BRUSSELS (ILO News) - ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo has made his first visit to Belgium since taking up office on 1 October 2022. During his mission, the Director-General had several meetings with Belgian constituents and presented his vision for the ILO.

He thanked Pierre-Yves Dermagne, Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium and Minister of the Economy and Employment, for Belgium’s commitment to promote the ILO values and fundamental principles and rights at work and its strong support for the normative role of the ILO. Belgium has ratified 113 ILO Conventions and two Protocols, which places Belgium in the top five of the countries with the highest number of ratifications of ILO instruments. The ILO Director-General acknowledged that Belgian constituents continue to play an important role in the ILO’s bodies.

They discussed the social consequences of the war in Ukraine and the ILO’s assistance to Ukraine and its neighbouring countries, which focuses on mitigating the impact of the war on employment, social protection, rights at work, and social dialogue.

The Deputy Prime Minister discussed the on-going legislative work on the platform economy, and the upcoming initiatives to foster responsible business conduct in global supply chains, at the national and European level. He underlined the importance of the principle of a safe and healthy working environment, which is part of the ILO’s framework of fundamental rights.

Belgium is an important donor to the ILO and provides significant voluntary contributions for development cooperation activities. It supports the ILO Global Flagship Programme: Building social protection floors for all, which aims to achieve institutional changes in 50 focus countries by 2025. The Flagship Programme contributes to the Global Accelerator on jobs and social protection for just transitions, which intends to galvanize the creation of 400 million jobs, including in the green, digital and care economies, and the extension of adequate social protection to the four billion people currently without coverage.

Frank Vandenbroucke, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health, in charge of Development Cooperation and of the Major Cities Policy, expressed his support for the Global Accelerator and announced Belgian support to the second phase of the Global Flagship Programme on Building social protection floors for all. The Director-General welcomed this support and he presented his vision for a Global Coalition for Social Justice. He explained how the Coalition is linked to the Global Accelerator.

Houngbo also held talks with the heads of the Belgian trade unions ACV-CSC, ABVV-FGTB and ACLVB-CGSLB, and employers’ organizations VBO-FEB and Unizo. They discussed the Global Coalition for Social Justice and the ILO’s normative work on the platform economy and the promotion of decent work in global supply chains. The Director-General presented his five priority action programmes, which include the transition from the informal to the formal economy, to ensure a level-playing field.

The social partners underlined the importance of the ILO normative mandate and tripartite social dialogue and discussed ongoing work and priorities for the coming months.