Partnerships

ILO and IFRC to promote decent work opportunities in fragile and post-disaster settings

Agreement covers cooperation on livelihoods, procurement, SMEs, and cooperatives.

Press release | 20 November 2015
GENEVA (ILO News) – The ILO and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have signed a new partnership agreement aimed at promoting livelihoods and decent work opportunities for vulnerable groups in fragile and post-disaster settings.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding, the ILO and the IFRC will share and exchange knowledge on livelihoods programming, local procurement policies, small- and medium-sized enterprises, cooperatives development and business continuity management tools.

The agreement also involves capacity building for both ILO and IFRC staff and Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers, joint advocacy and communications activities, as well as cooperation on resource mobilization.

“Catastrophic events such as the recent Nepal earthquakes and the current refugee crisis are daily reminders of the absolute necessity to focus our attention on the millions of vulnerable people who are caught in fragile or disaster situations,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. “We are confident that this agreement with the IFRC will help catalyse our joint efforts to help restore livelihoods and promote decent opportunities in fragile and disaster settings.”

“Humanitarian action needs to look beyond simply addressing the immediate consequences of disasters or crises. Our collective focus should be on building resilience at the community level, on supporting people to become stronger and better able to meet the long-term development challenges they face,” said IFRC Secretary General, Elhadj As Sy. “This partnership with ILO will help us do this by ensuring that we can support communities to quickly develop or re-establish their livelihoods and businesses.”

The ILO and the IFRC have worked together in the past, including in post-earthquake Haiti where the two organizations collaborated to address unemployment and stimulate local economic development.

To kick start the roll-out of the global partnership the ILO and IFRC will hold a partnership incubator workshop on 24 November which will define training, advocacy and implementation priorities.


For more information please contact the ILO Department of Communication and Public Information on + 41 22 799 7912 or newsroom@ilo.org or the IFRC Public communications team on +41 (0)22 730 46 96 or benoit.carpentier@ifrc.org.