Akiko’s Blog No. 41 "Africa, Japan and the ILO"
28 August, 2019
Though the severe heat is mercifully over, many people are taking shelter from torrential rain in northern Kyushu. I offer my sincerest condolences for their loss, and I pray that they may return to their daily lives as soon as possible.
On 25 July the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution declaring 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. The resolution highlights the commitment of the member states towards SDG target 8.7, and acknowledges the importance of related UN and ILO conventions, asking the ILO to take the lead in the implementation of the international year.
The G7 summit held in Biarritz, France in late August focused on inequality, welcomed by the ILO Director-General Guy Ryder, who attended the summit. We may say that this summit made a point in that it prioritized inequality, which is closely aligned with the ILO's mandate, social justice, though the point of G7 is questioned these days.
Now, let me share with you the work of the ILO Office for Japan this month. We published two leaflets in a Japanese version, “ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work” and “Introduction of Employment Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP)”. We are holding a side event on 29 August, titled ‘ILO Future of Work High-Level Dialogue Jobs4Youth: A human-centred Agenda to Boost Investments and Productivity in Africa’ at TICAD VII, where we had an exhibition booth.
We will hold the 10th joint public seminar with Japan Co-operative Alliance (JCA) titled Future of Work X Africa X Co-operatives on 13 September, as well as the 3rd Tokyo 2020-ILO Sustainability Forum on 18 September, the title of which is “Be better, together: Tokyo 2020 as Game Changers in Advancing Decent Work”. We’d love to see you there.
We have several ILO-related international days in August, such as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on 9th, the International Youth Day on the 12th, and the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. Yet, I picked an Africa-related topic in a nod to TICAD.
The ILO Regional Office for Africa released its latest publication, “Success Africa IV: Working together for a better Africa”, a collection of successful cases of decent work activities. This flagship publication gives impactful stories of effective initiatives conducted by the ILO, its tripartite constituents and development partners throughout Africa from 2016 to 2018. The fourth in its series of implementing decent work agenda through development cooperation, it gives 42 case studies from over 25 countries.
This includes Japan’s project funded by its voluntary contributions to promote youth employment for the sake of peace building in Gambia, which we are showcasing in our TICAD side event on 29 August.
Coming up next after TICAD is Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting in Matsuyama, Ehime, which I’ll attend with the ILO Director-General.
Though the severe heat is mercifully over, many people are taking shelter from torrential rain in northern Kyushu. I offer my sincerest condolences for their loss, and I pray that they may return to their daily lives as soon as possible.
On 25 July the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution declaring 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. The resolution highlights the commitment of the member states towards SDG target 8.7, and acknowledges the importance of related UN and ILO conventions, asking the ILO to take the lead in the implementation of the international year.
The G7 summit held in Biarritz, France in late August focused on inequality, welcomed by the ILO Director-General Guy Ryder, who attended the summit. We may say that this summit made a point in that it prioritized inequality, which is closely aligned with the ILO's mandate, social justice, though the point of G7 is questioned these days.
Now, let me share with you the work of the ILO Office for Japan this month. We published two leaflets in a Japanese version, “ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work” and “Introduction of Employment Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP)”. We are holding a side event on 29 August, titled ‘ILO Future of Work High-Level Dialogue Jobs4Youth: A human-centred Agenda to Boost Investments and Productivity in Africa’ at TICAD VII, where we had an exhibition booth.
We will hold the 10th joint public seminar with Japan Co-operative Alliance (JCA) titled Future of Work X Africa X Co-operatives on 13 September, as well as the 3rd Tokyo 2020-ILO Sustainability Forum on 18 September, the title of which is “Be better, together: Tokyo 2020 as Game Changers in Advancing Decent Work”. We’d love to see you there.
We have several ILO-related international days in August, such as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on 9th, the International Youth Day on the 12th, and the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. Yet, I picked an Africa-related topic in a nod to TICAD.
The ILO Regional Office for Africa released its latest publication, “Success Africa IV: Working together for a better Africa”, a collection of successful cases of decent work activities. This flagship publication gives impactful stories of effective initiatives conducted by the ILO, its tripartite constituents and development partners throughout Africa from 2016 to 2018. The fourth in its series of implementing decent work agenda through development cooperation, it gives 42 case studies from over 25 countries.
This includes Japan’s project funded by its voluntary contributions to promote youth employment for the sake of peace building in Gambia, which we are showcasing in our TICAD side event on 29 August.
Coming up next after TICAD is Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting in Matsuyama, Ehime, which I’ll attend with the ILO Director-General.