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Safety + Health for All holds its 4th Global Tripartite Advisory Committee meeting

During the meeting, the ILO presented key developments of the flagship programme over the past year and the way forward

News | 17 November 2022
The ILO flagship programme Safety + Health for All held the fourth meeting of its Global Tripartite Advisory Committee (GTAC) on 15 November in Geneva. Members met in-person and online for an update on the recent progress, challenges and opportunities surrounding the programme. The committee is composed of representatives from employers’ and workers’ organizations, governments and development partners.

The past year has seen major advances in the area of occupational safety and health (OSH), including the inclusion of the right to a safe and healthy working environment in the ILO's Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and the decision of the ILO Governing Body to revise the current ILO global OSH strategy, which dates from 2003. These changes create opportunities to further develop the flagship programme’s role as a crucial instrument of the ILO to implement development cooperation initiatives in this area.

The programme’s project portfolio has grown over the last year with the extension of eight projects implemented at country and global levels and the launch of three new projects. At the same time, Safety + Health for All has advanced in all its four strategic components: knowledge building, strengthening of national capacities, creation of conducive legal and policy frameworks and promotion of demand for safe and healthy workplaces. 

In addition, the programme devoted efforts to strengthen its management framework, mainly around knowledge management and monitoring and evaluation. An internal knowledge management platform is now available to ILO officials, and a strategy is being prepared to promote a knowledge sharing culture among OSH practitioners. Concerning monitoring and reporting, the programme has developed a methodology and instruments to collect data and key performance indicators, culminating with the roll-out of an online monitoring platform in October 2022. The new tools will allow all projects to systematically report against a set of common indicators, enabling the programme to track and report progress.

An independent strategic evaluation of the flagship programme will be conducted in 2023 under the ILO Evaluation Office’s (EVAL) management. Following GTAC discussions based on a detailed concept note prepared by the ILO, draft Terms of Reference (ToR) will be prepared and shared with the committee members by December 2022. The findings and recommendations from this evaluation will inform the new ILO global strategy on OSH, notably in the new context of a safe and healthy work environment as a fundamental principle and right at work.