Project overview

Young workers suffer the highest rate of work-related injuries. One of the key factors cited for the high injury toll is the lack of awareness of workplace safety and worker rights on the part of young workers.

Youth4OSH, otherwise known as OSH for Young Workers and Young Employers in Global Supply Chains—Building a Culture of Prevention project, seeks to reduce workplace injuries, fatalities, and occupational diseases through increased preventative safety actions by young workers and young employers engaged in global supply chains in Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Viet Nam.

In particular, Youth4OSH seeks to address the lack of awareness of workplace safety and worker rights on the part of young workers by developing and pilot testing a range of tools and strategies for raising workplace safety awareness, and by generating public demand for improvements in national OSH systems. To achieve these objectives, Youth4OSH will establish and engage networks of young intermediaries in global construction and manufacturing sector supply chains. These networks will then be equipped with the tools and skills to promote OSH awareness and preventative action. Youth4OSH is supported by Disney Worldwide Services, Inc. via the United States Council for International Business Foundation (USCIB).

Youth4OSH is being implemented in conjunction with the ILO’s SafeYouth@Work project. SafeYouth@Work aims to promote the occupational safety and health of young workers based on improved performance in OSH knowledge and awareness, amongst other strategic areas. Communication materials will be developed in advance of the launch event that present an integrated message covering Disney-supported (Youth4OSH) as well as USDOL-supported (SafeYouth@Work) activities under a common country-level 'mini-programme' banner and tagline.

Youth4OSH and SafeYouth@Work are cores projects under the ILO flagship programme Global Action for Prevention on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH GAP). OSH GAP seeks to foster the creation of a global culture of prevention, with the objective of achieving real reductions in the incidence of work-related death, injury and disease.

Launch date

The proposed date for the overall project launch to take place in Jakarta is 28 April 2017. This date has been selected because it marks the annual World Day for Safety and Health at Work, which ILO celebrates in order to promote the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases globally. World Day for Safety and Health at Work is a global awareness-raising campaign intended to focus international attention on emerging trends in the field of occupational safety and health and on the magnitude of work-related injuries, diseases and fatalities worldwide. The campaign theme for the 2017 World Day for Safety and Health at Work is “Optimize the Collection and Use of OSH Data”. This campaign theme focuses on the critical need for countries to improve their capacity to collect and utilize reliable occupational safety and health (OSH) data.

The shared focus of the Youth4OSH project and the World Day for Safety and Health at Work on awareness raising on OSH in order to promote a culture of prevention makes this date an opportune moment to launch the Youth4OSH project. In addition, some components of the Youth4OSH project including – for example – a comparative analysis of predominant OSH issues in the construction and manufacturing sectors across the project’s four target countries fits well with this year’s campaign focus on the collection and use of OSH data, with a special focus on young workers.

Objectives

The objectives of the project launch are to:

• Launch the Youth4OSH project.
• Launch the Indonesia country component of the SafeYouth@Work Project.
• Celebrate Safe Day 2017.

This event has three key messages:

• Young workers face significant occupational safety and health (OSH) challenges, including in Indonesia.
• There are significant gaps in available data about the OSH situation for young workers, including in Indonesia.
• ILO is implementing a new package of targeted interventions during 2017 – 2018 to support our constituents to take action on OSH for youth, including in Indonesia.