UNDP Administrator Helen Clark says ILO Global Jobs Pact “Paves the way” for economic recovery. ILO member States in Asia and Pacific to review recovery efforts at regional meeting in October

(Geneva and Bangkok, ILO News) – United Nations Development Programme Administrator (UNDP) Helen Clark said the ILO Global Jobs Pact “paves the way” for countries seeking a “fair and just” way out of the global recession.

“It is not simply that we need to create millions of jobs each year to keep pace with growth in the world’s labour force,” Ms Clark told the ILO’s Governing Body meeting in Geneva. “To have a chance of achieving the first MDG (Millennium Development Goal) of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 in many countries, significantly more and better jobs will need to be created.”

“For nations seeking to emerge from the recession in a way which is fair and just, the Global Jobs Pact paves the way”, she said.

Ms Clark was addressing the “Working Party on the Social Dimension of Globalization (WP/SDG) of the ILO Governing Body, which is considering ways to recover and sustain growth and development, as well as analyzing the contribution of the Global Jobs Pact adopted by ILO member States during the International Labour Conference last year.

Ms Clark said the recent decision of the UNDP Executive Board to integrate the Global Jobs Pact into that organization’s operational activities in collaboration with the ILO was part of the UNDP’s efforts to “maintain traction on the MDGs in tough times.”

ILO Director-General, Mr Juan Somavia, in his welcoming remarks, said: “We believe we could do more to get full value out of this articulated approach if UNDP and ILO work even more closely together”.

Ms Clark cited several joint UNDP-ILO initiatives, including the promotion of sustainable employment in Bulgaria and Egypt, and support to young unemployed workers in Bosnia, Costa Rica and Sudan.

Looking ahead, Ms Clark said there were four areas were UNDP could step up collaboration with the ILO, including opportunities created by the recently adopted UN policy regarding post-conflict countries on employment creation, income generation and reintegration; climate change; increasing the knowledge base on the employment impacts of policies and programmes; and work on the Global Social Protection Floor initiative.

In a number of countries across Asia and the Pacific, the ILO and UNDP are already working together in response to the jobs crisis. In Cambodia, for example, collaboration is underway to measure the impact of the crisis on both employed and unemployed workers in the garment sector. UNDP and ILO are also working partners in the One-UN initiatives in Pakistan and Viet Nam.

ILO member States in Asia and the Pacific will consider progress in the region’s recovery efforts in context of the Global Jobs Pact at the 15th Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting this October in Bangkok.

The high-level meeting will draw many hundreds of delegates from 45 member States representing Governments, Worker and Employer Organizations. Convened every four years, this 15th Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting takes place midway through the Asian Decent Work Decade (2006 – 2015).

For further information, please contact:

Mr Allan Dow
Regional Information Officer (a.i.)
International Labour Organization
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok
Tel: +66 (0) 2288 2057, Email