1. ILO’s pledge for a fair globalization as complementary to the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals.
2. Decent work for all as a global goal.
3. Implementation of the Decent Work agenda at the national level: policy coherence between social and economic goals.
4. The contributions of the ILO subregional office for Central and Eastern Europe in Budapest in this context.

1. ILO’s pledge for a fair globalization as complementary to the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals

In June this year, the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization presented its report to the public, entitled “A Fair Globalization: Creating opportunities for all”. The Commission was composed of a number of eminent personalities and world leaders of different political, economic and social contexts, and spearheaded by the ILO.

The Millennium Declaration calls for globalization to become a “positive force for all the world’s people”. The report of the World Commission responds to this by setting out the path towards a “fair globalization”. It calls for redressing the serious imbalances in the world economy as a necessary precondition for the implementation of the Millennium Declaration. By focusing on a fair globalization, the report complements the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Likewise, the Millennium Declaration pledges for greater policy coherence, and this is reflected in the World Commission’s proposals for convergence around economic and social policies. In first instance, a Policy Coherence Initiative will be developed among major international players in the economic sphere, focusing on sustainable growth, investment and employment.

For the ILO, an important part of policy coherence involves recognition that decent and productive work is crucial for the achievement of national development goals, with appropriate multilateral action in support of them.

2. Decent Work for All as a global goal

“Employment and income generation are the only sustainable means of eradicating poverty.” (MDG goal 1) The ILO fully subscribes this statement, however, sees this in a broader frame of decent work (DW). DW is a development paradigm that embraces employment creation but also social protection, rights and social dialogue. ILO’s vision today is “DW for all”.

ILO sees DW as both, a development goal for countries to meet the challenges of globalization, and a universal aspiration of people everywhere.

The definition of DW is: Productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.

Fundamental principles and rights at work are the essential foundation, the “floor” of DW. The ILO approach is that human rights and economic progress must go hand in hand. Therefore, DW as a development framework is built on closely interconnected elements of social and economic nature, each reinforcing the others.

The ILO has set up four strategic objectives as part of the DW goal:

• creating greater employment and income opportunities for women and men, based on entrepreneurship, investment and productivity
• achieving universal respect for fundamental principles and rights at work
• extending social protection and promoting security in the workplace and decent conditions of work
• promoting social dialogue, grounded on the tripartite structure of the ILO, as both an end in itself and a means to achieve the DW goal.

These objectives hold for all workers, women and men, in both formal and informal economies, in wage employment or work on own account.

We can see progress towards DW when all four aspects are taken into consideration in national policies and their implementation. Gender equality and development are the two cross-cutting objectives. This integrated agenda also calls for coherence in the design and delivery of policy advice and technical cooperation.

3. Implementation of the Decent Work agenda at the national level: policy coherence between social and economic goals

We believe that the pledge for a fair globalization that creates opportunities for all and not just for certain groups of people will dominate international affairs in the next decade. The report of the World Commission states that globalization should start at home. Consequently, decent work should first of all be implemented at the country level. This includes a strong emphasis on the need of fair and inclusive governance, built on democracy, social equity, the rule of law and human rights, with the effective participation and representation of the key interest groups, including workers’ and employers’ organizations and civil society institutions.

The ILO has an integrated economic and social mandate and the responsibility to evaluate national economic policies in the light of their impact on social and labour policies. This is why the four strategic objectives of the ILO have to be interlinked and enforcing each other. ILO brings two unique long-standing experiences into the debate: the International Labour Standards and the social dialogue among tripartite partners in the world of work, governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations. As mentioned before, the “floor” of ILO’s work is its standard-setting function and the corresponding supervisory machinery linked to the international labour standards. In the centre of the body of these international norms stand the fundamental principles and rights at work, also referred to as the core labour standards. These are 8 Conventions concerning freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining for workers and employers, the abolition of forced and child labour, and non-discrimination.

The implementation of the DW agenda at the national level is done through the so-called DW country programmes. These are the ILO contribution to national developments plans and programmes, including poverty reduction strategies, development assistant frameworks and common country assessment. They have two basic objectives: they promote DW as a key component of national development policies, and they put ILO’s knowledge, instruments and advocacy at the service of our tripartite constituents to advance this agenda. Promoting DW is a shared responsibility of the office and the constituents and needs the support of many partners and stakeholders within and beyond the UN. The programmes are formulated within a results-based framework and time-bound. They take into account country specifics and needs and therefore call for different emphasis and combine different strategies. The aim is to integrate theses domains into a coherent whole in support of decent work.

4. The contributions of the ILO’s subregional office for Central and Eastern Europe in Budapest in this context

In concrete terms, the ILO, through our subregional office in Budapest, has assisted the EU acceding countries by helping them to transpose the acquis communautaire in line with ILO Conventions, shaping national labour legislations, labour market and social security reforms and strengthening social dialogue at different levels with a view to increasing its influence on policy reforms. Our cooperation with the new EU member states including Hungary has now become more selective according to the specific requests we receive. Several of them are becoming “donors” to the ILO, through providing financial support, technical expertise or being host of important regional conferences, like the forthcoming 7th European Regional Meeting, which will be held in Budapest in February 2005.

On the other hand, our assistance to the countries in South Eastern Europe has been intensified over the last years. It covers a wide range of issues in the field of employment creation, social protection and social dialogue. Our common goals with our constituents and partners are the following: in general, cope with the complex transition process to a democratic society by establishing good economic and social governance institutions. In particular this means building capacities to promote economic recovery at the national and local levels; set up legal frameworks in line with international labour standards and EC law; review employment and labour market policies and make them more inclusive and gender sensitive; develop more effective social security schemes; promote a safety culture among workers and employers; modernize labour inspection; and create awareness on the potential of social dialogue to shape the necessary and often painful social and labour market reforms.

Finally it has to be stressed that our programmes can only be successful if we meet the priorities of the countries and of our constituents. We have to manage to develop synergies among them, with other relevant stakeholders and our partners in the UN system and beyond.

Let us work together to make the goal of Decent Work for All a global goal!