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NINTH ITEM ON THE AGENDA
 

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

43. Employment promotion will continue to be given high priority in the ILO's work. Without productive employment, achieving the goals of decent living standards, of social and economic integration, of personal fulfilment and of social development becomes a chimera. Enterprise promotion and human resource development are key elements in achieving these goals. The ILO will continue to mobilize its capabilities, and those of its constituents, to help identify and promote the policies and programmes which can attain employment goals.

44. The debate on the management of the global economy presents the ILO with a major challenge and opportunity. The economic benefits of an expanding world economy are accompanied by failed enterprises and lost jobs in those regions or sectors unable to compete. As concern for the social costs of globalization mounts, there is increasing recognition of the need for better international coordination of macroeconomic policies and, indeed, for policies which seek to diminish these harmful consequences. The ILO has an important role to play in this debate in view of its mandate and its values. To do so effectively, however, it must strengthen its macroeconomic capacity and its advocacy role.

45. Hence the ILO will continue to carry out high-quality research as a basis for contributing to and taking the lead in the global dialogue on effective policies and programmes to meet the employment challenge. Research will emphasize topics and analysis which is persuasive not only to constituents, but also to banking, investment, trade and enterprise development specialists, and business managers. This will include policies and programmes for enterprise promotion, including strategies for raising competitiveness and productivity at the national, sectoral and enterprise levels, micro-finance, and effective systems for human resource development. Particular attention will be given to enhanced recognition by the international community, especially international and regional financial institutions, of the need for employers' and workers' organizations to participate fully in policy dialogue on employment, investment, enterprise development and labour market reform.

46. Technical cooperation will continue to be an important means of action to support quality employment generation. Funding from a wide range of donors, including international financial institutions, will be sought for projects and programmes to support employment creation through enterprise promotion, human resource development, and special employment-intensive programmes. Strong emphasis will be placed on involvement of the tripartite constituents in the design and implementation of projects, including their roles in ensuring programme sustainability and institutionalization. Particular emphasis will be given to ensure gender equity in all aspects of programme planning, implementation and evaluation.

47. Based on experience during the previous biennium, more national, regional and subregional meetings will be organized with the participation of the social partners and donors, including the Bretton Woods institutions, to examine approaches to structural adjustment. Emphasis will also be placed on tripartite participation in social measures adopted in this context, including social funds.

48. Follow-up on the World Summit for Social Development covers work in almost all areas of the ILO's competence, and the ILO is already actively involved in the preparation of the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on the Implementation of the Outcome of the World Summit for Social Development, to be held in 2000. It is expected that the Special Session will confirm the leading role of the ILO in the field of employment, and that Commitment 3, the achievement of full employment, will be a major component of the follow-up. This will provide policy support to essentially all the proposed work on employment. In particular, the experience gained from country employment policy reviews will continue to be used to establish models of best practice and to promote ratification and implementation of the Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122).

49. A special effort will be made to put into practice the provisions of the Programme of Action adopted by the Social Summit that call on enterprises to pursue investment and other policies, including non-commercial activities, to contribute to social development programmes, including the generation of employment opportunities and social support services at the workplace.

50. A special Session of the General Assembly to follow up on the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing will be held in June 2000. As in the case of the Social Summit, the ILO is already active in preparing for this event. In 2000-01, the activities described under operational objective 2(c) will continue to improve employment opportunities for women, particularly through the International Programme on More and Better Jobs for Women. Additional action is found in relation to the fundamental principles and rights on equity (under 1(a)) and social protection (under 3(a)).

51. The InFocus programmes described in this section will all raise the ILO's capacity to deliver on its Social Summit and Beijing commitments.

52. The World Employment Report will continue to be the ILO's flagship publication in the employment field and will help to make the ILO's contribution under each related operational objective more visible and authoritative.

53. It is planned to hold a World Employment Forum in the year 2000, the purpose of which will be to review outstanding issues in the employment field and seek new approaches to the creation of more and good quality jobs consistent with commitments made at the World Summit for Social Development.

54. Strategic objective No. 2 has high priority in each developing region. The country objectives documents show that the priority demands from constituents are concentrated in the following areas: job creation, labour market flexibility, skills development, poverty reduction, better jobs for women, increased employment opportunities for vulnerable groups (including ex-soldiers in countries emerging from armed conflicts), micro- and small enterprise development, and the informal sector. Programmes, such as Jobs for Africa and More and Better Jobs for Women, will provide technical support to country projects on women employment. The recent financial crisis in Asia, the Russian Federation and parts of Latin America is likely to continue to require attention. Several technical cooperation projects, in particular in the fields of vocational training, labour-intensive public works, the informal sector and micro-enterprises, labour market information systems, income-generating programmes for rural people, young people, the disabled workers and ex-combatants in countries emerging from conflict, will be launched with extra-budgetary funding. These employment programmes are particularly crucial at times of crisis and in situations of extreme poverty. To ensure that they are carried through on a scale sufficient to make the difference to employment prospects, the following InFocus reconstruction and employment-intensive investment programme has been developed, building into a consistent framework a range of effective interventions to create productive employment.

 

InFocus: Reconstruction and employment- intensive investment	The challenge of job creation is as serious as ever. Around the world, levels of unemployment and underemployment show little sign of declining, and the economic crisis in Asia has demonstrated the fragility of labour markets in even the most economically successful regions. While in the long run growth is essential for sustained employment creation, there is an enormous need for policy intervention to provide labour market and income opportunities in the short to medium term for groups facing income and employment shortfalls. The most urgent situations concern recovery and reconstruction in the wake of crisis. Such situations may be the result of war, crop failure, macroeconomic fluctuations or natural calamity; they may be local or international. Under these circumstances, maintaining income levels involves putting in place a battery of programmes that can reach different population groups with different needs. Such programmes, often short term in nature, need to be linked to a longer-term investment in production capability in order to assure reconstruction and income sustainability. This is an area in which the ILO has built up a solid technical capability over the years. In many countries, ILO technical cooperation has directly led to the creation of thousands of jobs, while developing local expertise in the organization and management of the programmes concerned. This initiative aims to consolidate and extend the ILO's contribution to income and employment generation, with particular attention to reconstruction in the wake of crises and to situations of extreme poverty. It will involve the development and application of coordinated sets of interventions, with the shape of the package adjusted to the nature of the crisis, the socioeconomic setting and the target populations. It will involve both short-term income generation through infrastructure development and other public employment projects, and investment in building up production capabilities to which the infrastructure programmes will also contribute. It will therefore also look towards longer-term goals of development, including the promotion of gender equity, human security and the provision of stable, decent work opportunities. Areas of intervention may include developing skills, micro-credit programmes and other small enterprise support, investment incentives and subsidies. Particular attention will be paid to post-conflict situations and to situations where crisis leads directly to destitution, and where the gender and ethnicity dimensions are often especially important. In these situations a substantial effort of resource mobilization is required, in which ILO will play an active role in coordination with other United Nations agencies. In addition to direct ILO intervention, systematic attention will be paid to building up local and regional capabilities in partner institutions, as well as preparing guides and manuals, undertaking demonstration projects and seeking a multiplier effect through promotional activities. This programme is expected to lead to a substantial increase in the ILO's capability to deliver technical cooperation which makes a difference to recovery and reconstruction, as well as supporting the design and implementation of coordinated interventions which help raise the incomes and employment of the poorest groups in low-income settings worldwide.

Operational objective 2(a):
ILO constituents are equipped to analyse economic and labour market developments and to elaborate and negotiate effective employment promotion policies and programmes

55. This objective is concerned with capacity building among constituents in member States on labour market issues

56. An important priority in all regional programmes will be employment policy reviews and the development of comprehensive employment strategies and programmes. Based on recent pilot activities, support will be provided to help member States to institutionalize their work on poverty reduction, particularly in Africa, the Americas and Asia and the Pacific; this will be done through the intensification of social dialogue on anti-poverty strategies and the creation of bodies such as poverty policy planning units. ILO-supported employment-intensive projects will continue to be implemented, either through the private sector or by local communities. The approach will continue to be expanded and institutionalized through the establishment of employment and investment policy planning units in several countries, with steering committees on which employers, workers and civil society are represented. Components on the use of employment-intensive methods will be introduced into courses at universities and colleges in several African and Asian countries.

57. Greater tripartite influence over the institutions that regulate labour markets will be promoted through analysis of the functioning of national tripartite institutions in countries undergoing structural adjustment and of the contribution of good governance to overcoming constraints on employment growth. Labour markets themselves will continue to be a focus for action, with emphasis on labour market structures in transition economies, reform of state-owned enterprises in Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), inter-regional analysis of active labour market polices and a dynamic perspective on labour market regulation. Improvements in the quality and timeliness of labour market information will be supported, in particular through practical applications of existing work on key indicators of the labour market (KILM) mainly in Africa and the Americas, improved measurement of labour market dynamics and the production of more complete indicators on global labour market trends.

58. In order to assist constituents in understanding labour market developments, national statistical systems need to be strengthened and international statistical standards developed. A meeting of experts will be held to examine draft international standards on the comparison and reconciliation of employment and unemployment data from different sources.

59. The ILO will respond to the urgent need of constituents to adapt their training systems to the new rapidly changing skill requirements of the labour force by placing emphasis on labour force adaptability, a more effective transition from school to work, effective enterprise promotion policies and programmes, public/ private partnerships in training delivery, lifelong learning and training needs in countries affected by economic restructuring. A better basis for training policy decisions will be provided through the development of more effective methods of measuring skills and competencies in the labour force and of recognizing the wide range of skills acquired by workers throughout their careers. New developments and concerns will be reflected in policy development and advisory services based on recent work, including the conclusions of the 1998-99 World Employment Report on training for employment. The issue extends beyond the immediate employment implications to many other domains of concern to the ILO. Because of this, an InFocus programme on investment in knowledge, skills and employability will concentrate effort on selected priority issues where the capacity of the ILO and its constituents needs to be enhanced.

InFocus: Investing in knowledge, skills and employability	There is increasing recognition of the pivotal role of knowledge and skills for both economic and social goals. They are critical for: • Competitiveness. An educated and skilled workforce is essential to raise the adaptability and productivity of enterprises in global markets, helping them to take advan tage of new niches arising from the interaction between globalization and new technology. • Development, both personal and societal. Learning lies at the centre of both personal and productive development. Investing in a wide range of capabilities underpins participation and dialogue, and opens new economic and social opportunities. • Social and economic integration. Education and training enhance access to the labour market by raising the qualifications and economic capabilities of groups that would otherwise be excluded from employment. While most countries now give high priority to skills development, investment in human resource development by both private and public sectors remains inadequate. Labour market, education and training institutions are often too sluggish to cope with rapidly changing production systems. Market signals undervalue training. Strong inequalities in access to learning opportunities persist, notably gender inequalities. The potential contribution of skills development to the reduction of unemployment remains unfulfilled. The ILO now proposes a new strategic initiative, flowing from close consultation between government, employers and workers, and focused particularly on the contribution of training and human resources development to the promotion of employment. This initiative will concentrate on three broad areas. • The first will be concerned with competitiveness, employment and productivity in a changing technological environment. It will address the development of portable skills and the need for lifelong learning under conditions of globalization, and will seek out means to raise investment in human resources dramatically in small enterprises, where most jobs are created. Different strategies will be needed for formal and informal production units, particularly with respect to the financing of training. • The second will treat crucial aspects of labour market access: how to overcome gender discrimination in education and training systems, and so reduce gender inequality in the labour market; the impact on youth unemployment of alternative policies and institutions in the school to work transition, notably apprenticeship systems and other training systems involving workplace experience; and the contribution of training to efforts to promote the social and economic reintegration of displaced workers. • The third will seek to raise the incomes of unskilled workers in informal enterprises and of the poor self-employed. People in these sectors work long hours for pitifully low incomes. Action is needed to raise their ability to earn higher incomes. Acquiring competency in such areas as simple book-keeping, basic marketing principles and specific technical skills is vital. Access to credit is also vital for the self-employed poor. In these fields, the ILO will identify and evaluate success stories, determine where investments in human resources have shown the highest returns, the most effective institutional frameworks and the greatest success in promoting equity in gender and other spheres. Much of this work will be undertaken in partnership with national and international centres which have built up expertise in this domain. The ILO's value added will be to put this information in an international context, explore issues which have been insufficiently addressed, and use the outcomes to provide guidance and reference points in policy formulation for constituents worldwide. This expanding knowledge base will support a range of technical support and advisory services. In particular, it will identify crucial new policy issues and instruments for integrating training and skill development into strategies for growth, employment and enterprise promotion, and build these into action programmes and social dialogue at the national level through the ILO's technical advisory services.

60. Assistance will continue to be provided in reforming employment services through training, information and advisory services. It will focus on increasing their effectiveness and coverage through the adoption of new communications and information technologies, as well as more modern management practices and programme strategies.

Operational objective 2(b):
Employment-friendly enterprise development policies and programmes are effectively implemented

61. The fundamental role of the enterprise in employment creation and in the practical application of principles underlying Strategic Objectives Nos. 1 and 3 is strongly reflected in the proposals. This includes, but goes well beyond, the work proposed under enterprise and cooperative activities. In a coordinated approach throughout the ILO, the role of the enterprise will appear as a key factor in policy analysis and action. This includes strengthened recognition of the importance of enterprise competitiveness and of the role of the enterprise in formulating employment and training policies. At the same time, the implications for enterprises and their capacity to provide employment will be a key factor in the Office's work on topics as diverse as labour law and social dialogue, alcohol and drug abuse in the workplace and social security and gender equity.

62. Work specifically directed at the creation and strengthening of enterprises includes promoting access to micro-finance for entrepreneurs and small enterprises; fostering enterprise competitiveness and quality job creation; enhancing support services for enterprises; promoting gender sensitive and effective human resource management; increasing the participation of women in enterprise management and development; and supporting productivity growth based on skills upgrading, sound industrial relations, good labour-management cooperation and the equitable sharing of gains from productivity increases.

63. Increasingly, the establishment and development of viable and self-reliant cooperatives of small producers, consumers, workers and the self-employed require the same business effectiveness as private enterprises. Work in this area will include cooperative reform, the development of cooperative training networks, strengthening cooperative trade linkages between developing and industrialized countries and supporting the expansion of cooperative social support services, including those associated with workers' organizations. In addition, emphasis will be placed on the development of support structures to help cooperative enterprises manage their associations and economic undertakings efficiently and effectively. The ILO's participatory approaches to poverty reduction and employment creation, which have been successfully applied, inter alia, in sub-Saharan Africa, will be expanded to other regions and subregions — for example, to indigenous and tribal peoples, rural women workers and in the context of community-based infrastructure and informal sector projects.

64. The work on employment promotion will put special emphasis on enterprise development, particularly of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises where most new jobs are created. This work will pay particular attention to the special needs of women either as entrepreneurs or workers. Attention will be given to the development of stronger linkages between modern enterprises which are well-integrated into the global economy and informal sector operators, for example through innovative subcontracting arrangements and research and advisory services on labour market policies and programmes. Employment-intensive programmes will continue to promote entrepreneurship through training and through subcontracting arrangements that incorporate workers' basic rights. A major aspect of this work will be the promotion of quality jobs in small enterprises. Various initiatives have developed or are under way within the ILO to promote employment and productivity in the informal sector and in small enterprises, including the recently launched International Small Enterprise Programme (ISEP). These will constitute the nucleus of an International Focus Programme in this area.

InFocus: Boosting employment through small enterprise development	In most economies, the bulk of jobs are created in small enterprises, ranging from the informally self-employed to complex production units with dozens of wage workers. Plenty of these jobs provide secure incomes and a decent working environment. But there are many poor jobs as well, low in productivity, dangerous or lacking in basic social protection. Women are particularly over-represented in such categories. Small enterprises are diverse, ranging from traditional artisans to technologically sophisticated manufacturing or service firms. This very heterogeneity epitomizes the potential and the challenge of this sector, and this challenge needs to be faced in the development of truly effective employment policies. This initiative aims to harness the ILO's diverse technical capabilities to promote the large-scale creation of quality jobs in small enterprises. There is a wealth of practical experience in different domains adapted to the small firm: enterprise development, conditions of work, micro-credit, informal sector development, regulatory and fiscal frameworks, options for organization and representation. The ILO intends to build upon its accumulated knowledge in these areas to forge a portfolio of policy instruments which can support the growth of decent, remunerative, gender-equitable employment in a wide variety of production settings. This will require fresh research on the workings and dynamics of small enterprises in different settings, their response to crisis, the sources of productivity growth, skills and capabilities, networks and inter-firm relations, the forms of representation and dialogue. More will need to be known about how policies aimed at jobs in small enterprises can contribute to other major goals, such as ending child labour or providing decent levels of protection and security. The position of women in small enterprises, both in terms of development of entrepreneurship and in terms of the lack of access to good jobs, needs particular attention. The complementarity between better jobs on the one hand, and more dynamic, productive and innovative enterprises on the other, needs to be researched and ways found to reinforce it. Regulatory frameworks will need to be examined in terms of both economic and social consequences. Employment promotion in the informal enterprise is particularly important. A large and growing segment of the labour force will be engaged in informal activities for many years to come. For this programme to contribute to sustained action against poverty it must include effective approaches for unorganized and informal enterprises, whether it be credit and business development services that can help them join the regulated economy, or — at the low-productivity end of the scale — direct transfers and employment promotion within broader anti-poverty programmes. This InFocus programme therefore also forms part of the ILO's action to meeting operational objective 2(d), in addition to its contribution to objective 2(c) which is reflected in the priority given gender. This expanding knowledge base will support a range of technical support and advisory services. These will take advantage of new instruments such as the Recommendation adopted at the 1998 Conference (the Job Creation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Recommendation, 1998 (No. 189)), as well as the potential of the ILO's constituents to extend their scope by providing a framework for new forms of representation and organization of small firms and their workers. A range of integrated services can be provided, and since the ILO cannot reach the population of small firms as a whole, institutions which can multiply these services have to be created and nurtured. In the short term, a number of integrated pilot projects will be developed in different settings, aimed at enterprises of different types, which can provide a reference point for programme expansion. Strategic alliances will be developed with partners in the financial and business domains at both the national and the international level, in order to safeguard the sustainability of the approaches put in place. The result, it is intended, will be to place small enterprises squarely at the heart of employment strategy, and to ensure that they create both more and better jobs.

Operational objective 2(c):
Women have access to more and better jobs

65. Through an ongoing and in-depth process of mainstreaming, women and gender questions are covered systematically in a wide variety of ILO research and action related to employment. Resources will be provided for coordination, relations and training to ensure that the mainstreaming process continues and that the improvement of the situation of women workers is an important component of all ILO programmes. In addition, the global programme on More and Better Jobs for Women will provide an expanded framework for action that specifically and intensively addresses women's concerns particularly in the developing regions. In 2000-01 this programme will concentrate on developing national action plans and an international framework for follow-up on the Beijing Conference, with emphasis on the establishment and strengthening of national institutions responsible for gender concerns and the demonstration of practical approaches to creating and improving women's jobs through technical cooperation activities. Other work will focus on raising awareness of work and family issues and maternity protection, as well as sexual harassment, as a basis for the development of the appropriate policies and measures by constituents. A database will also be made available on the Internet on legislation, collective agreements, policies and codes covering sexual harassment in the workplace. Based on the guidance provided, more national policies, collective agreements and enterprise programmes will be adopted to combat sexual harassment. Action in support of the fundamental principles on equality of opportunity and treatment will also contribute to improving the employment situation of women.

Operational objective 2(d):
Policies and programmes to upgrade informal sector activities are effectively implemented

66. The inclusion of informal enterprises in national development policies and programmes will be systematically promoted. This will be based on interventions in a range of fields, including the creation of self-employment and micro-enterprises, improving the performance of existing small enterprises and establishing and strengthening associations of informal sector workers, which provide an effective vehicle for advocacy, social protection and community initiatives. Policy advice and support will help to identify and remove legal, fiscal and administrative barriers preventing the inclusion of informal enterprise operators in the modern economy. This will be supplemented by the creation of closer linkages between informal and modern enterprises, for example through innovative subcontracting arrangements and the development of more efficient intermediaries in production chains. In these activities, employment creation and poverty reduction will be combined with the improvement of social protection and safety and health and the promotion of gender equity, using the innovative methodologies developed in pilot activities mainly in Africa, the Americas and Asia. The InFocus programme on small enterprises will provide a basis for reinforcing and developing this work.

67. An important contribution to the achievement of this operational objective will also be made by activities in areas such as cooperative development, micro-finance, and training for informal sector workers. The same approaches will also be applied in the ILO's activities in the regions to improve the situation of rural workers, both women and men, including the support provided to strengthen rural workers' organizations, the development of associations of rural enterprises and community-based and public infrastructure works.

Operational objective 2(e):
Targeted programmes are adopted or strengthened to enable groups such as young workers, the disabled, migrants and indigenous populations to find decent employment

68. Groups that are frequently left behind in terms of employment and incomes include young people, migrant workers, the disabled and indigenous and tribal peoples. They are the subject of mainstreaming approaches in many of the proposals, in particular in the regional programmes, and usually with modest resource implications. Within these groups, various subgroups — and particularly women — may face additional discrimination and require doubly targeted programmes. More focused work is found in terms of training policy and access to training as a means of social integration, with particular reference to the problems of young people in finding their first job. Specific action on the disabled includes the development of a code of practice on the management of disability-related issues in the workplace, which will subsequently be reviewed by a tripartite meeting of experts to be held during the biennium. Advocacy materials and guidance will be developed to promote wider ratification and observance of ILO Conventions on equality of treatment for migrant workers, including the values contained in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up. Based on the technical assistance provided, national policies will be designed and implemented to give comprehensive protection for the fundamental rights and freedoms of migrants for employment, and employment programmes will be supported for potential migrants and returning migrant workers — for example in Arab States and in Asia and the Pacific — including assistance for the investment of their savings in the creation of enterprises or self-employment. A database disaggregated by gender will be developed to increase awareness of the situation of the most vulnerable and exploited groups of migrant workers and the dimensions of the irregular employment of migrants. The guidance provided will include information on best practices in combating discrimination against migrant workers, especially those working under temporary employment schemes.

69. Wherever possible, in these activities partnerships will be promoted between employers' and workers' organizations and associations of the persons concerned, and particularly persons with disabilities and indigenous and tribal peoples.

70. The assistance provided to countries emerging from conflict will be expanded in particular in Africa and Asia. This assistance will focus on employment creation, particularly through enterprise development and training for the worst affected groups, including ex-combatants, the disabled, internally displaced persons and returning refugees. The InFocus programme "Reconstruction and employment-intensive investment" will help to reinforce this activity.

Operational objective 2(f):
ILO constituents are better equipped to influence global and regional policy development related to employment

71. Globalization and regional integration are major influences on employment and will be taken into account in almost all research in the field of employment policy, even if the main focus is elsewhere. Emphasis will be placed on the relation between globalization and business location, business investment and the contribution of enterprises to employment growth. The effects of globalization on world income and its distribution will be analysed. In several regions globalization and regional integration are expected to be key themes in ILO policy advice relating to employment growth, enterprise development and productivity.

72. The capacity of employers' organizations to provide the services required by enterprises in a global business environment will be strengthened. Assistance to workers' organizations will be based on research on policy options and institutional arrangements that trade unions can propose to ensure that any economic benefits derived from globalization are more broadly distributed. Support will be provided for the participation by employers' and workers' organizations in the institutions set up during the processes of regional integration, based on the experience acquired in Europe, the Americas and other regions. Many of the ILO's sectoral activities are also designed to help constituents develop policies on issues arising out of globalization. Research will be undertaken on the changing impact of multinational enterprises on employment in order to enhance the capacity of ILO constituents to influence policy related to foreign direct investment.