The opening session was attended by Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Anatoly Moskalenko, Vice-President of the PAO LUKOIL, David Yakobashvili, member of the Governing Board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE), Mikhail Shmakov, Chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FITUR), Inna Avdeeva, Head of Labour Inspection of Astrakhan Region, Oleg Petelin, Deputy Chairman of the Astrakhan Region Government, and Olga Koulaeva, Director of the ILO Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The project is a response to a call made at the International Labour Conference (June 2012) which adopted the resolution “Youth Employment Crisis: Time for Action”.

As a result of successful implementation of the project’s first phase, the ILO and LUKOIL signed an agreement for extending cooperation on a new phase to be implemented in 2018-2022 with the purpose of further improving the effectiveness of policies and programmes aimed at promoting decent jobs for young people based on broad and sustainable partnerships.

As was noted by Guy Ryder, the project “is our first partnership with a major Russian company and practically unique experience in the European region of the ILO. It focuses on one of the most pressing issues in the world today, youth unemployment and skills development that remains a global challenge and a top policy for all countries, including in Europe and Central Asia”. The project uses a relevant and successful approach combining action at regional, national and regional levels, with the implication of social partners at all stages of the project.

Guy Ryder also noted “strategic importance of the project in the sense that it reaches out of lot of key initiatives at ILO and global levels, starting with our ILO Centenary Initiatives, including the future of work.”
The countries targeted under the second phase include Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Uzbekistan. In Russia, apart from the Republic of Kalmykia, Perm Territory and Khanty-Mansy Autonomous Region, three more pilot regions – Astrakhan Region (hence the project’s second phase launched there), Kaliningrad Region and Komi Republic – were selected.

The conference participants representing social partners in the regions involved in the ILO project in Russia, discussed the outcomes of the first phase and priorities for the second phase.

During their stay in the Astrakhan Region, the ILO Director-General and officials from the International Labour Office accompanying him visited the V. Filanovsky offshore oil platform.

Source: Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia