At its
24
th special session (26 June – 1 July 2000), the United Nations
General Assembly recognized “the need to elaborate a coherent and
coordinated international strategy on employment to increase opportunities
for people to achieve sustainable livelihoods and gain access to
employment”. The
Millennium
Declaration, adopted in September 2000 by the United Nations General
Assembly, highlighted a number of global goals to be met by 2015, in
particular to reduce by half the number of people earning less than one
dollar a day worldwide.
The
Global Employment Agenda is ILO′s response to both the United Nations
General Assembly resolution and the goals set out in the Millennium
Declaration. In November 2001, ILO organized the
Global
Employment Forum in
Geneva;
the Forum ended with the launch of a 10-point programme to curb the
mounting unemployment and impoverishment caused by global recession and the
terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. The programme gave rise to the
Global Employment Agenda, which was adopted in March 2003 by the ILO
Governing Body by a broad tripartite consensus and whose aim is to place
employment at the core of the economic and social policies implemented by
governments.
The Global Employment Agenda thus constitutes a frame within which ILO can
establish partnerships within the multilateral system and approach
governments and the social partners, at both national and regional level,
with a view to promoting the creation of productive jobs.
