ILO/Korea Partnership Programme, 2003-22

Korea and the ILO: A partnership for development

The Republic of Korea joined the International Labour Organization in 1991, becoming a highly active member country and an innovating partner. Since 1996 the country has been represented in the Governing Body as both a Titular Member and Deputy Member. The Government of Korea is a generous contributor to the ILO’s technical cooperation work at both headquarters and within the Asia-Pacific region.

In 2003, the Ministry of Employment and Labour signed a memorandum of understanding with the ILO to formalize their partnership for development. A year later, the Government of Korea provided funding to institutionalize the ILO/Korea Partnership Programme, which focuses on realizing the objectives set out in the Asian Decent Work Decade that were introduced during the Fourteenth ILO Asian Regional Meeting in the Republic of Korea in 2006.

Thematic areas

The ILO/Korea Partnership Programme has a clear goal, to support the realization of the Asian Decent Work Decade that was launched in 2006 at the 14th ILO Asian Regional Meeting in Busan, Republic of Korea. The Programme’s support is directed into three thematic (project) areas:

• Competitiveness, Productivity and Jobs
• Labour Market Governance and Social Protection
• Labour Migration

Institutional framework

The ILO/Korea Partnership Programme, under the guidance of the ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, works in close collaboration with specialists in ILO offices throughout the region. The ILO/Korea team manages the Programme. Each year, the Ministry of Employment and Labour and the ILO meet to discuss the programme’s work and consider new projects. The meeting takes the form of an Executive Committee made up of the Korean Government, their eight partner institutions and ILO officials and technical specialists from the ILO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. The group exchanges experiences, lessons learned, reviews the status of on-going project activities and then agrees on the forthcoming year’s implementing plan. Once the plan is endorsed, a Letter of Agreement is signed to ensure adequate resources.

Korean partner institutions

The Programme’s comparative advantage is its partnership approach involving eight specialised institutions from the Republic of Korea. By sharing their technical expertise and resources, including training facilities, personnel, networks and funds, both the ILO and the Korean partner organizations not only improve the world of work for individuals but each organization strengthens and broadens its own knowledge. This sharing results in the delivery of the best-possible and cost-effective services to countries with developing economies and labour markets.

The Programme’s priority areas of work are implemented in partnership with relevant Korean institutions that have committed to extend their knowledge and technical expertise, training facilities, personnel, funds, and institutional network in the implementation of project activities. These Korean partner institutions include:

• Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRDK)
• Korea Employment Agency for the Disabled (KEAD)
• Korea Employment Information Service (KEIS)
• Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA)
• Korea International Labour Foundation (KOILAF)
• Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET)
• Korea University of Technology and Education (KUT)
• Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service (COMWEL)

Regional outcomes

According to the ILO/Korea 5-year Framework 2008-2013, the Development Objective of the Programme is “to contribute to the realization of the Decent Work in Asia through creating enabling environment to foster sustainable and productive growth” with the following immediate objectives:

Immediate objective 1:
Participating countries will have improved their information, knowledge and policy frameworks on sustainable productivity and growth, incorporating improved protection towards vulnerable workers.

Immediate objective 2:
Selected countries will have enhanced their capacity to formulate and implement coherent policies and frameworks to improve protection of vulnerable workers, and support sustainable productivity and growth.

Thus the Programme interventions, which have been jointly designed and implemented in collaboration with Korean partner organizationsinstitutions, focus on strengthening capacity of the constituents in participating countries for formulating coherent and comprehensive policies on thematic areas under the Programme support through a series of activities for instance, research, national workshops, fellowship trainings of government officials and some staff of employers’ and workers’ organizations, and consultancy missions by Korea and ILO experts in the field during the projects implementation.

Some concrete examples of the success stories from the past biennium include:

1. The establishment and operation of the first ever employment injury insurance scheme for workers in Cambodia.
2. The development of the first ever national skills standards on construction sector (9 modules for skills standards pilot-tested and finalized, manual on skills standard and test & assessment module finalized, and concerned officials & trainers and assessors trained on the manual) for Lao PDR.
3. The improvement of migrant workers pre-departure preparations and protection at work of migrant workers who are under the Government-Government Employment Permit System (EPS) scheme (approximately 312,544 workers in 2011) as a result of better understanding of both sending countries government officials who implemented the EPS scheme and the continued positive changes on regulations and practices by the Korean government.

Geographical coverage

The Programme covers Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Viet Nam and Pacific countries. Projects that originate in the ILO headquarters also cover countries outside the Asia-Pacific region.

For further information please contact:

ILO/Korea Partnership Programme
International Labour Organization
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
United Nations Building
Rajdamnern Nok Avenue
Bangkok 10200, Thailand
Tel: +662 288 1234
Fax: +662 288 3062
Email