| ILO, UNDP mainstreaming Decent Work in United Nations Country Programmes |
|
As we wrote in our previous issue ILO Director-General Juan Somavia and UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis on February 9 signed the joint agreement to strengthen their collaboration and partnership in a major new effort to bolster UN actions designed to reduce poverty and create more decent work. The ILO and UNDP will promote inclusive economic growth with social development to benefit the bottom 20 to 40 percent of the population, and bolster UN efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Thus, from April 11 to April 13 UN Resident Coordinators and ILO Country Directors from 12 countries (Egypt,Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Mozambique, Pakistan, Syria, Tanzania, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay and, Viet Nam) met in Turin to discuss practical ways and means to align the priorities, content and methods of the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda with the United Nations Development Assistance Framework. Both the UNDP and the ILO acknowledge that greater policy coherence and better implementation would have considerable consequences for their daily operations at the country level. They also recognize that a shared understanding of Decent Work and full employment should be an essential element in national policies for the eradication of poverty and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Through this Workshop, UNDP and ILO participants acquired a shared understanding of the Decent Work paradigm and a better knowledge of their respective mandates, operations and programming procedures. This will enable them to plan their future collaboration at the country level effectively. As a practical result of the workshop, the ILO Moscow office and UNDP reviewed the cooperation plans for the pilot country in our region -Kyrgyzstan. In 2007-2010 the ILO and UNDP will implement a programme on youth employment promotion with focus ongender and vulnerable groups. The republic’s Chui region has also been chosen as pilot with special focus on farming and food production including vocational skills and marketing. The ILO will upgrade the SIYB training modules used by UNDP project, while the UNDP will provide close links between micro-financing and received training. In 2007-2008 a second round of the WIND training (self-improvement of living and working conditions in the rural informal sector) in parallel with the employment and poverty project will be implemented in the Chui region. In May 2007 through December 2008 the ILO and UNDP will outline common approaches to strengthen national response to HIV/AIDS. In 2007-2010 they will develop labour migration policy for Kyrgyzstan as a sending country and conduct consultations with Bishkek Office of the International Organization for Migration. The UNDP will explore the possibility of producing 2008 Human Development Report on Labour Migration. ILO National Representative Bolotbek Orokov will participate in common UN initiatives and UN Theme Groups. |
