and training programmes help stem a rural exodus
  16 June 2008 - Providing decent employment in agriculture for young people is an immense challenge but mass migration from rural to urban areas has led to poverty in and around cities. ...
• From entrepreneurship to education: how empowering women can help their children learn
  16 June 2008 - Women’s entrepreneurship helps reduce poverty, promote gender equality and empower women. But it has another impact – providing women with the means to improve the health of their families and finance the education of their children. ...
• Feature for World Day Against Child Labour, 12 June 2008 – Street children in Russia: Back to school, back to life
  12 June 2008 - The ILO has estimated that some 165 million children between the age of 5 and 14 are involved in child labour. Many of these children work long hours, often in dangerous conditions. Education provides a means through which economically and socially excluded children and youth can lift themselves out of poverty. ILO Online reports from the Russian Federation.
  • World Day Against Child Labour 2008 - Education: The right response to child labour
• The “Gateway School”, a way of eliminating child labour
  11 June 2008 - Education is a human right and a key factor in the reduction of poverty and child labour. Yet, over 70 million primary-age children are not enrolled in school and most of them are part of the 218 million children worldwide involved in child labour. ...
  • World Day Against Child Labour 2008 - Education: The right response to child labour
• Feature for World Day against Child Labour, 12 June 2008 – The road to school is a route out of child labour
  11 June 2008 - Asia-Pacific enjoys a reputation as a vibrant economic region, but it is also home to more working children than any other region in the world; an estimated 122 million children aged 5-14 years are compelled to work for their survival. Some try to balance school with their long hours of work, but millions of these children are not enrolled in school at all. ...
  • World Day Against Child Labour 2008 - Education: The right response to child labour
• Feature for World Day Against Child Labour 2008 – When “voceadores” learn to SCREAM: Giving a voice to education instead of child labour
  10 June 2008 - Education is often seen as an empowerment right, that can lift economically and socially marginalized children and youth out of poverty. Yet in some developing countries, education remains more of a luxury than a reality for many poor children, who are forced to work instead. This year’s World Day Against Child Labour is promoting education as the right response to child labour. ...
  • World Day Against Child Labour 2008 - Education: The right response to child labour
• Feature for World Day Against Child Labour - From muddy fields to the classroom: a boy’s journey out of child labour
  09 June 2008 - The international community has taken significant steps in the eradication of child labour and the International Labour Organization has recognized that the end of the worst forms of child labour is within reach. Still, it is an uphill struggle and much remains to be done. ...
• Reaching the unreached: the child labour challenge in India
  06 June 2008 - “Every child counts…Over the last year, we have rescued more than 5,000 children from the streets of Hyderabad to enable them to regain their lost childhood”, says Leyla Tegmo-Reddy, ILO Director in New Delhi, India. ...
• Decent Work for the Panama Canal
  02 June 2008 - Extension work on the Panama Canal began a few months ago. When the Canal was inaugurated in 1914 to link two oceans, thousands of workers had died. This shows the importance of the decision to carry out the new project respecting Decent Work principles, according to the Minister of Labour of Panama and President of the 97th International Labour Conference in Geneva, Edwin Salamín Jaén.

May 2008 

• International Labour Conference, June 2008 - Decent Work in rural areas: a key path for poverty reduction
  30 May 2008 - Some 3.4 billion people, slightly under half of the world’s population, now live in rural areas. Though the great majority live in developing countries and are poor, their situation, along with the impact of climate change, food price rises and other factors are visibly in the news. ...
  • Promoting rural jobs to reduce poverty - an interview with Michael Henriques -
• International Labour Conference, June 2008 - Tools for success: skills training in Timor-Leste
  29 May 2008 - Ranked as one of the 10 poorest countries in the world, Timor-Leste faces a daunting development challenge. But it also provides a practical example of the ‘virtuous circle’ fostered by skills development in terms of higher productivity, more employment of better quality, income growth and development – to be discussed at this year's International Labour Conference in Geneva. ...
• Promoting better work in global supply chains: Cambodian garment workers show talent
  02 May 2008 - Better Factories Cambodia, a joint initiative of the ILO and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, is often cited as an example of how closer links between the two organizations can improve labour practices and competitiveness in global supply chains. ...

April 2008 

• World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2008 - “Superman has fallen”: Managing risk in the work environment
  24 April 2008 - Each year, an estimated 2.2 million people die from work-related accidents and diseases around the world, according to the ILO which says that work related deaths appear to be on the rise. But risks can be eliminated or minimized at source, says a new ILO report published for World Day for Safety and Health at Work on 28 April. ...
• The ILO/USDOL International HIV/AIDS Workplace Education Programme - Stories from the field
  15 April 2008 - Approximately 650 workplaces in 24 countries stretching from Benin to China are now involved with in the workplace education programme known as SHARE (Strategic HIV/AIDS Responses in Enterprises). Overall, an estimated million workers benefit from the ILO interventions financed by the United States Department of Labor. These are some lessons learned from SHARE countries