2005

1. International Day of Disabled Persons 2005 - Disabled people in Ethiopia: Making public services work for poor people

   01 December 2005

   Most of Addis Ababa's estimated 3 million population lives in slums and informal settlements. While 24 per cent of housing units have no toilets at all, 45 per cent share pit latrines. Earlier this year, the President of Ethiopia officially opened the first of 30 modern public shower and toilet facilities run by a cooperative of disabled persons in Addis Ababa with the support of the ILO. The innovative proposal by the Ethiopian Federation of Persons with Disabilities (EFPD) to renovate existing toilets and unlock the economic potential of unemployed people with disabilities won a World Bank Development Marketplace Competition prize in 2003.

2. 

   Poland and the ILO: History, again

   01 December 2005

3. Breaking the chains of poverty through microfinance

   01 December 2005

   The ILO has found microfinance to be an invaluable tool within its programmes in helping to reduce poverty and eliminate child labour and debt bondage. The strategy is to offer financial services like savings and credit, insurance and remittance handling to low-income groups so they are empowered, have more options and do not need to rely on the moneylender any longer. The goal is financial security, a key aspect of decent work.

4. How the ILO contributes to the MDGs: Stories from East Africa

   01 December 2005

   ILO programmes in East Africa are good examples of how decent work combats poverty and contributes to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Two programmes presented here show the importance of promoting gender equality (MDG 3) at work and youth employment (MDG 8) in order to attain sustainable poverty reduction.

5. Jobs and the millennium generation: Working out of poverty

   01 December 2005

   At the recent World Summit of the UN General Assembly, over 150 Heads of State approved a historic Outcome Document stating: "We strongly support fair globalization and resolve to make the goal of full and productive employment and decent work for all... a central objective." This represents important worldwide support at the highest level for the ILO's Decent Work Agenda as a prime motivator in poverty reduction under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and should serve as a guiding force for national and international development policies. In the article below, ILO Director-General Juan Somavia provides a new agenda for tackling poverty and creating jobs. In the series of articles that follow, World of Work reviews some significant efforts by the ILO in this regard.

6. Hurricane force: As experts debate global job safety, nature provides a lesson in the unexpected

   01 December 2005

   In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of rescue workers faced life-threatening dangers while trying to save the sick and stranded in the US Gulf Coast region. The natural disaster provided an object lesson for safety experts in Orlando at the XVIIth World Congress on Safety and Health at Work while they took on the larger issue of work-related accidents and illnesses worldwide, a growing problem the ILO says can be solved. ILO's Katherine Lomasney reports.

7. Taking root: The revival of cooperatives in Ethiopia

   01 December 2005

   Not all stories coming from Ethiopia are tales of tragedy. Here is one of them. Although the economy was ruined and the cooperative idea discredited by 14 years of communist rule in the country, the ILO succeeded in cultivating a cooperative renaissance. Sam Mshiu reports from Addis Ababa, where the ILO recently established its Regional Office for Africa.

8. World AIDS Day - Employers in Cameroon: Saving tomorrow's workforce

   01 December 2005

   The business world is now having to deal not only with the human cost of HIV/AIDS but also losses in profits and productivity. At the same time the workplace can play a vital role in reducing the spread and impact of the epidemic. In Cameroon, where just under 7 per cent of people aged 15-49 years are HIV-positive, the employers' organization GICAM has made significant progress in its "crusade against HIV/AIDS".

9. World AIDS Day - Meri Pehchan: preventing HIV/AIDS in India

   30 November 2005

   About 89 per cent of the 4 million people living with HIV/AIDS in India belong to the most productive age group, those between the ages of 15-49 years. The pandemic has become a major threat to the world of work and immediate efforts are needed to protect some 400 million workers in the country from the deadly virus. But AIDS awareness in some parts of India is a problem because talk about sex is taboo and the audience is often illiterate and uneducated. Puppet shows are an effective way to get the message out...

10. World AIDS Day: HIV/AIDS & work in a globalizing world

    30 November 2005

    The theme of World AIDS Day 2005 is "Stop AIDS - keep the promise" - of the international community to control the epidemic and help those affected. As current chair of the UNAIDS Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations, the ILO is marking this day by focusing on workplace action in the community at large and in the UN. Odile Frank, ScD, Senior Research and Policy Adviser and Head, Research and Policy Analysis Unit of the ILO Global Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work recently completed a new study on "HIV/AIDS and work in a globalizing world" and gave this interview to ILO Online.