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Global South-South Development Expo

ILO presents innovative South-South development solutions

The ILO contribution to the Global South-South Development Expo 2014 will feature scalable solutions related to South-South cooperation on social protection floors, the eradication of child labour, the social and solidarity economy, and fragile States.

Press release | 12 November 2014
GENEVA – The International Labour Organization (ILO) will present innovative and effective solutions to global development challenges at the Global South-South Development (GSSD) Expo, which runs in Washington from 17 to 21 November 2014.

The GSSD Expo is the United Nations’ annual high-profile event to promote South-South Cooperation around the globe.

The ILO Solution Forum will take place on 19 November and feature scalable solutions related to social protection floors, child labour, the social and solidarity economy and fragile States, child labour and the social economy. The solutions will be presented by six panellists who are representatives of governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations from the Global South.

Solution presenters include Mr. Helder da Costa, General-Secretary of the G7+ Secretariat, whose presentation will highlight fragile-to-fragile cooperation in the framework of the agreement with the ILO and the New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States. On a similar note, Ms. Rabiatou Sérah Diallo, Honorary President of the National Confederation of Workers of Guinea, will share her experience as Chair of the National Transitional Council of Guinea, where she played an important role in the promotion and consolidation of democratic values in her country.

The links between the Social and Solidarity Economy and South-South Cooperation continue to be a prominent topic this year. Mr Benjamin Quiñones, Chairman of the Asian Solidarity Economy Council, will address the subject from an Asian perspective, while Mr. Yoseph Aseffa, Project Coordinator of the Impact Insurance Facility of the ILO Social Finance Programme, will share the best practices in the African context.

Ms. Paula Montagner, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Social Development of Brazil, will address the elimination of child labour in the follow-up to the III Global Conference on Child Labour, which took place in Brasilia in October 2013. This also led to a regional initiative for the Americas on the same topic: Ministers of the Latin America and Caribbean region reaffirmed their commitment to a continent free of child labour in October in Lima in the presence of ILO Director-General Guy Ryder.

Ms Maria del Carmen Velasco, Project Manager for the Eradication of Child Labour at the Ministry of Labour Relations of Ecuador, will join her and showcase the public-private initiative of an employers’ network to eliminate child labour in Ecuador, which has been shared with several countries in the region, including Costa Rica and Colombia.

This year’s event will also include the launch of an ILO-UNOSSC (United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation) publication: “Global South-South Development Expos, Decent Work Solutions (2010-2013)” which takes stock of scalable solutions presented in the previous GSSD Expos.

“Having countries learn from each other is especially important to address global social and economic problems. The aim of this year’s Expo is to build on the solutions showcased in previous years and scale them up towards the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, thus contributing to the post-2015 development agenda,” says Jürgen Schwettmann, Director of the ILO Department of Partnerships and Field Support (PARDEV).