Michiko Miyamoto, ILO Country Director for Indonesia and Yos Johan Utama, Rector of the University of Diponegoro (Undip) in Indonesia signed a joint collaboration agreement, aimed at enhancing the curriculum and broadening the knowledge of the university's lecturers, students and faculty members on international labour standards and decent work.

The signing event was conducted in Semarang, Central Java, on 29 August supported by the 8.7 Accelerator Lab programme, which aims to accelerate the replication of promising practices and identify new solutions to end forced labour and child labour globally, including in Indonesia.

The ILO-Undip agreement has opened a further collaborative effort on mainstreaming issues related to business and human rights and to actions against forced labour in the fishing sector including issues on fair recruitment, representation of fishers, elimination of child labour and equal employment opportunity.

The joint collaboration also closely follows a global Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the Global Business School Network (GBSN) and the Geneva School of Economics and Management (GSEM) of the University of Geneva. These agreements are part of the ILO's efforts to innovatively collaborate with academic institutions in the field of business and human rights and create a global front against labour exploitation.

“The ILO greatly welcomes the collaboration with UNDIP as a leading university located in one of the Indonesian coastal, fishing areas of Semarang, Central Java which is also known as the largest province of origin for Indonesian fishers in both Indonesian and foreign fishing vessels. We also have prepared various training programmes for lecturers and students as well as for those who are interested to join,” stated Michiko commenting on the joint signing.

She also hoped that through this joint programme, Undip could act as a leading university in the Central Java Province which actively promote decent work and could contribute to address decent work deficits in the province’s fishing sector.

Meanwhile, Rector Yos emphasized the need for expanding this collaborative effort to relevant faculties. “The initial joint programme that only involves two faculties, the Faculty of Economics and Business and the Faculty of Social Science and Political Science should be expanded so that this important collaboration can be strengthened throughout the university,” he stated.

As a result, the signing of the joint collaboration was immediately followed with a workshop involving lecturers from five other faculties, such as, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science, Faculty of Vocational School and the SDG Centre of Undip.

As a follow up, a joint workshop will be organized to introduce the new teaching tool on labour and human rights for Undip’s lecturers and their faculty members. Muhamad Nour, ILO’s National Programme Coordinator for the 8.7 Accelerator Lab in Indonesia, explained that the ILO’s 8.7 Accelerator Lab has developed a teaching tool to promote decent work and the elimination of forced labour in the fishing industry.

“This teaching resource has been designed by business school lecturers and subject matter experts for the use of other business school lecturers under the global MoU mentioned above. And, we hope that this teaching tool can also be utilized by Undip as the ILO’s university partner in the fight against labour exploitation,” Muhamad added.

In addition, the ILO has rolled out toolkits intended to enhance the reporting skills of communications students on forced labour issues from three selected universities located in the coastal areas: Undip, University of Brawijaya (Unibraw) Malang in East Java and Bandung Islamic University (Unisba) in West Java. The toolkits encompass in-depth materials such as case studies, specific term glossaries, and crucial facts and figures.