ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - In four days of discussion between nearly three hundred delegates, the Tenth ILO African Regional Meeting held in Addis Ababa from 2 to 5 December confirmed that the "Decent Work Agenda" must be at the heart of the plan for the fight against poverty. "The African-led development agenda, headed by the creation of decent jobs, is connecting with people's priorities and is a recognition of the essential link between jobs and poverty eradication," declared Juan Somavia, ILO Director-General. The Agenda is discussed in his supplementary report (Note 1). "Together, we can make more and better jobs the engine of Africa's development," he said.
All participants (governments, employers, and workers) agreed that the time had come to place the creation of decent work at the centre of a new generation of macroeconomic policies, and that they were ready to activate the tripartite network of the ILO to support the Extraordinary Summit on Employment and Poverty Alleviation, to be convened by African Union heads of state and government, in September 2004, in Ouagadougou.
President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso, honorary host of the Addis meeting, called the ILO the strategic partner for the success of the Extraordinary Summit, which will be preceded by a Social Forum where "the deliberations and conclusions will usefully inspire the decisions of the heads of state and government". He hailed the role of the ILO in the fight against inequality and poverty for a more humane globalization, and hoped that the ILO would be "involved in the approaches and policies initiated by the Bretton Woods Institutions to ensure due consideration for the social dimension of development".
The African Regional Meeting proposed an integrated
approach to the Summit's work programme, based on the
ILO Decent Work Agenda, which is rooted in the
organization's strategic objectives of employment and
enterprise creation, rights at work, basic social
protection and social dialogue. The approach addresses the
need to develop local markets, micro and small enterprises,
and cooperatives. At the heart of the action plan,
successful pilot projects show how to progress in three
essential sectors:
- Agriculture, in which the majority of Africans work
- The informal sector, and the need to develop entrepreneurship
- Major infrastructure works, in which highly labour-intensive investments have already resulted in the creation of numerous jobs
During the Meeting, delegates called on the ILO to give top priority to its efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. They approved a resolution calling on governments to support the efforts of employers and workers in this regard, by providing an enabling legal and policy framework for workplace action, measures to oppose stigma and discrimination and, more generally, the strengthening of national AIDS plans through the inclusion of a strategy for the world of work.