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NINTH ITEM ON THE AGENDA
 

PROGRAMME AND BUDGET PROPOSALS FOR  2000-01
VOLUME 1	STRATEGY AND ORIENTATION

Strategic programme and budget

14. This section provides an overview of the objectives, orientations and main outputs of the Programme and Budget proposals summarized under strategic and operational objectives. Proposals for substantive action in the field structure are integrated with technical work at headquarters. Table 4 below shows indicative estimates of the attribution of resources to the four strategic objectives.

 

Table 4 .	Distribution of resources from the Technical programmes, Regional programmes and Support activities, by strategic objective
Strategic objective		Percentage of resources
1. Promote and realize fundamental principles and rights at work		22
2. Create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment and income		37
3. Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all		25
4. Strengthen tripartism and social dialogue		16
		100

15. Under each strategic objective proposals are made for one or more International Focus (InFocus) programmes. They are cross-sectoral programmes which concentrate efforts and attention on key issues for the ILO. There are eight in total. In each case the InFocus programme serves as an umbrella under which activities serving a common objective can be brought together to achieve greater focus and coherence in presentation and in the achievement of objectives.

16. They will also serve as areas of concentration integrating new or revised activities in the 2000-01 programme proposals so as to increase the critical mass of resources needed to obtain desired results. Implementation strategies for those programmes will be a priority for 1999. It will also be necessary to determine regular budget resources for these programmes for 2000-01 in the light of a review of programme priorities. External partnerships and extra-budgetary resources will be sought for these programmes. Progress in their implementation will be reported to the Governing Body.

17. There are two cross-cutting issues in the proposals: development and gender. Over the years, the ILO has contributed to a deeper understanding and enrichment of the concept of development, as well as to the process of attaining development. The activities in the 2000-01 programme will have development as a central thrust.

18. The ILO's approach to development is characterized by at least six distinctive elements. First, work is seen as a central dimension of development as it is a safe and satisfying means of guaranteeing income and sustenance for both men and women. Decent work promotes the reduction of inequality of all forms based on gender, race, income and other factors. Employment and enterprise creation is therefore of prime importance. The second element relates to human and worker's rights. The ILO has firmly opposed work in oppressive, abusive and forced conditions. The third critical element in the ILO's approach to development relates to the centrality of participation in social and economic affairs at the enterprise, national and global levels. The fourth aspect of the ILO's approach to development concerns protection of the most vulnerable and exposed sectors of society. The ILO has sought assiduously to build a network of measures to provide economic security to the unemployed, the poor, disabled, the retired and the aged. This enables the labour force participation of women around decent employment opportunities. Fifth, the ILO has also given high priority to improving the skills and capabilities of workers. This is now increasingly recognized as central to economic growth, to enhancing individual choices and well-being, and to drawing families out of poverty. Finally, the ILO has helped develop a remarkable set of international norms to underpin and sustain initiatives for the promotion of employment, gender equity, good working conditions, workers' rights, social protection and participatory institutions. Development is an issue, therefore, that cuts across the four strategic objectives and inspires the InFocus programmes. In order for the ILO to maximize its specific contribution in this field, the international community has to implement the commitments of the United Nations global conferences of the 1990s with respect to market access, concessional financial flows, debt rescheduling and overall public and private development support. For social policies to be successful over time, broad-based sustainable development is essential.

19. The other issue mainstreamed throughout this document is gender. The ILO has a unique role to play in the development process. The ILO's dedication to fundamental human rights and social justice ensures that gender equality will be a goal of, a tool in, and an indicator of, its effectiveness in its pursuit of equitable and sustainable human development. In formulating policies and programmes, the ILO must combine the principles of gender equality and of equity to combat persistent problems of discrimination. Although an established policy that is being widely and effectively used in other organizations and programmes, gender mainstreaming must be reinforced in the ILO. To progress on this front, the ILO will mainstream gender in all aspects of its work, thus substantially increasing the potential of its activities to promote equitable development. As a reflection of this approach, gender issues and concerns are incorporated throughout this document and will comprise a key element of programme design.

20. The ILO programme will be implemented in the context of a progressive and uncertain expansion of the global economy. The crisis in some emerging and transition economies does not appear to be short term nor susceptible to mere financial and monetary policy corrections. The high levels of unemployment in some developed countries and the lower level of social protection in others are both sources of concern — 1.3 billion people living in poverty, 1 billion unemployed or underemployed and a majority of the world population lacking basic social safety nets are disquieting figures. The twentieth century demonstrated the greatest capacity for wealth creation and innovation in the history of humankind. Yet too many individuals, families and communities are entering the twenty-first century with an extremely high sense of general uncertainty and personal insecurity. This is so even in circles benefiting from present trends. There is an uneasy feeling that the way the global economy is working generates high levels of tension in too many people.

21. Most people identify insecurity with a lack of employment opportunities, the throes of poverty and marginalization, a sense of inappropriateness or absence of education and skills development, constraints on their capacity to organize, participate and promote their rights, inadequate health and social services and, in general, the anguish that the world of today is leaving them behind and they do not know how to react. All of these are ILO issues. The opportunity for the Organization to be useful could not be more significant. Yet it is clear that the underlying structural developmental and societal causes behind these issues cannot be tackled only with ILO policy instruments or technical cooperation support. To be effective in the future, the ILO needs to develop an independent capacity to analyse global trends, to see problems in an integrated way and to understand the contextual processes within which its policy prescriptions will operate.

22. A new international environment spearheaded by an emerging global economy is making "adjustment" a universal phenomenon. To address the dynamics of this reality, the ILO has to keep its focus on the values upon which it was founded and which constitute the reason for which it continues to be relevant 80 years later: social justice, dignity at work, and affording workers the opportunity to claim a fair share of the wealth they have helped to generate.

23. The changes under way have far-reaching implications for the ILO's programmes and policies as well as for its organizational capabilities, which were dramatically illustrated by the recent Asian crisis.

• The demands of adjustment will require the ILO to develop policies which facilitate the process of adaptation, while promoting employment-intensive growth over the long term. Such policies will include: employment-oriented macroeconomic and labour-market policies; social protection policies; and policies for social dialogue and the strengthening of social institutions. Enterprises are increasingly the vehicle of the global economy. Enterprises both restructure and reduce jobs and invest and create employment. Helping to minimize the social cost of one while expanding the quantity and quality of the other is clearly an ILO responsibility. It will be important to develop an enterprise-based approach to implement the strategic objectives of the budget.

• Responding to the needs of adjustment requires an organizational capability to deliver ILO programmes rapidly and flexibly, taking into account different regional and national circumstances. It will also demand new knowledge capabilities, particularly in the area of economic analysis and labour statistics.

• The counterpart to adjustment is the capacity of the ILO to develop policy alternatives for the governance of the global economy that integrates economic and social efficiency within an effective long-term sustainable growth pattern whose benefits are fairly distributed. Social development must be understood as a positive contribution to the production process.

24. The four strategic objectives define the basic priorities and orientation of the ILO's work. They are long-term goals to which, it is suggested, member States should aspire. Their attainment will be facilitated by national and international commitment and action to support the development needs of developing countries as well as those in transition.

25. The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work adopted at the 86th Session of the International Labour Conference in June 1998 bears witness to the importance of this strategic objective. It also makes clear that follow-up work on the Declaration is not a substitute for the established supervisory machinery for ILO Conventions and Recommendations. Normal standards-related activities are described in detail in Volume 2; only those that relate directly to Strategic Objective No. 1 appear here.

26. The approach to the follow-up of the Declaration will be discussed on the basis of a separate paper for the March 1999 session of the Governing Body. Without prejudice to that discussion, a number of elements are proposed in the InFocus programme on promoting the Declaration under operational objective 1(a). Operational objective 1(b) aims at supporting ratification and application of the fundamental Conventions. Child labour aspects are, in addition, addressed specifically under operational objective 1(c).

Operational objective 1(a):
ILO member States give effect to the principles and rights concerning freedom of association and collective bargaining, discrimination and forced and child labour that are reaffirmed in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work

27. The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work marked a renewed universal commitment to respect, promote and realize these principles: freedom of association, effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour, effective abolition of child labour, and elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. The follow-up to the Declaration is promotional in nature; it will provide a new avenue for the flow of information about these rights and principles as they relate to economic and social development needs.

28. The Office will perform the preparatory work necessary to assist the experts' group being set up for purposes of the follow-up to the Declaration. This will involve sending requests for information where fundamental Conventions have not been ratified, compiling the replies, and assisting the experts' group in examining them. It will have the responsibility for drafting the global reports on the different categories of principles and rights. Information from these reports will be fed into the rest of the work of the Office. In particular, technical cooperation activities will be identified through the Governing Body and Conference discussions on the annual and the global reports and approached in conjunction with the InFocus programme.

InFocus: Promoting the Declaration	The programme has a threefold purpose: to raise awareness of the Declaration within countries and at the regional and international levels as well as among interested socio-economic actors, to deepen understanding of how these fundamental principles and rights reinforce development, democracy, equity and empowerment for women and men, and to promote policies that implement these principles in practice in the development conditions of each country. The ILO must bring home the importance of these rights and principles in improving the lives of ordinary people, in line with the promotional nature of the Declaration and its follow-up. The ILO will sharpen its understanding of how the implementation of these fundamental rights and principles underpins democracy, equity, economic efficiency and sustainable growth in both developed and developing countries. It will continue to stress that the Declaration and its follow-up are not to be used for protectionist purposes. On this basis, the ILO can assist its constituents in integrating these principles into their development strategies and stimulate institutions and actors beyond the ILO to embrace the Declaration and respect its objectives in their own work. The programme will mount an information campaign to bring the message to policy-makers as well as various segments of the general public. This provides an opportunity to work with the ILO's constituents to cooperate with parliamentarians, public opinion leaders, enterprises and the development community. The programme is also intended to investigate how each one of the rights and principles relates to economic growth, employment creation, poverty reduction and gender equity, as well as to pinpoint the most effective means of applying these rights and principles in the light of national and regional circumstances. There will be cooperation with countries seeking to carry out social reviews to highlight what is hindering or facilitating implementation of the Declaration. The results will in turn help to inform the technical assistance and technical cooperation provided by the Office, such as advisory services on employment policy and legislative frameworks. One aspect of the programme will be identification, in coordination with other Office efforts, of possible sources of donor assistance for ILO member States to supplement RBTC-funded projects relating to the Declaration. Finally, the programme aims at careful preparation of a broader policy perspective designed to influence actors inside and outside the ILO to mainstream fundamental principles and rights at work within the promotional spirit of the Declaration. This will include a review of methods to ensure that respect for these principles and rights is embedded in the ILO's own work.

29. The promotion of the principles and rights cited in the Declaration will involve the full range of the ILO's means of action. It will call upon a number of ILO units and the regional structures, working in tandem with the InFocus programme. For example, activities undertaken by the ILO in relation to and together with other international and regional organizations will emphasize fundamental principles and rights.

30. The ILO's dialogue with the regional and international financial institutions will be intensified with the view that their policies and operational programmes do not undermine and are supportive of a promotional approach to fundamental principles and rights at work. In addition to high-level contacts, this will entail activities — primarily meetings involving these institutions and the social partners — to achieve a better understanding of the approaches taken by those institutions and the ILO as regards the relationship between economic efficiency and respect for fundamental principles and rights at work. This will include analysis of the institutional implications for governance (regulatory frameworks, law enforcement mechanisms, dispute prevention and resolution, etc.) at all levels, from the international arena to the workplace. Relations will be strengthened with the Bretton Woods institutions and regional development banks at the policy and operational level in the regions with this approach in mind. Such contacts and activities will also draw upon promotional materials produced in the context of the InFocus programme.

Operational objective 1(b):
The fundamental Conventions on freedom of association and collective bargaining, the elimination of forced labour and discrimination and the abolition of child labour are extensively ratified and fully applied

31. The fundamental Conventions cover four quite different areas of work: freedom of association and collective bargaining, discrimination in employment and occupation, abolition of forced labour, and child labour. Encouragement of ratification of these fundamental Conventions will be a logical corollary to the awareness-raising activities under operational objective 1(a), and special efforts addressing the considerable technical aspects concerned will be made in this respect for countries that have indicated their intention to ratify them. Each region has set a ratification goal for the seven Conventions and has developed plans to support member States' implementation of them.

32. Just as with other ratified Conventions, important advisory and supervisory activities relating to the fundamental Conventions will be undertaken, as detailed in Volume 2. Better understanding and application of each of these standards will be pursued through the provision of advisory services, training activities, seminars, analytical work and information dissemination. In particular, a study will be published on the impact of ILO supervisory machinery in the field of freedom of association for the year 2001, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Committee on Freedom of Association. Advisory notes prepared in connection with Strategic Objective No. 4 on the positive contributions made by collective bargaining will be used to support the efforts of countries that are seeking to promote it in accordance with Convention No. 98.

33. Regarding gender discrimination in employment and occupation covered by Convention No. 111, the ILO will take advantage of national action plans developed in the framework of the International Programme on More and Better Jobs for Women, and lessons learned from it will be drawn upon in relation to other grounds of discrimination. Technical work, including research and information dissemination, will continue in relation to methods of application of the principle of equal remuneration. The abolition of forced labour will be pursued and more publicity will be given to the contributions made by the ILO to the work of other treaty-based organs in relation to the fundamental Conventions. Activities towards the elimination of child labour in accordance with Convention No. 138 are described under operational objective 1(c).

34. In conjunction with work done to support the other strategic objectives, a variety of legal information relevant to constituents will be processed and made available electronically and through NATLEX to illustrate national approaches in relation to these and other Conventions. New search techniques for standards-related Internet research will be added, including the dissemination of ILO Conventions and Recommendations (particularly the seven fundamental instruments) in as many languages as possible.

35. In all regions it is planned to work more closely with employers' and workers' organizations in promoting these fundamental standards. Manuals on how to plan and execute training activities on standards will be developed for this purpose as well as to inform the constituents, decision-makers (parliamentarians, judges, law reform commissions, etc.), academia and non-governmental groups about these standards and the supervisory machinery supporting them.

36. Training will be provided to ILO constituents and policy-makers on standards supervision, special emphasis being placed on practical activities to help member States fulfil their obligations under the Constitution in relation to these key Conventions. The training materials developed for this will be updated and improved each year. A study will be undertaken of ways in which the impact of the work of the supervisory bodies in relation to these Conventions can be enhanced.

37. Technical support will be provided for the tripartite review of national law and practice, and their compliance with the relevant standards, so as to identify difficulties and propose solutions. Advice and assistance will also be provided to national authorities seeking to adopt legislative texts that serve to apply the fundamental Conventions in a context of well-conceived contemporary labour legislation and successful labour law reform processes involving the social partners. This activity will build and expand on the Labour Law Guidelines developed in 1998-99.

Operational objective 1(c):
Child labour is progressively eliminated, giving priority to the urgent elimination of its worst forms and providing alternatives for children
and families

38. The ILO has historically played a key role in international efforts to combat the abuse of children through work. More recently, and as a result of its determination and success in this campaign, the ILO has mobilized support and financing from diverse institutional settings and from many countries. This has generated a global programme with multiple actors, multifaceted projects and worldwide recognition.

39. The progressive elimination of child labour, particularly in its most hazardous forms, through the expected new Convention on the worst forms of child labour, the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), and the Declaration, will be promoted through vigorous advocacy, the dissemination of guidance and information and the provision of technical assistance. ILO work on child labour will be situated within a vision of diversified development needs and possibilities that encompass the goals of increasing family income, promoting better access to education, and facilitating decent work for adult family members.

InFocus: Progressive elimination of child labour, promoting development	Child labour works against investment in human capability, against the provision of decent and dignified work and against the reduction of poverty. The InFocus programme aims to reduce child labour and promote development by pursuing efforts to extend and build on the work of the International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). The ILO's activities have already evidenced the extremely complex nature of diverse child labour situations that need to be handled with sensitivity, particularly in the context of poverty, economic deprivation and parental unemployment. Its vestiges should be progressively removed by addressing concurrently all root causes and providing for sustainable rehabilitation of working children as well as their families. IPEC will intensify its efforts on a global scale, as the foremost operational instrument in the fight against child labour. The programme will continue to operate by strengthening national capabilities. The Programme's priority is to prevent child labour, remove children from work and provide for their development as children. With the assistance provided, the overall capacity of member States to address child labour will be strengthened. Emphasis will be placed on the design and implementation of large-scale time-bound programmes to eliminate child labour. Monitoring mechanisms will be established under ILO supervision to evaluate the impact of these programmes. IPEC will continue to provide technical advice and assistance to governments and to employers' and workers' organizations as required, and will prepare national and sectoral plans of action. As part of other programmes to promote decent employment and to support families, as well as through IPEC, the InFocus programme also aims to establish social protection schemes to provide alternatives for the affected children and their parents. National systems for the collection and analysis of data on child labour will be developed with the assistance of an expanded ILO-IPEC Statistical Information and Monitoring Programme (SIMPOC). The statistical work on child labour will be intensified through the collection of information on changes over time that can be linked to national data sets. This information will be an important input for strengthening programme and project planning. The focus on the worst forms of child labour includes specific efforts to target the especially vulnerable group of working girls. This may be linked with the industry-focused strategy by developing programmes for girls working in such occupations as domestic service and the sex trade. Home-based unpaid work, such as housework and care of family members, is another issue with an important gender dimension since it constitutes a hidden subsidy to production, undermines access to schooling and adversely affects girls' future labour market prospects. Particularly on issues such as children in the sex trade, work with multiple actors such as employers' and workers' organizations, as well as with NGOs, will remain crucial.

40. A significant increase in technical cooperation on child labour is expected, with stronger support from multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) and ILO offices in Africa, the Americas and Asia and the Pacific. The establishment of partnerships at the country level has proved effective in tackling the problem of child labour from different angles. Concerted action by employers' organizations will continue and meetings will be organized on trade union action on child labour to exchange experience and to plan for future action. Expanded technical advice and assistance will be provided to governments and the social partners, in particular in Africa, in the Americas and in Asia and the Pacific, for the design of country plans to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, including the sale and trafficking of children and prostitution. These activities will be coordinated with those of the relevant United Nations agencies, the World Bank and other international organizations to ensure that national action against child labour benefits from a wide array of international support. Information materials on child labour will be produced to assist enterprise and trade union policy development.

41. IPEC has been extremely successful in attracting and maintaining extra-budgetary funds as well as collaborating with other multilateral agencies. Efforts will be made to take advantage of the lessons learned from this experience.

42. An overall evaluation of IPEC activities will be undertaken on the basis of lessons learnt, best practices, effectiveness and involvement of civil society (including local government, employers' organizations and trade unions) in programmes.