Impact and people

Skills training: Tayaba Khanam Era's testimony

13 July 2021

Tayaba Khanam Era learned from one of her friends that Khulna Mahila Polytechnic Institute was offering skills courses with support from the ILO’s European Union-funded Skills 21 project. Era chose a graphic design course, which was something she had always dreamed about.
We Have the Power to Change Lives

06 June 2021

This month, the UN Resident Coordinator for the Fiji Multi-Country Office, Sanaka Samarasinha sat down with us to discuss Pacific informal economies. In this in-depth interview, he speaks about the unique challenges faced by the informal sector, and how we cannot hope to build back better from the pandemic without addressing the massive gaps within this often ‘invisible’ space.

Mushrooms mean opportunities for disabled persons in Bangladesh

16 February 2016

Farming mushrooms is offering a valuable income stream for disabled people in Bangladesh, helping give them more confidence and control over their future.

International Women's Day 2007 - Sweet success: How Tajik women are turning honey into economic development

02 March 2007

If honey can cure disease, reduce fever, improve the intellect and make cows give more milk, why not promote local development and female empowerment? That's just what is happening in remote Tajikistan, where honey has become a powerful new development tool. Olga Bogdanova of the ILO's Moscow office reports how honey has sweetened the prospects for local development, and in the process, empowered many of the local women and migrants.
The spicy taste of entrepreneurship: street food sellers and economic development

09 February 2007

In Bangkok, food sold by street vendors provides more than just a cheap and healthy meal. For tens of thousands of people it is a vital source of income and a recipe for reducing poverty. According to a study recently published by the International Labour Organization (ILO), street vendors shouldn't be seen as a nuisance and a traffic obstruction but as entrepreneurs who generate "cultural capital" while building a healthier future for themselves and their families. The study says the right policies and positive social attitudes can benefit not just the vendors and their customers but entire economies as well. ILO Online reports.

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