ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations
ILO-en-strap
Go to the home page
Français - Español
> Homepage > Online information resources > Resource guides > History of the ILO

Library brochure
Governing Body Collection


Library brochure
ILO Conventions: background and preparatory work


Library brochure
Services & Digital Collections
(pdf 139 KB)


ILO Library brochure
(pdf 135 KB)

ILO activities in the post-war world (Part 2: 1960-1988)
1965

Select to magnify the image Select to magnify the image Select to magnify the image Select to magnify the image

  1. Key documents

ILO decentralizes its activities and structure

The establishment of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the admission of a growing number of Member States asking for technical cooperation and the recommendations made by the ILO's regional meetings prompted the ILO Director-General, David A. Morse, to launch a process of administrative decentralization.

The first decentralization measures were taken by the Director-General in 1965 with a view to enhancing ILO′s effectiveness. The objectives of this thorough reform of the Organization′s administrative structures were to:

  • move the Organization closer to its Member States – and the employers′ and workers′ organizations from individual countries – in order to improve knowledge and mutual understanding of goals, needs and plans;
  • ensure that ILO studies and publications were based on more direct knowledge of conditions and needs in the Member States;
  • promote broader adherence to ILO standards;
  • improve cooperation with regional organizations;
  • rapidly provide Member States with assistance and with advisory services on labour and social issues, using teams of technical staff familiar with local conditions;
  • heighten the effectiveness of ILO external activities by entrusting personnel from external services, rather than central services at headquarters, with the task of resolving administrative and technical issues that could be dealt with to better advantage on the spot.
Four major steps were taken to attain those objectives:

  • a network of regional, area and country representative offices was established in the various regions;
  • a corps of regional advisers and technical staff was sent to the regions;
  • adequate administrative machinery was introduced in the regions;
  • clear lines of communication were established and responsibilities between headquarters and the field organization defined.

  • (Source: Programme and budget for the biennium 1970-71, 52nd Financial Period, ILO, Geneva, 1969, p. 13.)

Opening of the International Training Centre of the ILO (Turin)

Designed to further the economic and social development of the Member States and to strengthen the role of the constituents, the Centre organizes courses for senior staff from private and public companies, the directors of vocational training systems or facilities, the leaders of trade unions and employers′ organizations, civil servants and other national officials in charge of formulating and implementing social policy, of the economic promotion of women and of human resource management.

Almost 70,000 people from 172 countries and territories have received some form of training since the Centre opened.
  1. 1960-1988:
    ILO activities in the post-war world (Part 2: 1960-1988)
    1. 1960
    2. 1964
    3. 1965
    4. 1968
    5. 1969
    6. 1970
    7. 1973
    8. 1974
    9. 1977
    10. 1982
    11. 1986
  2. 1919-1939
  3. 1940-1945
  4. 1946-1959
  5. 1989-1998
  6. 1999-


ILO Century Project


ILO Century Project Timeline

The ILO and the Quest for Social Justice

Video: The ILO and the Quest for Social Justice

Ask a librarian


 
Last update: 23.02.2015 ^ top