Decent Work in Trade and Investment Agreements: Role and Actions of Trade Unions in Africa – Supported by Finland, Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland (SASK)

The project aims to expand the trade union knowledge base and skills capacities to better participate in industrial trade and investment policy formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation; with the view to ensure that trade unions can identify, analyze, and report noticeable decent work deficits both in law and practice and offer appropriate solutions for redress.

Project Strategy

At the core of this project is the advancement of decent work and social justice and the need for adequate policy frameworks that centrally place decent, sustainable employment and workers’ rights as objective outcomes of all trade and investment agreements and programs.

The strategic intervention methods include national and cross-national learning exchanges:

• National workshops and seminars
• Production and dissemination of trade union policy/position papers
• High-level meetings with policy makers at the regional and national level and engagements with the United Nations Country Teams and Resident Coordinators
• Helping to formulate an agenda for trade union actions entrenched in the ILO Centenary Declaration, which promotes a human-centered approach to the future of work

Expected results

Impact: By 2030, qualitative improvement in the context of trade agreements reflecting the decent work agenda, labour rights and international labour standards, the ILO MNE Declaration and its principles is realized. Furthermore, this project seeks to instill a fair, inclusive international trade and investment regime whose objective outcomes result in full, productive, and freely chosen employment and decent work for all.

Outcome: By 2025, trade union organizations in the four project countries are effectively using social dialogue mechanisms to promote the decent work agenda in trade and investment policy making, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

Outputs

• By 2025, the knowledge and awareness levels of trade unions on the interlinkages between industrial, trade and investment policies as well as decent work outcomes are enhanced
• By 2025, the capacity of trade unions to lobby and advocate for decent work as an objective outcome of industrial, trade, and investment policies and programs is enhanced

Regions and countries: Africa - Namibia, Rwanda, Sénégal, Uganda