Geneva (ACTRAV INFO)-On 15 June, the Director of the ILO’s Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV) Maria Helena ANDRE and Guangping JIANG, Vice-Chairman of All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), signed a South-South Cooperation Agreement to assist trade unions development in the Asia and the Pacific region.

The project will run from 2019 to 2022 and seeks to contribute to the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda, reinforce social dialogue and define strategies for Unions to address the challenges of the Future of Work. The agreement supports activities to contribute to the promotion and implementation of:

• SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth
• SDG 13 to take action to combat climate change and its impacts
• SDG 5 to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
• Reinforce the critical role of tripartism and social dialogue 

“We welcomed this project which is timely and relevant to assist trade unions in the Asia Pacific region. Building capacities of trade unions is a precondition to implementing the Future of Work we want. The ILO, through ACTRAV, will continue to support trade unions in this region”, said Maria Helena ANDRE.

The project aims to enhance the core capacities of trade unions and workers organizations through sharing knowledge, experiences, training and technology transfer by July 2022.

The signature of this agreement creates a significant pathway to reinforce solidarity between the ACFTU and Workers Organizations to promote the Decent Work Agenda through development cooperation.

“Strengthening capacity building is a common requirement of trade unions in the Asia-Pacific region. It is the due responsibility for the Chinese trade unions to support the workers’ South-South cooperation programme of ILO. We believe that the cooperation with ACTRAV will definitely be a success and achieve the intended objectives”,  Guangping Jiang said.

This new agreement builds on the ILO ACTRAV and ACFTU South South Cooperation that was implemented between 2013 and 2018.

Since March 2012, the ILO's work has been guided by its South South and Triangular Cooperation strategy.

Within the UN System, the role of South South Cooperation is recognized as an important component of international cooperation towards the achievement of SDGs. The important role of South-South and triangular cooperation and Decent Work, was reaffirmed in the  High Level Conference on South South Cooperation held in Buenos Aires (BAPA + 40), where a call for multi-stakeholder partnerships involving all actors of society was reaffirmed.

For more information, please contact:

Ariel Castro
Desk Officer for Asia and Pacific
ACTRAV
Tel: +41 22 799 8575