ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations
ILO-en-strap
International Labour Conference

86th Session
Geneva, June 1998

Report I

Report of the Director-General:
Activities of the ILO, 1996-97

5

Active partnership: Regional activities

The active partnership policy has now been in operation for two full biennia. It has become clear over this period that the process of formulating and implementing country objectives has brought the ILO closer to its tripartite constituents at the national level and has also served as an important means of promoting tripartite interaction in member States. In several instances, there is evidence that the process has provided a stimulus for the beginnings of social dialogue where none, or very little, existed previously. In a number of cases, the national response to the active partnership policy has included the establishment or reactivation by the Ministry of Labour of a tripartite consultative committee to support the policy. The progress made in this respect has been consolidated through the implementation of the national programmes agreed upon by constituents, as well as in the process of the revision of country objectives, particularly in those countries in which they were first finalized. During the biennium, social dialogue has also been promoted at the national level, firstly, through the national steering committees set up in ILO-IPEC participating countries, in which the social partners are involved alongside other representatives of civil society, and secondly, through many of the activities undertaken to follow up the Fourth World Conference on Women, for which tripartite national steering committees were also established in several countries.

The key instrument of the active partnership policy is the operation of a network of 14 multidisciplinary advisory teams in the regions. Already operational at the beginning of the biennium, the teams have added a multidisciplinary approach to many of the ILO's activities. In particular, the presence of specialists on employers' and workers' issues has led to a much more constant flow of information and advice to and from trade unions and employers' organizations. Preparations were also made during the biennium for the establishment of two further teams, which will become operational in 1998. One of these is located in Yaoundé and covers Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe and Zaire. The second is located in Moscow and covers Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

While there appears to be a consensus to the effect that the active partnership policy has already led to significant improvements in the ILO's operational activities, sufficient experience has now been accumulated to adjust and streamline it for the future. To identify possible improvements, an internal evaluation was undertaken and culminated in a workshop at the Turin Centre on the implementation of the policy. Towards the end of the biennium, a Working Party of the Governing Body carried out an evaluation, including visits to a number of countries. The Working Party's conclusions and recommendations will be submitted to the Governing Body in 1998.

The description of the ILO's regional activities contained in this chapter is organized according to the groups of countries covered by each multidisciplinary advisory team. Inevitably, similar areas of concern come up under many of the teams. In each case, for fuller information on the ILO's activities in specific technical areas, the reader may wish to refer back to the descriptions provided in the first three chapters of this report.

Africa

The combined effects on African countries of a long period of economic crisis, the structural adjustment programmes applied in response to the crisis and high rates of demographic growth have resulted in rising unemployment and underemployment, a fall in income and a worsening of poverty almost everywhere on the continent. Against this background, the reduced level of investment in the social sector and in the institutions responsible for labour matters has diminished their capacity to develop and implement the necessary solutions. Moreover, despite positive developments in certain countries, and particularly South Africa, the democratization process is still fragile and progress still needs to be made in most African countries in the fields of social dialogue, respect for human rights and social justice. The ILO's activities to combat unemployment, protect workers and promote democracy were severely hampered in several countries in which conflict broke out or continued during the biennium.

The initiatives taken at the regional level to assist member States in developing effective responses to these problems included the holding of the fifth biennial meeting of African employment planners in January 1997, which was open to all the social partners. One of the main points of discussion at the meeting was the Jobs for Africa programme, which is intended to strengthen the policy framework for employment creation and will be launched at the national level in several African countries in 1998.

During the biennium, the action of national and international development partners throughout the continent was marked by the adoption of increasingly harmonized approaches. The United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa, in which the ILO is playing an important role, served as a framework for greater harmonization of the activities of the specialized agencies in Africa. One area in which the development partners in Africa are showing greater coherence of approach is in their recognition of the need to take into account the effects of investment options on employment, with priority being given in many cases to employment-intensive methods. The more harmonized approach adopted on this and other issues resulted in part from ILO studies and experience, the conclusions of the two tripartite meetings held on the socio-economic consequences of the devaluation of the CFA franc (in Dakar in 1994 and Yaoundé in 1997) and discussions with donors.

With regard to the improved observance of the fundamental rights for which the ILO has special competence, several initiatives resulted in a better understanding between the ILO and the international financial institutions. Following the consultation between the ILO and the World Bank on the reform of labour codes in Africa, held in Washington in October 1995, an ILO/World Bank seminar was organized in Abidjan in June 1997 on the role of the social partners in the revision of labour codes. As a result of the meeting, it may be expected that work-related rights will be taken into account more fully in the process of the reform of labour legislation as a follow-up to the restructuring programmes supported by the Bretton Woods institutions.

In the follow-up to the Beijing Conference, some progress has also been made in several countries in promoting equality of opportunity and treatment for women. With the support of promotional, information and technical assistance activities, several countries, including Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and the United Republic of Tanzania, have developed and implemented national and sectoral policies of equality for women. Several countries in the region, including Guinea-Bissau and Mali, have established ministerial structures responsible for implementing these policies. Examples of the action taken to follow up the Beijing Conference, in the case of Burkina Faso, include:

In the United Republic of Tanzania, under the terms of the National Employment Policy adopted in 1997, priority is to be given to:

A number of countries in the region took important steps during the biennium towards the adoption of policies and measures to combat child labour , including:

On the issue of child labour, regional initiatives undertaken in close cooperation with the Organization of African Unity (OAU), UNICEF and African employers' and workers' organizations have resulted in increased awareness and the beginning of a change in attitude by constituents towards a problem that has not always been considered as such. Benin, Egypt, Kenya, Senegal and the United Republic of Tanzania are ILO-IPEC participating countries and as such have concluded Memoranda of Understanding with the programme. ILO-IPEC preparatory activities were carried out in nine other African countries. The experience of the action taken and the results achieved by the national programmes supported by ILO-IPEC were reviewed by a tripartite OAU meeting, held in collaboration with the ILO in Kampala in February 1998, which examined policies, measures and programmes that can be implemented in a concerted manner in Africa.

A survey of mutual health schemes in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal and Togo found a total of 59 active schemes, including:

The findings of the survey will be published in 1998.

With the exception of Senegal, where mutual health schemes first became operational about ten years ago, the development of these group health insurance schemes in most of the countries surveyed coincided with the launching of the ACOPAM support activities. The benefits provided by the schemes vary and, in addition to health care, may include the transportation of sick persons, expenditure on family events such as marriages and baptisms, old-age pensions and death benefits, including the payment of funeral expenses. Demand for ACOPAM support in this field has been extending to other regions of Africa and, outside Africa, to countries such as Haiti.

Another priority of ILO activities at the regional and subregional levels was in the field of social security. Traditional social security schemes in Africa only cover between 5 and 10 per cent of the population, with the great majority of workers in the agricultural and informal sectors not being covered by any organized social protection. Over the past two or three years, public attention has therefore shifted towards the role that can be played by mutual health schemes. Governments in several countries in the region have started to orient their policy towards mechanisms through which groups of the population can organize their own health coverage. A ministerial programme has been created for this purpose in Senegal, while legislation has been adopted in Mali on mutual health schemes. The ILO took the lead, through its ACOPAM programme (see Chapter 2), in providing guidance and training to strengthen existing mutual schemes and assist in the creation of others. A subregional workshop was organized to train instructors, who then carried out training activities in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. Assistance was provided in the development of information brochures responding to the needs of the different countries and a training manual was produced.(1) Trade union organizations were also supported in their efforts to create mutual health schemes, particularly in Burkina Faso and Togo, where they played an important role in the creation of occupational schemes, especially in the informal sector.

An important function of the African Regional Office is the dissemination of information on the work and principles of the ILO to constituents throughout the region. This function is fulfilled in a number of ways. These include the publication of a regular regional bulletin and the provision of access to the databases of the African Labour Information System (ALIS), which contain socio-economic data on African countries, as well as information on ILO technical cooperation, advisory and training activities in the region. The Regional Office also facilitates the exchange of information between the countries of the region in technical fields, such as the promotion of enterprises and cooperatives. In this way, for example, many countries which do not benefit directly from the services of the ACOPAM programme for the development of cooperative enterprises are able to gain access to the assistance of ACOPAM experts and use the programme's documentation and training materials to consolidate their own cooperative movements. The Regional Office has also been active in promoting the adaptation of the Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) training materials to French-speaking countries and in supporting the establishment of credit facilities for small enterprises, for example in collaboration with the Central Bank of West African States.

East Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

Although the countries of East Africa have different geographical and cultural characteristics, they tend to be confronted with similar problems of poverty, unemployment and underemployment, which affect a majority of their populations, and particularly women and children. These problems have been magnified by the long-term economic crisis experienced by the continent, as well as by structural adjustment, the high rate of demographic growth, the low employment creation potential of the private sector and an evident mismatch between the demand and supply of skills. Few workers benefit from social protection of any sort and many people work in conditions which endanger their health and safety. Certain countries in the subregion are affected by or emerging from conflict. The effectiveness of social dialogue and tripartite institutions varies widely in the subregion. However, in all cases, respect for fundamental work-related rights needs to be consolidated and the participation of the social partners in decision-making strengthened.

Located in Addis Ababa and composed of ten advisers, the East Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory Team covers Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Somalia, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda. Country objectives have been finalized for Eritrea, Kenya, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda, and are nearing completion for Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles. The effectiveness of the team's work has depended in large part on the political environment and stability of each member State and has been hampered in recent years by the violent conflicts which have broken out in certain countries of the subregion. The location of the team in Addis Ababa has meant that it has maintained close contacts with the Organization of African Unity (OAU), and particularly its Labour and Social Affairs Commission, as well as with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

The principal orientations of the employment policy documents formulated in close consultation with the ILO's constituents for Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda include:

In Kenya, the Government has adopted the main recommendations of the document and has included some of them in its national development plans. Preliminary reactions to the document in Nigeria suggest it has been received favourably and a national workshop on the subject is planned during the course of 1998. The draft policy has been widely accepted in Uganda and many of its recommendations implemented.

The employment policies pursued by the countries of the subregion have not responded adequately to the grave problems of unemployment and underemployment with which they are confronted. To provide guidance in this respect, the ILO organized seminars on employment policy in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda for high-level officials, employers' and workers' organizations, as well as the national and international organizations concerned. These seminars led up to the formulation of employment policy documents, which are currently under examination by the respective Governments with a view to their adoption and implementation.(2) The basis for the formulation of employment policy was also strengthened through the provision of assistance in the field of labour statistics. Programmes of labour statistics were launched in Eritrea and Uganda, national classifications of occupations were established or updated in Kenya, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda and a survey of the informal sector was carried out in Ethiopia.

Representatives of the governments and social partners in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda also took part in national seminars organized by the ILO to identify measures to improve the national vocational training systems. In Ethiopia, the Government has accepted the policy recommendations made by the seminar and has commenced a process of social dialogue for their implementation. In Kenya, the recommendations of the seminar have been adopted in several policy documents, such as the Education Master Plan and the Industrialization Plan. Technical cooperation activities were commenced during the biennium to implement a community-based training programme in three poor districts of the country. After accepting the policy proposals set out in a report on development and employment generation, the Government of the Seychelles sought ILO assistance in the formulation of vocational education and training policy strategies.(3) The Government of Mauritius published the recommendations of a seminar on education, training and the world of work and is in the process of reorganizing the national vocational education and training system. Workshops conducted with ILO assistance in Uganda have led to the inclusion of plans in the current public investment programme to introduce an industrial training levy fund and develop community-based training for employment and poverty alleviation in rural areas.

In recognition of the importance of the private sector in promoting economic development and creating good quality employment, several countries in the subregion have adopted global enterprise development strategies based on the promotion of a conducive administrative and regulatory environment and on the strengthening of training capacity for micro- and small enterprises. ILO training materials for small enterprises were introduced in Ethiopia. Assistance was provided to Djibouti for the development of a national strategy for the introduction of entrepreneurship skills in secondary and vocational education. The ILO provided support for the strengthening of the Uganda Management Training and Advisory Centre and the establishment in the Seychelles of a Small Enterprise Development and Promotion Agency and a productivity centre. Technical cooperation activities in this field concentrated on several countries, including the United Republic of Tanzania and Kenya, where a project was launched to develop small enterprises in three pilot districts. A multidisciplinary approach to assistance in this respect, involving several United Nations agencies, was pursued in Ethiopia, Kenya, Seychelles, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda. With a view to assisting conflict-affected countries in the subregion, studies were carried out on the situation of the various conflict-affected groups in Ethiopia and Uganda as part of the action programme on conflict-affected countries.(4) The findings of the studies are expected to lead to the adoption of vocational training and entrepreneurship promotion programmes to assist in the social and economic reintegration of the groups concerned.

An analysis carried out in 1996 of labour-based programmes in Madagascar found that they:

The 3.5 million workdays created in 1995 through labour-based infrastructure programmes, equivalent to over 13,000 full-time jobs, corresponds to 30 per cent of the non-agricultural employment generated every year in the secondary and tertiary formal sector. In 1995, some $20 million of investment created around 35,000 additional jobs, two-thirds of them indirectly through the multiplier effect of the financial injection into the local economy.

To promote employment and national development in the countries in the subregion, the ILO continued to support employment-intensive infrastructure projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda. These included a road improvement project in the Tigray and South Wollo regions of Ethiopia and a component of a World Bank-funded social fund in Madagascar focusing on labour-intensive urban poverty alleviation. As the employment-intensive works have become institutionalized in several countries in the subregion, including Kenya and Uganda, where a Labour-Based Intensive Work Unit operates under the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, the ILO has continued providing ongoing technical advice and support. It has also promoted training in labour-intensive techniques in several training institutions in the region (see Chapter 2).

The promotion of tripartism in the subregion requires the strengthening of organizations of employers and workers so that they can play their important role as pillars of social dialogue. The organizations of employers and workers in the countries covered by the team benefited from training activities and seminars on a range of subjects, including fundamental workers' rights, equality and gender issues, international labour standards and negotiating techniques. The assistance provided contributed to the reconstitution of the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions, while technical assistance was provided to the National Confederation of Eritrean Workers in the drafting of its Statutes. Another significant result was the establishment of the Ethiopian Employers' Federation. Moreover, representatives of employers and workers in several countries in the subregion participated in tripartite seminars and workshops to raise awareness of occupational safety and health problems and identify concrete measures to improve safety and health at work. The impact of these activities was multiplied through the publication and dissemination of training manuals on occupational safety and health.

In response to the Director-General's campaign for the ratification of the ILO's fundamental Conventions, several of the countries covered by the team are studying the ratification of one or more of the Conventions concerned. Promotional activities were focused on establishing tripartite bodies, particularly in Kenya, Mauritius, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda. A tripartite seminar on the fundamental Conventions was held in Uganda and a subregional tripartite meeting focusing on Conventions Nos. 100 and 111 was held for East African countries. A subregional tripartite seminar aimed at the ratification of Convention No. 87 was organized for Kenya, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda, and Kenya is expected to ratify the Convention in 1998. Labour legislation in the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda is being revised to bring it into conformity with Convention No. 138, while a project was prepared to review the labour legislation in Djibouti. The revision of labour legislation in Djibouti and Eritrea provides a unique opportunity to bring it into conformity with fundamental ILO standards and pave the way for the ratification of the respective Conventions. As a promotional measure, Convention No. 87 has been translated into the national language of Eritrea, while preparations were made for the translation of an information package on fundamental ILO standards into Swahili and the Ethiopian national languages. In the framework of the OAU Labour and Social Affairs Commission, African States which are members of the ILO Governing Body adopted a recommendation designed to encourage African States to ratify the ILO's fundamental Conventions.

Central and West Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

The size, situation and economic potential of the countries of Central and West Africa vary widely. Their recent development has accentuated their disparities, with certain countries beginning to emerge from a long period of economic crisis and showing a certain dynamism, while others are involved in violent internal conflict. The majority of the population in these countries work in rural areas or the urban informal sector. In neither case are they covered by employment policy measures, labour administrations or representative organizations. Nor do they tend to benefit from any form of social protection. The differences in the levels of national development lead to substantial flows of labour migration between countries in Central and West Africa, while the violent conflicts which continued to occur during the biennium resulted in massive population movements. The democratization process, which has been gathering pace in recent years at the political level, has hardly begun to extend to social and labour matters. Social dialogue, where it exists, still admits little pluralism. Decentralization has as yet done little to embrace all the development partners.

The Central and West Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory Team is composed of 14 advisers and is located in Abidjan. It covers Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe and Togo. Some 14 of these countries have embarked upon country objectives formulation exercises, which in the cases of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Ghana and Madagascar have resulted in a final document and a plan of action. With the support of the ILO, certain countries in the subregion, such as Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Niger and Togo, have formulated and are implementing active policies to promote employment and combat poverty, including programmes of employment-intensive investment, the promotion of small and micro-enterprises and cooperatives, and measures for disadvantaged groups.

An encouraging trend in Central and West African countries has consisted in the efforts made to establish or rehabilitate labour information systems as a basis for the development of labour policies and programmes. This trend is illustrated by the progressive establishment of employment and training "observatories" in such countries as Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon and Togo. Another change in outlook in these countries that can be attributed to ILO action is the progressively broader recognition being accorded to the link between investment options and the creation of employment. The ILO is therefore providing technical support for national public investment programmes in many countries, including the strengthening of capacities of local communities and the implementation of social funds in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Togo. Rather than isolated advisory services, there is a growing tendency for the ILO to be requested to provide more continuous support and follow-up for reforms and changes in systems, institutions and legislation. One illustration is the technical assistance provided in the amendment of legislation relating to cooperatives in the countries of the Sahel and in Congo to create a more conducive environment for the development of cooperative enterprises and associations.

The promotion of employment in the private sector continued to be supported by advisory services, training and technical cooperation activities focusing on employment-intensive programmes, microcredit systems, cooperatives, the informal sector and handicraft production. The French version of the Start and Improve Your Business training materials (GERME -- Gérez mieux votre entreprise) was adapted and tested in Benin, Cameroon, Congo and Togo, and was introduced through the employers' organization in Burkina Faso. Support was provided in Côte d'Ivoire for the establishment of a federation of women entrepreneurs. A programme of support was also implemented for organizations representing micro-entrepreneurs in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

The young democracies in the subregion still bear the marks of the single-party system from which they have emerged. Pluralism is not yet widely accepted or practiced. The many conflicts which have occurred in the subregion are not unrelated to this problem, and make a return to social dialogue difficult. Advisory services and training activities were carried out in most of the countries of the subregion on the management and operation of trade union structures, industrial relations and collective bargaining, the functioning of bipartite and tripartite bodies and the role of the social partners in the reform of labour legislation. The participation of the social partners has been strengthened in many decentralized structures developed with ILO assistance, such as the management of cooperatives in the countries of the Sahel, Côte d'Ivoire and Togo, in local communities (for example in Côte d'Ivoire), in vocational training institutions (for example in Benin) and in the management of social protection schemes (see introduction to the region). In particular, as a result of a technical cooperation project carried out in the Entente countries, permanent tripartite dialogue bodies were set up and have started operating in Benin, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire (see Chapter 1 for further details). The same process has been launched in other countries in the subregion.

Other activities carried out to strengthen the application of the ILO's principles and values included technical cooperation projects and national and subregional tripartite training activities on international labour standards. During the biennium, Burkina Faso ratified Conventions Nos. 105 and 138 and Burundi ratified Conventions Nos. 98 and 138. Several other countries are considering the ratification of fundamental ILO Conventions, or have initiated the procedures for their ratification. These include Benin (Convention No. 138), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Conventions Nos. 87, 105 and 138), Ghana (Convention No. 138), Rwanda (Convention No. 29) and Togo (Convention No. 105). Over ten ratifications of other ILO Conventions were also registered during the biennium for the countries covered by the team. National seminars in Benin, Rwanda and Togo also served to improve understanding of the ILO and its standards.

Important legal and institutional measures were adopted in several countries during the biennium in the field of occupational safety and health, including:

Occupational health and safety are still only of marginal concern to enterprises in the subregion. However, the assistance provided in this field, particularly in Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Mali and Niger, has borne fruit in the form of the introduction of safety and health modules and programmes in the training provided to doctors and nurses. Associations of safety and health professionals and occupational safety and health structures have been established or strengthened in eight countries, while the legislation has been revised to incorporate the principles contained in the relevant international labour standards, particularly in Chad, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea and Madagascar. Burkina Faso ratified the Occupational Health Services Convention, 1985 (No. 161), and the Chemicals Convention, 1990 (No. 170), during the biennium. The ILO also endeavoured, wherever possible, to raise awareness of safety and health problems in the informal sector and to support initiatives taken, even though they are still isolated, to improve the situation in the sector.

North-West Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

The countries covered by the North-West Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory Team lie in two areas with different economic, social and cultural characteristics. The countries of the Maghreb, situated on the Mediterranean coast, and particularly Morocco and Tunisia, are principally concerned to take advantage of the dynamism of the European Union. They benefit from a level of infrastructure, productive capacity and vocational training systems which do not exist in most of the other countries covered by the team. Several of these latter countries form part of the Sahel, where the climate is difficult and food security is an ever-present problem. The rest are located in more fertile coastal zones. Nevertheless, all these countries suffer to a greater or lesser extent from poverty, unemployment and precarious conditions of employment. In addition, some of them are ravaged by internal conflict, which finds in poverty fertile ground for antagonism and economic and social destabilization. The progress made in the democratization process by a number of these countries therefore remains fragile, against a background in which social dialogue generally needs establishing or consolidating.

The North-West Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory Team is located in Dakar and is composed of seven advisers. It covers Algeria, Cape Verde, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Tunisia. Country objectives have been finalized for Cape Verde, Guinea, Mali and Mauritania, while support has been provided for their formulation in Morocco and Tunisia. In the four countries for which country objectives have been finalized, as well as in Senegal, where an employment policy has been developed, a tripartite culture is gradually emerging. Moreover, most of the countries in the subregion are beginning to feel the need for permanent structures of tripartite dialogue. Modelled on the project undertaken in the Entente countries (see Chapter 1), two programmes were launched to create or strengthen tripartite structures, one covering Guinea, Mali and Senegal, and the other the Portuguese-speaking countries in the subregion. These programmes have already given constituents in the countries concerned the opportunity to get to know each other better and engage in a process of consultation on economic and social issues.

The development of these structures has led to a significant change in the assistance requested from the ILO by employers' and workers' organizations. Strategic development plans have been formulated and implemented for employers' organizations in Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. In an increasing number of countries, employers' organizations, with ILO support, are taking initiatives to promote the creation and strengthening of enterprises. In Mali, Mauritania and Senegal, they are preparing to set up enterprise promotion centres. In the same countries, they are playing the leading role in the introduction of the Start and Improve Your Business training programme. Although much remains to be done, progress has therefore been made in several countries towards the objective of developing strong, independent and representative organizations of employers. This progress has been documented and disseminated in a publication on the experience of employers' organizations in North-West Africa.(5)

The process of developing country objectives has also been instrumental in helping workers' representatives in several countries to plan their interventions in the tripartite structures that are emerging and therefore to increase their influence and strengthen their participation in the formulation of economic and social policy. Advisory services were provided to reinforce and adapt trade union structures and training activities organized to strengthen their capacities in Cape Verde, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. Opportunities for workers' representatives to influence enterprise policy in the field of safety and health have increased as a result of the establishment or reactivation of enterprise occupational safety and health committees in Guinea and Senegal. Workers' representatives were also involved in a discussion of the regulations respecting occupational safety and health in enterprises in a seminar organized in Cape Verde.

Greater emphasis has been placed on promoting employment and combating poverty in the national development policies in:

Employers' and workers' organizations also participated, alongside government services, in the discussion and formulation of employment policies in a number of countries in the subregion. With support from the ILO, these exercises resulted in employment and poverty issues being taken more fully into account in national development policies in the Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. The latter three countries reviewed their employment policies, and proposals for employment promotion programmes were formulated in Mauritania and Senegal. The same approach was adopted in the five Portuguese-speaking African countries in the context of a subregional employment promotion programme. The tripartite constituents were also associated in the process of establishing an employment and training information system in Mali and the strengthening of existing systems in Mauritania and Senegal. A permanent system to monitor and evaluate the impact of policies and programmes on poverty was set up in the Gambia. Based on these experiences, a methodological guide on employment and training observatories was published and disseminated.(6)

Productivity improvement is one of the major goals of the strategy adopted in Senegal , as part of the national employment policy, to promote employment in the informal sector. A start has been made with the development of a national productivity programme and the creation of a National Production and Productivity Centre (CNPP). Representatives of the Government and the social partners, meeting in a national tripartite seminar on productivity promotion in December 1997, outlined the main principles of the productivity programme, including tripartism, better information and greater flexibility in the policies and structures regulating the business environment. Four main fields of action were identified:

In the framework of programmes to combat poverty, the Gambia and Cape Verde have formulated national strategies for the promotion of micro-enterprises. The Start and Improve Your Business training programme was adapted and introduced in Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. In the technical assistance provided for the promotion of enterprises and micro-enterprises, the approach adopted, as in the case of Senegal, was to facilitate the interaction between representatives of the public authorities, employers' and workers' organizations, training institutions and donors in order to develop common strategies for the improvement of enterprise productivity and competitivity.

In the technical support provided to constituents in Cape Verde, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal to update information on and analysis of the training situation, emphasis was placed on establishing a closer relationship between the skill needs of enterprises and training systems and programmes. This involves the inclusion of elements on enterprise culture and entrepreneurship in technical and vocational training programmes. It also means including in training structures more support for self-employment and the development of micro-enterprises through training in business skills and the provision of guidance on busi-ness opportunities. Feasibility studies were carried out in Mali and Senegal to facilitate the introduction of entrepreneurship training in technical and vocational training institutions.(7) A programme was also launched in Liberia, Mali and Sierra Leone for the economic and social reintegration of ex-combatants through training in new skills.

Important steps in securing greater respect for human rights were taken during the biennium with the ratification of Convention No. 105 by Mauritania and Convention No. 138 by Tunisia. In addition, a national tripartite seminar in the Gambia recommended the ratification of the ILO's seven fundamental Conventions. The importance of these standards was also emphasized in the process of formulating country objectives for several countries in the subregion, with particular reference to Convention No. 87 in the case of Morocco. Further progress in the application of Conventions will be achieved through the reform embarked upon in Guinea and Guinea-Bissau with a view to making their national labour legislation more consistent with fundamental workers' rights, while preserving the economic efficiency of enterprises and their potential for job creation. Guinea has also begun the process of formulating a national occupational safety and health policy.

Southern Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

The situation in southern Africa has improved rapidly over recent years. After long periods of conflict and war, several of the countries in the subregion are enjoying periods of stability and economic growth. Recent developments in the situation in Angola give grounds for hope that there will be a return to peace throughout the subregion. Nevertheless, peace remains fragile because of the proximity of new zones of conflict in the Great Lakes region and Central Africa. Progress is also being made in the field of economic integration, which has offered greater opportunities for trade, investment and economic development at the subregional level. Nevertheless, the countries in the subregion still face the double challenge of creating sufficient employment and combating poverty. Moreover, the basis for the formulation of the required policies is lacking, since information on employment and the labour market is generally unreliable and fragmentary. Against the background of globalization and regional economic integration, the labour market in the subregion is subject to far-reaching change, while the implementation of structural adjustment programmes throughout the decade has led to the rapid growth of informal activities and greater flexibility in the labour market.

The Southern Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory Team is composed of 11 advisers and is located in Harare. It covers Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Country objectives have been developed and the resulting action plans are in operation in seven of these countries and are in the process of being finalized for South Africa and Swaziland.

The Director-General's campaign for the ratification of the seven fundamental ILO Conventions met with a very encouraging response from southern African countries, with the following ratifications being registered during the biennium:

The objectives of ILO action in the subregion as regards international labour standards were an increase in the number of ratifications, better application of ratified Conventions and respect for the obligations contained in the ILO Constitution. An additional 25 ratifications of ILO Conventions were registered by the nine countries of the subregion during the biennium, of which 16 concerned the seven fundamental Conventions. The Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations also noted with satisfaction the progress achieved in Namibia and Zambia in the application of the ILO's fundamental Conventions. With ILO assistance, significant progress has also been made in resolving the problems encountered in this regard in Swaziland. The countries in the subregion have also developed the capacity to fulfil their reporting obligations on ILO standards. This progress is in large part due to the promotional, training and information activities carried out in all the countries covered by the team. These included the International Labour Standards Update programme, which was implemented in all the countries covered by the team and consists of a detailed tripartite briefing session once a year, supplemented by other components, such as technical briefings or training, as requested by constituents. The programme is designed to support the observance of national obligations deriving from the ILO Constitution and the Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 144), which has been ratified by seven of the nine countries covered by the team.

Collective bargaining and tripartite consultation machinery is not, in general, sufficiently widespread or robust to provide a basis for effective and balanced industrial relations systems in the subregion. The advisory and training services provided by the ILO to government services and organizations of employers and workers were designed to strengthen their capacity to contribute to the establishment of permanent industrial relations and decision-making structures. The ILO assisted the Government of Zimbabwe in launching collective bargaining in the public sector, while advisory services in South Africa focused on the strengthening of collective bargaining in public sector organizations. Assistance was provided to constituents in Malawi and Swaziland for the development of an appropriate legislative framework for collective bargaining. A technical cooperation project was also carried out to strengthen dispute settlement machinery in South Africa (see Chapter 1) and was extended to other countries on a pilot basis in 1997. Another technical cooperation project was launched to strengthen tripartism and workplace democracy in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland.

With support from ILO training and advisory activities, several southern African countries, including Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, are making increasing use of tripartite means to achieve consensus in the economic and social decision-making process. The ILO's activities to promote this process culminated in the organization of a subregional tripartite workshop in Johannesburg in December 1997, at which the member States of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) examined the situation as regards tripartite consultation in their countries and made proposals to reform the institutional framework for social dialogue at the national level. In particular, the participants formally recognized the essential role of tripartite cooperation and consensus-building in socio-economic development.

Several member States received assistance during the course of the biennium to improve their knowledge of their labour markets. A survey of the labour force was carried out in Namibia. Assistance was provided for the analysis of the resulting data and the formulation of the chapters of the national plan relating to employment. Towards the end of the biennium, a detailed review was undertaken in Malawi of employment and growth perspectives in the principal sectors of the economy with a view to developing policies for the creation of productive employment. A subregional database of employment and labour statistics was also developed and will be made available to constituents in the subregion to improve their access to data and assist in their analysis of the labour market situation.

Analyses have shown that labour-based road construction costs in Lesotho and Zimbabwe are more than one-third lower than those of an equipment-based approach. At a time when formal sector employment is declining in Zimbabwe and rising slowly in Lesotho, potential employment from labour-based road construction is equivalent to 6 per cent of total formal sector employment in Zimbabwe and 18 per cent in Lesotho.

As a result of the support provided by the team and the ASIST programme (see Chapter 2 for an overview of ILO work in this field), employment-intensive programmes are now well-established throughout the subregion. Assistance continued to be provided in most countries for the restructuring of the government services responsible for developing infrastructure. With support from donors, infrastructure development has been decentralized. Many small enterprises have flourished in the conducive environment for their activities offered by these programmes. Many countries are now requesting specific training and advisory services for the planning and improvement of access roads in rural and urban areas in collaboration with local communities. These activities constitute important and substantive tools for decentralized planning and participative development.

Most of the governments in the subregion are also seeking to adopt strategies and policies to create an environment that is conducive to the development of the private sector, and particularly small enterprises, which currently suffer from difficulties in gaining access to capital and institutional support. Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland benefited from assistance in the formulation of policies and the implementation of programmes to promote small enterprises. Productivity centres or associations were created in Malawi and Zimbabwe, and supported in Botswana.

Southern African countries are facing great difficulties in reforming their training policies and systems in order to adapt them to changing economic and social needs and improve their effectiveness. Several countries have embarked upon a training reform process and have received assistance from the ILO for this purpose. By way of illustration, support was provided in Zimbabwe for a survey of the supply of and demand for skilled labour. Advisory services were provided to Zambia and a seminar was held in Lesotho on training policy. However, in most countries these reforms are encountering significant obstacles, including the reluctance of the State to allow the social partners and the private sector sufficient space to play their full role in the field of training.

Codes of practice on chemical safety and HIV/AIDS were developed during the biennium by SADC member States.

The need to attract foreign investment has often led countries to adopt a less stringent attitude towards the application of occupational safety and health standards. However, SADC member States demonstrated their awareness of the need to remedy this situation and provide better protection for workers by initiating a process of harmonization of their respective regulations. With ILO support, this process led to the formulation of regional codes on chemical safety and HIV/AIDS.

Social security systems in the subregion only cover a small proportion of workers and the population. Support continued to be provided to governments and the social partners in their efforts to restructure social security schemes and adapt them to the most pressing needs of the population, while ensuring their compatibility with the reforms implemented to increase the competitiveness of the economy. Progress was achieved in a number of cases. In Zambia, for example, with ILO assistance, the Social Insurance Fund is being transformed into a fully-fledged social security system. In Namibia, support was provided to the newly established social security commission. In Botswana, a technical cooperation project established the conditions under which a social security system could operate and proposed general options for its structure. A study was also carried out to analyse the social protection of migrant workers in South Africa.(8)

North Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

The North Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory Team is located in Cairo and was composed of two advisers for most of the biennium. It covers Egypt and Sudan. The country objectives for Egypt were finalized during the biennium 1994-95.

The war that is ravaging the south of Sudan places a heavy burden upon the country as a whole. The national economy has suffered and opportunities for social dialogue have been minimized. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the Sudanese economy has laboured under the double handicap of a deterioration in its balance of payments and a high rate of inflation. The external debt exceeds the country's repayment capacity. Under these conditions, the employment situation and living conditions are extremely precarious. Although a process of economic reform and structural adjustment has been implemented in Egypt since the beginning of the 1990s, it is still too early to judge its impact on employment, poverty, the distribution of income and living conditions. Despite the privatization of public enterprises, the State still controls much of the national economy. The high rate of demographic growth is placing great pressure on the available land and constitutes a major challenge in terms of development and employment creation.

Awareness in Egypt of the child labour problem has been rising in recent years, as it has received exposure through the mass media, including television. ILO-IPEC has been supporting activities in the country since 1994, leading up to:

The assistance provided to Egypt during the biennium focused on the preparation of the new Labour Code, which has been submitted to the National Assembly. Both workers' representatives and labour inspectors were provided with training to strengthen their capacity for the dialogue and collective bargaining which will take place once the Labour Code has been adopted. Labour inspectors and other officials were also provided with training in both Egypt and Sudan to improve their capacity to monitor issues relating to occupational safety and health and working conditions. This work was supported by a study of the labour inspection system in Egypt. Other training activities concentrated on improving the application of international labour standards, particularly as regards minimum age and the maritime sector in Egypt and freedom of association in Sudan.

Arab States

Although there are considerable variations in their economic and social conditions, the countries in the region continued to attach considerable importance to modernizing their economies and strengthening their human resources. In response to changes in the structure of their economies and in skill requirements, the oil-producing countries accord high priority to the increased utilization of the national workforce. The other countries in the region are aiming to reduce unemployment and promote employment opportunities in the expanding sectors of their economies. In some countries of the region, awareness of the importance of balanced economic and social development is increasing because of the obvious difficulties arising in relation to policies which emphasise only economic development. In this context, the ILO was active in providing assistance to its tripartite constituents, particularly on such issues as workers' rights, international labour standards and labour law. ILO action in this respect made a considerable contribution to strengthening tripartism and the development of appropriate policies and programmes.

The Regional Office for Arab States and the Arab States Multidisciplinary Advisory Team continued to maintain close dialogue with ILO constituents during the biennium to identify their priorities and needs, particularly in the fields related to the Organization's three priority objectives of promoting democracy and human rights, alleviating poverty and unemployment, and the protection of working people. The Arab States Multidisciplinary Advisory Team is composed of nine advisers and is located in Beirut. It covers Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and the West Bank and Gaza. Country objectives have been finalized for five countries in the region. Both the Regional Office and the Multidisciplinary Advisory Team collaborated in several areas with the Arab Labour Organization (ALO), the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND) and the Council of Ministers of Labour and Social Affairs of the Gulf Cooperation Council States.

The development of the level of social dialogue that is essential in the region for the achievement of greater social stability continues to require consolidation of the relevant institutions and structures. Particular attention in this respect continued to be paid to strengthening the capacities of the social partners and adapting labour law to take into account the relevant international labour standards. The ILO promoted social dialogue by providing opportunities for the social partners to meet and discuss matters of mutual concern. These included the bipartite meetings organized in the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen, in which government representatives were invited to participate. Both meetings examined several issues, including occupational safety and health, conditions of work and productivity, and offered an opportunity for the Office to provide constituents with technical advice on these subjects. The experience gained in these activities points to the need for an improved understanding by constituents of issues that are of critical importance for tripartism, including industrial relations, collective bargaining and freedom of association.

Employers' organizations in the region are endeavouring to expand their role so that they can contribute more effectively to the social and economic development of national society. The training activities and advisory services provided in most of the countries of the region concentrated on strengthening the capacity of employers' representatives and improving the climate for enterprise development, with emphasis on the establishment of new private businesses. Some 200 young entrepreneurs in Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Yemen benefited from training workshops on how to start a business. Assistance was provided to the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in the West Bank and Gaza for the formulation of a new constitution, which was submitted to the central Palestinian authorities for approval. An industrial survey was also carried out and the first business directory published in the territories.

Workers in most of the countries of the region continued their efforts to establish independent organizations capable of defending their rights and playing a significant role in economic and social development and the democratization process. Advisory services were provided, training organized and information materials translated into Arabic covering a wide range of issues, including collective bargaining, social dialogue, human resources development and the role that trade unions can play to address the economic and social difficulties arising out of economic restructuring, globalization, privatization and the liberalization of trade. Over 150 workers' representatives in the West Bank and Gaza were trained in trade union issues, workers' education and collective bargaining. A project was launched in the West Bank and Gaza to improve the capacity of trade unions to participate in the design, implementation and evaluation of vocational training policy. A project was also developed to strengthen trade union capacities in Lebanon in the areas of the management of workers' organizations and collective bargaining.

In the field of international labour standards, the assistance provided during the biennium concentrated on promoting the ratification and observance of the ILO's fundamental Conventions and increasing awareness of the role of international labour standards in general. Some progress was achieved in the Director-General's campaign for the more widespread ratification of the ILO's fundamental Conventions when the United Arab Emirates ratified Conventions Nos. 100 and 105 in 1997, while the ratification process has been initiated by Oman for Convention No. 29 and by Kuwait for Convention No. 138. Eight of the 11 member States in the region have now ratified at least four of the fundamental Conventions. Technical advice was also provided to assist constituents in complying with their reporting obligations under the terms of the ILO Constitution. Assistance in the field of labour legislation focused on integrating the provisions of international labour standards into national law.

In September 1996, in collaboration with the Jordanian National Committee for Women, the ILO organized an Arab Ministerial Conference for the Preparation of a Unified Arab Programme and Mechanism to follow up the Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. The Ministerial Conference was held at two levels: the first involving representatives of ministries, experts and officials concerned with women's issues, and the second for Arab NGOs.

Following this Conference, Jordan, Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza set up commissions to follow up the Beijing Conference and integrate women's needs into the national planning process and into human resources development activities.

The situation of women in the labour market varies between the different member States in the region. However, women who wish to work tend to encounter attitudinal obstacles. The traditionally low women's labour force participation rates are due in large part to the lack of vocational training opportunities for women and their exclusion from the development process. The approaches adopted to overcoming these problems consisted of raising awareness of the need for equality of opportunity and treatment for women in employment and occupation, assistance to constituents to ensure the participation of women in the national development process, and increasing women's awareness of their own rights through training activities. Technical assistance was provided to Jordan, Oman, Qatar and Yemen for the formulation of policies and action programmes to promote women's employment. A subregional workshop on the promotion of entrepreneurship by women was held in Jordan in November 1997 and a training kit on women workers' rights was translated into Arabic. Support was also provided for the formulation of a national action plan for women's employment in the West Bank and Gaza. Close contacts were maintained in this respect with the Centre of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR) and AGFUND.

Initiatives for the development of action to combat child labour in the region included:

Child labour occurs in the region in a variety of forms and situations. In general, the work of children in the family or as apprentices is not considered to be hazardous or recognized as a problem by society. However, there has been a growing understanding that child labour could become a threat to the future development of many Arab developing countries and it is therefore starting to become a major concern. At the request of several governments, ILO-IPEC initiated activities on the problem of child labour in early 1997. Surveys of the national child labour situation were carried out in 1997 in Jordan, Lebanon, Syrian Arab Republic, Yemen and in the West Bank and Gaza. An advisory mission was also undertaken towards the end of the biennium to develop a joint project between the Arab Council for Childhood and Development (ACCD) and ILO-IPEC.

ILO assistance to strengthen labour administrations in the region addressed structural weaknesses and staffing problems, particularly through the reinforcement of institutional capacities. Special efforts were made to improve the efficiency of labour administrations in Jordan, Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza. The assistance provided in the West Bank and Gaza resulted in strengthened capacity, in terms of both facilities and expertise, in the fields of labour inspection, employment services, safety and health and vocational rehabilitation. The provision of equipment and training materials to the Ministry and to pilot employment offices contributed to the development of a department of labour for the Palestinian Authority. An action plan was also implemented in collaboration with the Regional Arab Programme for Labour Administration (RAPLA) to develop the capacities of labour administration officials in the region. In Jordan and Lebanon, the ILO assisted the national authorities in the establishment of employment offices, which are now in operation. The assistance provided to the United Arab Emirates included a review of national labour legislation to identify areas in which revision is required to take into account the provisions of Conventions Nos. 100 and 105, which have been recently ratified by the country.

The principal problems in the region in relation to employment promotion and poverty alleviation continued to be the massive rates of unemployment of youth and women. Efforts were made to create a favourable policy environment for the promotion of employment and to increase the efficiency and mobility of the labour force so that workers can take full advantage of existing employment opportunities. A new generation of assistance projects was launched during the biennium to support the adoption of employment and labour market policies which can help overcome the very high rates of unemployment. The projects in Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar and Yemen were launched during the biennium, while preparations were made for those in Jordan, Kuwait and the Syrian Arab Republic. A labour market information programme was commenced in Bahrain, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen in response to the need for the continuous collection and analysis of labour market information, particularly in areas such as labour migration, women workers, the informal sector and child labour. With support from the ILO, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) finalized the design of a long-term programme for its labour statistics department and successfully conducted three rounds of its labour force survey. Labour force surveys were carried out for the first time in a number of years in Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic.

The priorities of ILO assistance in the field of vocational training and skill development were improved efficiency and cost-effectiveness of training systems; broader involvement of employers' and workers' organizations; and the promotion of enterprise-based training. Support was provided to Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to evaluate the responsiveness of national training systems to actual labour market needs and to improve their performance through the incorporation of greater flexibility into training methods and delivery systems. A regional seminar on vocational training and curriculum development was held in 1997 in collaboration with the ALO on the adaptation of training systems to the changing needs of the labour market.

Despite the growth in the number of persons with disabilities in the region, as a result of wars and internal conflicts, vocational rehabilitation systems are still of limited coverage. The objective of ILO assistance was to improve the technical skills of current staff and to introduce new rehabilitation methodologies. Technical assistance projects were undertaken and national and regional training seminars were organized in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, the

Syrian Arab Republic, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and the West Bank and Gaza. These activities resulted in the incorporation of community-based rehabilitation strategies into the national policies in several countries, as well as upgrading the skills of a substantial number of practitioners in each country. In Yemen, two vocational rehabilitation centres were reactivated to cater for over 200 persons with disabilities. Four community-based rehabilitation projects were launched in the same country to serve over 300 persons with disabilities. More than 150 practitioners from various countries in the region received basic training on vocational rehabilitation, while 27 officials and policy-makers benefited from special training on policy development in the field of rehabilitation. A project undertaken in the West Bank and Gaza is designed to achieve the rehabilitation and reintegration of some 6,000 ex-detainees through the provision of business training and loans for the creation of income-generating activities. Another project promotes the production of low-cost wheelchairs by persons with disabilities.

The Americas

As democracy has become more firmly established in the Americas, political stability in the region has greatly improved. Against this background, the progress that has been made in many countries in establishing and strengthening social dialogue and tripartite consultation at the national and local levels is an essential factor in fostering peace and democracy, especially in countries emerging from conflict. The environment has therefore been propitious for the implementation of the active partnership policy, and there has been a major increase in the ILO's contacts with constituents, who have participated effectively in the development of country objectives. Social dialogue has also been reinforced at the regional and subregional levels, particularly in the context of the multiple subregional integration processes, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the common market of the Southern Cone (MERCOSUR) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which have continued throughout the region.

Although the region experienced economic growth during the biennium, the quality of jobs deteriorated, informal employment surged and unemployment rates hit their highest levels of the past ten years. Women and young persons have been particularly badly affected. In this situation, with a view to improving their competitive performance, member States have been seeking to introduce labour reforms to improve the functioning of their economies. The ILO's approach in this respect has been to orient labour reform towards the reduction of selected labour costs, without impairing conditions of employment or obstructing collective bargaining. To provide guidance in this connection, a number of studies were carried out at the regional level on growth with employment and the impact of labour costs on competitiveness and worker protection.(9) With a view to improving the capacity of member States in the region to monitor the performance of their economies at all times and develop effective means of combating unemployment, an information network was created during the biennium. With the assistance of the social partners, national institutions and bureaux of statistics, the constitution of the information network made it possible to provide periodic information on labour market variables reflecting the situation in each country as regards growth, employment and labour standards. This information was provided to member States, among other means, through the Labour overview.(10)

One of the features of action against child labour in Latin America has been the very active role played by trade unions in changing social attitudes to the subject. Under the guidance of the Ibero-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT), the Latin American Central of Workers (CLAT) and ILO-IPEC, trade union representatives formulated a landmark document on trade union action against child labour. National trade union meetings have since been held in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Venezuela.

In Central America, the trade unions in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama have hosted national seminars to sensitize trade unionists to child labour issues. In Costa Rica and Nicaragua, national plans of action on child labour for trade unions were developed, and in Costa Rica a Trade Union National Committee on Child Labour was established. A subregional meeting will be organized in 1998 to establish common policies and programmes on the elimination of child labour.

During the biennium, child labour became a key issue on the national agendas of many countries in the region. The problem was also given high priority at the Tripartite Latin American Meeting at Ministerial Level on the Elimination of Child Labour, held in Cartagena de Indias in May 1997, as well as at the Summit of the First Ladies of America, held in Panama in October 1997. Latin America has the largest number of ILO-IPEC participating countries of any region. The following countries have signed Memoranda of Agreement (MOUs) with the ILO-IPEC programme: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. ILO-IPEC is also active in Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay. As the number of ILO-IPEC participating countries in the region has increased, exchanges of experience on successful approaches and strategies against child labour, as well as networking between the various actors concerned, have been pursued at the regional and subregional levels. ILO-IPEC's regional and subregional activities during the biennium focused on action against the most intolerable forms of child labour. Project proposals on trafficking in children and child prostitution were formulated in Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Paraguay.

Andean Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

The countries of the Andean subregion are all undergoing a process of reform and structural adjustment. However, the initial phases of the process have tended to destroy more jobs than they have created, especially in the formal sector of the economy, with the result that informality has increased. Several countries in the subregion have also, during the biennium, experienced political instability and conflict of varying origins and types. Against this background, despite the relative weakness of the social partners in the five countries concerned, there is growing recognition of the fact that the process of reform requires the active participation of civil society to negotiate many of the proposed changes and that the social partners need to be strengthened so that they can play a more dynamic role in society. There is therefore significant consensus among ILO constituents in the five countries to the effect that the ILO needs to give priority to strengthening social dialogue and the creation of good quality and productive employment.

With eight advisers, the Andean Multidisciplinary Advisory Team is located in Lima and covers Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Country objectives have been completed for all five countries in close collaboration with the respective governments and the social partners. The implementation of the agreed programmes resulted in greater interaction between the ILO and its constituents, and among constituents. In Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela the process has contributed to a significant increase in tripartite activities at the national level.

Social dialogue in the countries of the subregion developed during the biennium through the establishment and strengthening of several tripartite bodies:

The strengthening of the social partners so that they can play a more proactive role in the nascent processes of social dialogue in the subregion included the establishment of teams of trainers in the field of workers' education. A subregional tripartite seminar on workers' training and retraining, held in Lima in October 1996, was attended by Ministers of Labour from the subregion and high-level officials from employers' and workers' organizations. The participants adopted a tripartite declaration setting out guidelines for workers' training and retraining, which are currently being implemented in the subregion. One of the main recommendations made in the declaration is that changes and reforms to training systems should be agreed upon in a process of tripartite consultation. Five national seminars and one regional seminar were also held for employers' organizations on labour policies in the context of regional economic integration. A diagnosis of the structure and organization of employers' organizations in the subregion was carried out as a basis for advisory work to strengthen their performance(11) and manuals on social responsibility were developed in collaboration with employers' organizations in Colombia and Peru.12

Although all five countries in the subregion have ratified six of the ILO's seven fundamental Conventions, special attention was paid in the process of preparing and implementing country objectives to the application of ratified Conventions, based on the comments of the Committee of Experts. During the biennium, Bolivia ratified Convention No. 138. Colombia is also about to ratify Convention No. 138 and an analysis is being carried out in Peru of the possibility of amending the national legislation with a view to ratifying the Convention. Technical assistance in the field of international labour standards included the organization of a national seminar in Colombia for the highest magistrates of the judiciary to promote acceptance of and compliance with ILO standards. Technical support was provided for congressional labour committees in Venezuela and Peru. An informal report was prepared for the Peruvian Congress on five Bills introducing reforms in labour relations and collective bargaining which address matters raised by the Committee of Experts.

ILO assistance for the promotion of employment contributed to:

In the framework of the assistance provided to member States for the promotion of employment, five national studies were undertaken to analyse the employment situation and policy alternatives for the acceleration of employment growth.(13) These studies served as a basis for tripartite dialogue on employment policy. Assistance was also provided for the development of updated and comparable statistics of employment and unemployment based on household surveys in Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela. In the same countries, specially designed software was installed for employment services. For the first time in Bolivia, a survey was carried out to measure the expected demand for skilled workers by occupation, sector and enterprise size with a view to highlighting the skill requirements of enterprises in urban areas.(14) The results of the survey have been used to adapt national training programmes. An inter-institutional committee on employment policy was also set up in the country, for which a number of reports were undertaken to analyse employment and labour market policies.(15)

Activities to promote small and micro-enterprises resulted in:

Support for the creation of employment also continued to include assistance in the development of small and micro-enterprises. Start Your Business training materials were translated into Spanish and adapted for use in Peru, where some 40 instructors were trained in the use of the materials. As a follow-up to the interdepartmental project on the informal sector carried out in the biennium 1994-95, an analysis of the urban informal sector in Bogotá was produced in collaboration with over 30 national institutions, including government agencies, employers' and workers' organizations and informal sector organizations.(16) ILO assistance has been requested to support the implementation of the proposed policies in Bogotá, as well as to carry out a similar exercise in other cities in Colombia. In Peru, a review was undertaken of the various policies adopted in relation to micro-enterprises in order to promote better coordination and avoid duplication. The support offered in Venezuela to coordinate the work of the various public sector institutions assisting small and micro-enterprises resulted in the establishment of a coordinating committee in which the ILO participates.

Bolivia, Peru and Colombia have ratified the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169). Technical assistance to promote the ratification of the Convention was also provided during the biennium to the Secretary-General for Indigenous Affairs of Ecuador. The question of ratification of the Convention is due to be raised by the National Constitutional Assembly, which met towards the end of the biennium and will conclude its work in 1998. In Bolivia, amendments were adopted to the law giving effect to Convention No. 169. Training materials were developed and over 30 legal advisers to indigenous peoples' organizations were trained. Many of the 301 municipalities created in the country by the administrative decentralization law of 1995 have indigenous mayors. At the request of organizations of indigenous peoples and the Government of Colombia, technical support was also provided to the permanent committee on concertation with indigenous peoples. An analysis was undertaken of the situation of indigenous peoples and sustainable development in the Amazon area of Peru. Proposals for action were set out in a synthesis report, which was reviewed by a workshop in July 1997 attended by government authorities, employers' and workers' organizations, and representatives of oil companies, NGOs and research centres. The participants at the workshop concluded that legal security for indigenous peoples needs to be extended throughout the country, that access to basic needs and services is still a priority issue for indigenous peoples and that an agreement should be reached between these peoples and oil companies to avoid the negative effects of oil extraction operations on sustainable development at the local level.(17)

The context in which assistance was provided in the field of social security continued to be the reform process of social security institutions under way throughout the region. In Venezuela, at the request of the Government and the Tripartite Labour Committee, which has adopted as its objective the establishment of a mixed public/private social security system, technical assistance concentrated on the legal framework and substantive issues in the reform process. The Bill developed by the Tripartite Committee has been submitted to Congress. The assistance provided in Colombia consisted of a financial and actuarial evaluation of the funds managed by the Social Security Institute of Colombia.

Central American Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

The Central American Multidisciplinary Advisory Team is composed of nine advisers and is located in San José. It covers Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama. During the biennium, the team's work was guided by the country objectives developed in the previous biennium for the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Mexico, as well as the subregional objectives established for Central America, which cover Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. National programmes were also defined for Cuba and Haiti. A process of revision of country and regional objectives was undertaken during the biennium. The principal priorities identified by constituents in these exercises continued to be the alleviation of poverty, the protection of workers, support for employers' and workers' organizations and the promotion of tripartism and international labour standards.

Progress in relation to the ratification and application of international labour standards in the subregion has included:

The level of ratification of the seven fundamental ILO Conventions by the countries covered by the team is high, with Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua having ratified all seven of them, and the Dominican Republic and Haiti having ratified six. The ratification and implementation of ILO Conventions continued to be actively promoted during the biennium through the provision of technical assistance and the organization of seminars and workshops for the tripartite constituents. Study tours to Mexico, San José and Geneva were organized for Cuban legal experts so that they could examine different systems of labour legislation as a contribution to the process of the re-examination of labour legislation in Cuba in the light of the new developments in its labour market (see box). Workshops were held in various countries for the officials in the Ministries of Labour who are responsible for matters relating to international labour standards. Tripartite seminars and training were organized for constituents in preparation for the International Labour Conference and on a number of standards-related topics, including the use of ILOLEX and NATLEX, which can be accessed through the team's Web site (http://www.oit.or.cr).

The profound changes experienced by the Cuban economy following the collapse of the Soviet bloc have resulted in far-reaching changes on the labour market. From a situation in which the State was the only employer, the private sector has been developing, together with a rise in self-employment and family micro-enterprises, which now account for some 12 per cent of the workforce.

A project was carried out to help the ILO's Cuban constituents gain a better understanding of the emerging labour market and establish a basis for cooperation with the ILO in the years to come. A number of activities were undertaken to assess the current situation and outline policy options in such fields as training, employment services, labour market information and productivity. The project led up to the formulation of a proposal for the establishment of a human resources development system and a framework document for future cooperation with Cuba in the fields of employment promotion and redeployment of the workforce.

The focal point of the ILO's efforts to consolidate peace and democracy in the subregion was the signature of the agreement on the definitive ceasefire in Guatemala in December 1996. The ILO provided assistance throughout the peace process, as it had leading up to the conclusion in 1995 of the Agreement on the Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is largely based on Convention No. 169. To follow up this Agreement, information on the Convention was widely disseminated and awareness-raising activities undertaken among the ILO's tripartite constituents in the country and the staff of the United Nations mission (MINUGUA) responsible for monitoring the Guatemala agreements (see also Chapter 3).

The improvement of employment services was the subject of numerous workshops and seminars in the countries of the subregion. In the Dominican Republic technical support was provided to the Secretariat of Labour for the reorganization and modernization of the country's employment services. In the context of its collaboration with the bipartite Labour Foundation in Panama, which is composed of the principal organizations of employers and workers in the country, the ILO assisted in the establishment of an electronic labour exchange to improve the labour market services provided by the Foundation.

For the past twelve years, in collaboration with the International Organization of Employers (IOE) and its beneficiaries, the ILO has been running the Latin American Institute for the Management of Employers' Organizations ( Instituto Latinoamericano de Gerencia de Organizaciones Empresariales -- ILGO), which has trained over 400 senior staff from employers' organizations in 18 Latin American countries.

One six-day course is provided every year. In 1997, it was attended by 63 senior staff of employers' organizations who, in addition to courses on the ILO and IOE, were trained in negotiation techniques, leadership, lobbying, communications and the analysis of global economic trends.

ILGO remains a unique training institute for high-level employers' representatives which is recognized and supported by employers' organizations throughout Latin America.

The support provided to strengthen employers' organizations included an analysis of central employers' organizations in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, as well as a survey of nearly 1,500 employers to ascertain their views on the role that should be played by their organizations. Technical support was also provided so that employers' organizations in the subregion could analyse their own situation. All of these activities pointed to the need to improve the communications of employers' organizations, both with their own members and between countries. Six national seminars were therefore held on communications for employers' organizations and a Web site was created for each organization so that it can communicate over the Internet.

In addition to training and advisory services, ILO activities in support of workers' organizations included two technical cooperation projects. Under one of the projects, technical support was provided to trade union confederations for the preparation and dissemination of their proposals on economic and legal issues, as well as the establishment of a highly trained group of trade union technicians and trainers. Under the other project, support was provided to rural workers' organizations.

An innovative project of education for employment for poor rural workers was implemented in the districts of Comayagua, Intibucá and La Paz in Honduras between 1990 and 1996. Under the title of POCET ( Proyecto de Educación para el Trabajo ), the project activities were then handed over to the national counterpart, the National Centre of Education for Work.

The object of the project was to develop and test a methodology of education for work for very poor rural workers who are illiterate or of a very low educational level, between the ages of 15 and 49, with special emphasis on training for women. The education provided consisted of basic literacy and numeracy skills, as well as vocational training adapted to the circumstances of the communities, with emphasis on the participation of women and on environmental issues. The 7,500 individual beneficiaries were assisted in the development of production or social projects, provided with credits and organized into productive enterprises. All of this took place within a context of strengthened community participation and planning through the formation and development of community organizations.

The ILO's activities to help the countries in the region combat poverty included an important project in Honduras. The project consisted of the provision of work-related education to very poor rural workers to improve their employment opportunities. The methodology adopted by the project was based on the observation that traditional vocational training programmes mainly benefit urban employees in large and medium-sized enterprises who have already acquired a certain educational level. In the field of vocational training, the objective of technical assistance and technical cooperation activities was to develop systems which respond more closely to the changing skill requirements of the labour market. Technical assistance was provided in the development of two institutions which have adopted approaches to vocational training that are innovative in the Latin American context. The first is the Vocational Training Institute of El Salvador (INSAFORP), which manages the country's vocational training system by entrusting the implementation of programmes to collaborating institutions that it has duly recognized. The second is the National Technological Institute of Nicaragua (INATEC), which unified the former systems of technical education and vocational training. In addition to further training for trainers in INATEC, the technical support provided led, for the first time in Latin America, to the development of curricula on the basis of modules of vocational skills.

One important focus of work in the subregion during the biennium concerned the social and labour aspects of export processing zones (EPZs) and their enterprises (empresas maquiladoras). These enterprises are currently the principal source of employment creation in most of the countries of the subregion, providing over 200,000 jobs in both Central America and Panama, over 180,000 in the Dominican Republic and more than 800,000 in Mexico. However, the image of EPZs in these countries tends to be associated with labour problems, including low wages, bad working conditions, non-observance of labour legislation, harsh supervision and anti-union discrimination. Conscious of their unfavourable image, Ministers of Labour in the countries covered by the team on several occasions requested the ILO to investigate and endeavour to develop an attitude on the part of those concerned that is in accordance with ILO principles and values. The findings of a number of research activities on the role of the social partners and the social and labour impact of EPZs in Central America and the Dominican Republic were published and broadly disseminated among workers' representatives through a number of seminars on EPZs.(18) At the request of employers' organizations, a general investigation of EPZs was also carried out, the findings of which were submitted to a subregional meeting of employers from Central America and the Dominican Republic on EPZs, held in Guatemala in April 1997. The participants at the meeting adopted a Declaration in which they reaffirmed their commitment to respecting fundamental labour standards as set out by the ILO.(19) These activities led up to the holding of a tripartite subregional seminar on the subject in San José in November 1997.

The social security reform processes currently under way in many of the countries in the subregion, including the privatization of social security protection in El Salvador and Mexico, formed the context of the ILO's activities in this field. The assistance provided in this respect included a study on the modernization and reform of the social security system in Honduras. The ILO also led a team of experts in an actuarial evaluation of the Panamanian Social Security Fund. A study was prepared on the implementation of a new law in El Salvador, which establishes a new private pension scheme to replace the social security system. Support was also provided for the preparation of a Social Security Bill in the Dominican Republic, which was examined and adopted by the Tripartite Commission on Social Security Reform, appointed by the President of the Republic.

Southern Americas Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

The Southern Americas Multidisciplinary Advisory Team, which is composed of ten advisers, is located in Santiago and covers Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Country objectives have been finalized for all five countries. An updated version of the country objectives for Chile was prepared in collaboration with the tripartite constituents. In all the areas of the team's work, emphasis was placed on developing and strengthening the involvement of the social partners, as well as building their capacity to fulfil their important role in social dialogue in a rapidly changing institutional and economic context. Priority was also given to the promotion of employment, the protection of vulnerable categories of workers and the promotion of equality of opportunity, particularly as part of the process of subregional integration within the framework of MERCOSUR.

Significant progress was made in strengthening tripartite processes in favour of equality of opportunity and treatment. Tripartite meetings on this subject were held in all the countries covered by the team, as well as a subregional meeting, backed up by the preparation of a publication on the role of trade unions in promoting equality of opportunity for women.(20) Advisory services were also provided to the social partners and meetings were organized to assist them in the adoption of policies on equality. In Brazil, the ILO's promotional and support activities helped raise the profile of equality issues on the national political agenda. The development of a training programme on equality in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour resulted in the reactivation of the Working Group on Discrimination (GTEDEO). The women's committees of the three principal central trade union organizations held their first joint working session, in which they agreed upon a harmonized strategy of collaboration on gender issues in collective bargaining and produced a report on the subject, which was submitted to the Trade Union Coordinating Council (CCSCS) of MERCOSUR in December 1997. Training materials on gender issues were developed and tested in a series of workshops for constituents and ILO staff, including the staff of the Inter-American Research and Documentation Centre on Vocational Training (CINTERFOR) in Montevideo.

The central theme of assistance to employers' organizations was their adaptation to the new challenges of open economies. This was the principal subject of ILO collaboration in the Argentinian Industrial Conference in 1996 and in other seminars for employers' organizations in Uruguay and Brazil. The support provided to the National Confederation of Industry in Brazil included the organization of meetings for reflection on industrial relations systems, the role of employers' organizations in the 21st century and trends in social security. Various models for the organization and roles of employers' organizations were presented to Paraguayan employers in the First Employers' Conclave in Paraguay, held in collaboration with the ILO in May 1996. This and other assistance led up to the adoption by Paraguayan employers' representatives of a new agenda redefining the role of their organization in the years to come.

ILO support made an important contribution to the consolidation of tripartite dialogue in the context of the MERCOSUR subregional economic integration process. Conferences and reports were prepared on labour inspection, labour statistics, labour standards and conditions of work in support of the work of MERCOSUR Technical Subgroup 10, in which the representatives of governments, employers and workers examine labour and social issues. This work led up to the development of a project for long-term ILO support to the Subgroup. Continuous support was provided to the Ministries of Labour which presided over the Subgroup, namely those of Paraguay and Uruguay. ILO collaboration in this respect with the Ministry of Labour of Uruguay included developing a plan for the formulation of a MERCOSUR Social Charter. The ILO also helped the MERCOSUR Socioeconomic Advisory Forum, the principal members of which are employers' and workers' representatives, to draw up its statutes and programme. In addition to providing technical support to the Joint Parliamentary Commission, particularly on the issue of child labour, the ILO assisted the CCSCS through the organization of seminars for the definition of policies on various labour-related issues. Training activities for trade union leaders from CCSCS concentrated on gender issues, labour market information and the MERCOSUR Social Charter.

The employment policy review carried out in Chile found that, despite the successful implementation of a process of economic reform and a good overall economic performance, which has led to substantial job growth and a reduction in absolute poverty, the distribution of income has hardly changed. This problem has been addressed mainly through changes in the minimum wage as part of a broad tripartite agreement. The practice of "labour-only subcontracting" has been increasing and has contributed to the creation of unstable jobs with low wages and levels of occupational health and safety.

The review was submitted to a seminar on growth, employment and sustainable livelihoods held in December 1996 for representatives of the Chilean authorities, employers' and workers' representatives, academics and NGOs, leading up to strengthened social dialogue in 1997 on the development of equitable labour institutions, measures to improve the quality of employment and the situation of women on the labour market. The country objectives for Chile have subsequently been modified in consultation with the ILO's constituents to take these issues into account.

The Director-General's campaign for the more widespread ratification of the ILO's fundamental Conventions received support from MERCOSUR countries with the ratification of Convention No. 29 by Uruguay and Convention No. 138 by Argentina. A Bill was submitted to the Chilean Congress for the ratification of Conventions Nos. 87 and 98. The subject of ratification of the fundamental Conventions has been included once again in the updated version of the country objectives for Chile. In the case of Brazil, the only fundamental ILO Conventions that have not been ratified are Conventions Nos. 87 and 138. However, a process of reforming the industrial relations system has been launched in the country and should reflect some of the principles set out in Convention No. 87.

Guidance to constituents on the achievement of the objective of full employment was provided through a subregional tripartite seminar, held in Rio de Janeiro in May 1997, on productive growth with the creation of more and better jobs. The seminar examined the opening up of the economies of the subregion and emphasized that full employment is an achievable objective. It stressed the need for continued efforts to improve the quality of employment and the importance of orienting the process of regional integration towards the creation of employment through effective social dialogue and, where appropriate, the development of new strategic alliances. In the new environment of increased regional integration, it is necessary to develop policies that are adapted to market mechanisms under the supervision of appropriate social institutions. An important achievement in the field of employment policy was the promotion of tripartite dialogue on this subject in Paraguay through the creation of the National Tripartite Council on Employment, Wages and Training Policy.

Assistance in the development of employment and labour market policies which reflect ILO principles and values also included the publication of a review of employment policy in Chile, carried out in the framework of the Task Force on Full Employment and Sustainable Livelihoods, set up by the United Nations Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) as a follow-up to the Social Summit.(21) Another country employment policy review was carried out towards the end of the biennium for Brazil, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and the social partners. The review analysed the performance of tripartite policy-making bodies and the reaction of ILO constituents to the rapid structural changes and heightened international competition. It also discussed policy options in response to the rapid loss of jobs in the industrial sector and the increase in precarious forms of employment. The findings of the review were examined at a tripartite seminar held in December 1997 and will form the basis of a document on public employment policy to be submitted to the Ministry of Labour.

With a view to improving the response of training systems to the new skill requirements of enterprises through social dialogue, the ILO helped establish a Bipartitite Local Vocational Training Council in the Argentinian city of Rosario. A legal text was drafted setting up the Council, which is based on the Canadian model of bipartite vocational training councils. A pilot project has been launched with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security for the establishment of six other local vocational training councils.

The most important achievement during the biennium in the field of labour market information was undoubtedly the development, in collaboration with the Argentinian Labour Ministry, of a labour information system for MERCOSUR. The labour information unit is now operational and is continuing to receive technical support from the ILO. A Web page has also been created on labour information for MERCOSUR to guide users towards the most suitable ILO and other sources of labour information.

One of the most significant labour market trends in the subregion has been the increase in the number of persons working in the informal sector. However, little information is available on the issue. Using data from household surveys, censuses and other available sources of information, a series of surveys were carried out on the changing characteristics of employment over the past ten years, particularly as far as women are concerned. The surveys document the change in the composition of the workforce with the massive increase in women's employment, while at the same time showing the persistence of the segregation of work by gender. They also point to the rise in more precarious forms of employment, for both men and women, and identify vulnerable social categories. The surveys go on to show the need for further research to extend the diagnostic process as a basis for the development of policies to protect the most vulnerable categories of workers.

Studies were also carried out of the scope and characteristics of home work in the subregion as a follow-up to the adoption of the Home Work Convention, 1996 (No. 177).(22) The studies recall the difficulty of obtaining quantitative data on home work and of distinguishing between home work, as defined in the ILO Convention, and forms of self-employment based at home, including micro-enterprises. In addition to sectors in which home work is known to be concentrated, such as footwear and apparel, home work is emerging in other sectors, ranging from computers to metalwork. The studies found very different situations as regards the quality of the work involved and the social protection available. Follow-up activities are recommended to determine the extent to which cases of good-quality home work can serve as a model for other homeworkers.

Caribbean Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

The Caribbean Multidisciplinary Advisory Team, which is composed of seven advisers, is located in Port-of-Spain and covers Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. In addition to those formulated in the previous biennium for Belize, Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago, country objectives were completed for Jamaica. Progress was made in the formulation of country objectives for the Bahamas and Suriname. Discussions have also been held with the CARICOM authorities concerning the possibility of developing regional objectives in the biennium 1998-99 to supplement individual country objectives and link the assistance provided at the national level to issues of regional integration and overriding regional priorities.

Since 1994, the ILO has been engaged in the development of a Caribbean Labour Market Information Data Bank with the aim of providing an operational and up-to-date source of information on key labour market issues. The Data Bank contains information on characteristics of the employed and unemployed, wages and incomes, industrial injuries, industrial disputes, collective agreements, employers' and workers' organizations, vocational training, work permits and social security. It currently covers some 20 countries and serves as the main source of information for an annual report on trends in a series of key labour market indicators, the first of which was issued during the biennium.

The focus of activities to combat poverty in the Caribbean was the Caribbean Ministerial Meeting on Poverty Eradication, held in Port-of-Spain in October-November 1996. The ILO organized the meeting in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and other organizations, and submitted papers on the promotion of productive employment for poverty eradication(23) and youth employment.(24) The major output of the meeting was the Directional Plan of Action on Poverty Eradication, which is designed to guide national authorities in the preparation of their own plans of action against poverty. The ILO coordinated the section of the Directional Plan of Action addressing the issue of employment promotion. It was also involved in the implementation of several poverty eradication activities at the national level. In Jamaica, for example, it participated in an inter-agency mission to assist the Government in the preparation of its National Poverty Eradication Programme.

In relation to employment and labour market policies, emphasis continued to be placed on the development of labour market information systems. Technical advisory services were provided and training organized to assist in the revision of existing survey instruments in Barbados and Jamaica, and to establish new surveys in Guyana and Dominica. A workshop was organized in November 1996 on the development of a wage statistics programme for the Caribbean. Attended by 40 participants from all the ILO member States in the subregion, the workshop developed an outline for a national minimum programme for wages statistics for both current and longer-term statistics. The availability to constituents of reliable and comparable labour market information was improved during the biennium by the publication of the first issue of the Digest of Caribbean labour statistics, based on data from the Caribbean Labour Market Information Data Bank.(25)

An important initiative in the field of industrial relations was the organization of two training courses for labour conciliators . Designed for senior labour officers, the courses focused on techniques and skills of conciliation and attitudes and approaches to improve the performance of conciliators. An integral part of one of the courses was instruction on the arrangement of training courses, which enabled the conciliators to organize activities within their own departments and extend the benefits of the training to all the conciliators in the subregion.

In view of the strong movement towards regional integration and the need to promote labour mobility in a globalized economy, Caribbean countries realize that a subregional skills development and recognition strategy is needed. They therefore continued to work within the framework of the CARICOM Regional Strategy for the Development of Technical and Vocational Education and Training. The Strategy identifies 11 priority areas for the development of technical and vocational education and training, including certification, accreditation and validation, and labour market information systems. The ILO collaborated with CARICOM in the holding of the regional adviser meeting on the strategy in Jamaica in 1996. Following the preparation by a workshop in 1995 of outline modules on entrepreneurship and small enterprise development for incorporation in vocational training programmes, the ILO assisted in their adaptation and integration into the vocational training systems in Barbados, the Bahamas and Grenada.

A key task of the ILO in the Caribbean is to assist constituents in the development of tripartite mechanisms in their industrial relations systems, and to strengthen organizations of employers and workers so that they can participate more effectively in these systems. As far as employers' organizations are concerned, the major activity of the biennium was the Seventh ILO Round Table for Caribbean Employers' Organizations, which provided an opportunity for the representatives of Caribbean employers' organizations to exchange information and experience on labour-related subjects. The Eighth Meeting of Caribbean Workers' Educators was also held during the biennium. The participants discussed matters such as globalization and its impact on trade unions and their members and designed programmes aimed at strengthening the organizational and negotiating skills of trade union officials.

As a follow-up to the subregional meeting on international labour standards held in the previous biennium, a series of national workshops were held. The principal aims of these workshops were to foster greater consultation among the social partners on labour matters and inform them about international labour standards and the ILO's supervisory procedures. Several of the workshops were of tripartite composition, while others were organized for either workers' or employers' organizations. In 1997, a national consultation was held in Trinidad and Tobago to enhance public understanding and knowledge of the ILO and its activities. The consultation coincided with the registration of the ratification by Trinidad and Tobago of Convention No. 100. Advisory services were also provided to several countries to strengthen their capacity to fulfil their reporting obligations under the ILO Constitution. In response to requests for assistance, technical comments were made on draft legislative texts in a number of countries. The assistance offered to Grenada on the draft Employment Act and the draft Industrial Relations Act involved the provision of technical advice to the Tripartite Labour Advisory Board, which was able to conclude its consultations on the draft legislation.

Action to promote a safer and healthier working environment in the Caribbean focused on strengthening the subregional and national legislative framework and training joint enterprise safety and health committees. Technical assistance was provided to the CARICOM Secretariat for the formulation of the CARICOM Draft Model Law on Occupational Safety and Health. Undertaken as part of the Harmonization of Labour Law Project, the draft was prepared for submission to the CARICOM Standing Committee of Ministers of Labour. At the national level, support was provided to a tripartite consultation to discuss proposed draft legislation in Guyana. Technical comments were also made on the draft Occupational Safety and Health Act in Trinidad and Tobago. Based on an analysis of the situation in Belize, a set of recommendations were made to the Government for the development of a national safety and health policy and legislation. A series of seminars were conducted for trade union members with particular responsibility for safety and health issues, including members of joint safety and health committees.

Considerable emphasis continued to be placed on activities on gender issues and the empowerment of women. Workers' education courses on gender awareness and gender issues were organized in collaboration with national trade unions in Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda and Trinidad and Tobago. A project on women workers' rights was carried out in Suriname and included workshops to train instructors and a seminar on women's communication skills. A workshop on sexual harassment was held in St. Kitts for government officials, representatives of the social partners and NGOs. In Trinidad and Tobago, the ILO supported an initiative by a network of NGOs to hold a public discussion of the Government's recommendations for the establishment of an Equality Commission and the adoption of equal opportunities legislation. A national workshop in the same country considered the findings of an ILO survey on women entrepreneurs in micro- and small businesses. In addition to the performance of micro- and small enterprises run by women, the survey focused on the constraints facing women enterpreneurs in relation to credit, training, marketing and transportation, as well as strategies for expanding their opportunities in entrepreneurship and improving their welfare. The objectives of the workshop were to provide women with more information on organizations offering services to small businesses and to promote networking between women entrepreneurs. The ILO also collaborated in two sets of courses in Trinidad and Tobago for women in construction. The second course culminated in the trainees building a house. However, employment opportunities for graduated trainees have not been plentiful, despite growth in the construction industry.

Asia and the Pacific

Asia and the Pacific is the largest developing region and one of the most economically dynamic, despite the financial crisis that affected several Asian countries towards the end of the biennium. The diverse and pressing needs of ILO constituents reflect the wide disparities in wealth, levels of development and social and labour problems between the countries of the region. Industrial relations systems continue to struggle under the strains of rapid and sometimes unbalanced growth and restructuring. Workers' rights are frequently challenged. Their protection from hazards and their treatment at the workplace are often poor, while poverty and exclusion continue to affect hundreds of millions of underemployed and unemployed workers. However, in a number of cases, broader recognition was given to the value of tripartite consultation, offering many opportunities for substantial progress in this direction in the medium term. On such issues as child labour, the need to take action was much more widely recognized, sometimes out of fear of trade sanctions.

The ILO's Twelfth Asian Regional Meeting was held in December 1997 against the background of the financial crisis affecting several Asian countries. The 200 delegates and advisers, representing 36 countries, who included 25 Ministers, concluded that "The current financial crisis facing some countries in Asia has focused attention on problems of employment and poverty and has highlighted the importance of sound macroeconomic policies, good governance and transparency in financial markets. A strong ILO response is required to minimize the adverse effects of the crisis." "Immediate steps should focus on training and redeployment of displaced workers and protection of women, migrants and other groups which may be especially adversely affected." The conclusions also called for:

In the assistance provided to constituents during the biennium, particular attention was paid to promoting the ratification and application of the ILO's fundamental Conventions and to completing, updating and following up country objectives. As a result of these efforts, a further nine ratifications of fundamental Conventions by countries in the region were registered during the biennium. In addition, a regional approach was adopted to a number of issues, including the follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women. The biennium culminated in the Twelfth Asian Regional Meeting in Bangkok in December 1997.

Women's participation in the labour force in Asia has increased dramatically over the past two decades and the trend is likely to continue into the twenty-first century. Important gains have been made by women in employment and training, and in entry into diverse occupations and fields. But these gains in no way mask the persistent gender inequalities encountered by most of them in the labour market. Against this background, the strategy adopted was to ensure that the needs of women were covered by all ILO activities in the region. For example, in the employment generation programme in Cambodia, considerable effort has been made to ensure that women are equally represented on training courses and have equal access to credit facilities. At the same time, other activities concentrated specifically on the situation of women workers. These included a regional workshop on women's employment assistance, with participation from 13 countries, at which guidelines were developed to help policy-makers and programme planners improve the employment situation of women.(26) At a high-level meeting organized in Manila on gender issues in the world of work, the participating officials undertook to continue promoting gender equality at work and requested the ILO to organize a follow-up meeting on gender-responsive planning and analysis techniques. A training manual, including paralegal and counselling components, was also developed to deal with issues of sexual harassment at the enterprise level.(27) The manual is intended for the members of the company-level bipartite committees established under the sexual harassment legislation adopted in the Philippines in 1995. A seminar on equality and women workers' rights was held in China to overcome difficulties in the application of Convention No. 100 and launch a project to improve the situation of women workers in the country.

Examples of projects targeting specific categories of child workers include:

Other activities concentrated on the promotion of entrepreneurship among women, including a project in India, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Under this project, two regional and two national training workshops were held for trainers, a training manual was published(28) and four country papers were produced on women's entrepreneurship in small and cottage industries.(29) The project resulted in the creation of a network of 15 participating organizations and a specialized documentation centre on women's entrepreneurship. A regional programme was carried out in several Asian countries to improve the welfare and working conditions of women migrant workers and to promote their employment in micro- and small enterprises (see Chapter 2 for further details). Technical assistance was also provided in Nepal to upgrade a training manual on the Development of Women Entrepreneurship in Tourism (DWET) and prepare a revised DWET credit guarantee fund.

In their growing awareness of the need to take action to combat child labour, several Asian countries were among the first to participate in the ILO-IPEC programme. The countries which have so far signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with ILO-IPEC are Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. ILO-IPEC is also active in China, Mongolia and Viet Nam. During the initial years of ILO-IPEC's operations in the region, its activities largely focused on the development of national programmes appropriate to the situation in each country. However, it has become clear that a number of child labour issues transcend national boundaries. Moreover, after five years of ILO-IPEC presence in the region, there is more scope for regional initiatives to discuss common problems and share experience between the new and older ILO-IPEC partner countries. There has also been increased recognition in recent years of the fact that regional bodies, and particularly the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), can play an important role in encouraging other countries in the region to adopt a more active approach to the problem.

Strengthening the legislative framework for combating child labour was identified as a priority in several countries. In Indonesia and the Philippines, as a result of a long-term process of assistance and advice on this issue, the prospects for the ratification of Convention No. 138 now seem good. A workshop on Convention No. 138 was also organized late in the biennium in China. Workshops in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands led to recommendations for the ratification of several of the ILO's fundamental Conventions, including Convention No. 138. Substantial progress was also made during the biennium in raising the awareness and capacity of the social partners and NGOs to deal with the issue of child labour. For example, national workshops on the role of trade unions in eliminating child labour were organized in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka and contributed to the development of action plans to be implemented with the support of ILO-IPEC. Examples of the initiatives taken by employers' and workers' organizations to combat child labour are described in Chapter 1.

East Asia Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

The countries of East Asia range from advanced industrial economies to least developed countries. They include economies in transition, which face grave problems of poverty, high unemployment and labour market dislocation as they move towards greater market orientation. They also comprise industrialized countries, where rapid economic growth has been translated into the expansion of productive and remunerative employment. In between, there are newly industrializing economies, such as Malaysia and Thailand, which still face problems of structural adjustment.

The East Asia Multidisciplinary Advisory Team is located in Bangkok and is composed of 18 advisers. It covers Cambodia, China, Republic of Korea, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. Country objectives currently exist for Cambodia, China, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mongolia and Viet Nam. The team assisted in the preparation of country objectives for Thailand, and revised objectives are under discussion with the Government and social partners of Viet Nam.

The Director-General's campaign for the more widespread ratification of the ILO's fundamental Conventions was encouraged by the ratification during the biennium of Conventions Nos. 100 and 138 by Malaysia , Convention No. 100 by the Republic of Korea and Conventions Nos. 98, 100 and 111 by Viet Nam . Moreover:

Increased economic globalization has underlined the continued relevance of international labour standards throughout Asia and the Pacific and real progress has been achieved in several countries in the development and implementation of labour legislation and labour institutions. More governments are now taking ILO standards into account when formulating legislation and are seeking ILO specialist advice. A growing number of employers' and workers' representatives are also seeking information from the ILO on their rights and responsibilities. However, ratifications of fundamental Conventions in East Asia remain at a low level. To address this situation, advisory services were provided to constituents and seminars and workshops were organized to raise awareness of the fundamental standards and improve dialogue between the ILO's supervisory bodies and member States.

Advisory services were also provided to assist in drafting new labour legislation in several countries. Assistance of this nature contributed to the formulation of a new labour law in Cambodia, which was adopted in 1997, as well as the development of draft legislation covering collective bargaining in China. The ILO provided the Government of Thailand with comments on draft legislation on labour relations in state enterprises. Project proposals covering tripartism, collective bargaining, dispute settlement and labour inspection were developed to help improve the implementation of the labour codes in Cambodia, China, Lao People's Democratic Republic and Viet Nam. Training was organized in each of these countries for conciliators and arbitrators and training materials were developed and translated into the national languages.(30) Guidance was provided in Viet Nam on the integration of the new Labour Court into the existing judicial system and instruction was offered on the role of labour judges and industrial relations issues. In Thailand, assistance was provided to a national tripartite committee to identify practical measures and develop an associated strategy to improve workplace cooperation.

Assistance for the strengthening of employment services included:

Significant initial steps were taken to strengthen the capacity of labour administrations in such areas as conciliation, the promotion of collective bargaining, the enforcement of minimum wages and employment services. Capacity-building activities for labour inspectors included the holding of training courses, the organization of study tours and the preparation of training materials.(31) A major programme was developed to strengthen the capacity of the Chinese Ministry of Labour and will include labour inspection as one of its core elements. An assessment is planned of the labour inspectorate in Thailand to improve its overall impact, particularly with regard to compliance with minimum wages. Blueprints and follow-up projects were also prepared for the long-term development of labour administrations in Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic and Viet Nam. To reinforce this work, a practical training guide on trainer training for labour administrations was published for use at the national level.(32)

If they are to respond effectively to the increasingly complex socio-economic environment in which they operate, employers' organizations in East Asia need to improve the range and quality of the advisory and other services that they provide to their members. They were therefore urged to develop as business entities with clear and focused strategic plans. Advisory services and training activities concentrated on improving their capacity to provide services to their members through staff training and development, the promotion of income-generating activities and the development of their information systems and research capacity. Particularly in transition countries, assistance focused on their capacity to influence the policy environment and their participation in tripartite processes. Examples of the improved services provided to their members include the launching of occupational safety and health programmes by employers' organizations in China, Malaysia and Thailand.

In recent years, East Asian workers' organizations have been seeking to establish an effective presence at the national level, particularly in countries in transition. The assistance provided to trade union leaders and members in these countries concentrated on enhancing their capacity to participate in industrial relations systems based on collective bargaining. Training materials were developed to assist in this process.(33) Special emphasis in workers' education activities was placed on raising awareness of workers' rights, the role of trade unions in occupational safety and health, activities to address gender issues and child labour. One important component of the assistance provided to the Confederation of Mongolian Trade Unions was the development of new policies and programmes on safety and health.

Further action was taken to improve tripartitism through the development of national plans of action for the promotion of workplace cooperation and the identification of the necessary action at the advisory, legislative, information and capacity-building levels. A subregional tripartite meeting was held in Hong Kong, China, to help the tripartite constituents deal with new and emerging industrial relations issues. Further guidance was provided through the preparation of practical guidelines on how to implement workplace cooperation.(34)

ILO action to help East Asian countries combat unemployment and poverty continued to include advice and guidance on macroeconomic and employment policies. Technical studies on macro-policies and globalization in China, Malaysia, Mongolia, Thailand and Viet Nam,(35) as well as a study on micro-interventions for poverty elimination in China,(36) served as instruments to sensitize senior policy-makers and the social partners to the principal policy issues involved. In Thailand, the ILO's proposals on poverty alleviation were incorporated into the United Nations Ten-Point Strategy for Poverty Alleviation, which was submitted to the Prime Minister. In collaboration with UNDP, the ILO also provided support for the development of the Eighth National Economic and Social Development Plan, which emphasizes a people-centred development strategy aimed at reducing income disparities.

During the biennium, the ILO assisted in the development of employment policy in a number of East Asian countries (see box). One important aspect of this assistance was the provision of policy advice on labour migration issues, based on studies to identify the causes and patterns of labour emigration in China and Viet Nam.(37) A synthesis report covering the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) sets out a number of recommendations to facilitate skilled labour flows in the subregion.(38) The six countries in the GMS were also assisted in the development of a Subregional Labour Information Network and in making the related improvements in their national labour market information systems. With ILO support, the Government of Viet Nam developed and implemented labour force surveys and several other member States reviewed their national standard classifications of occupations. The publications prepared in support of this work include guidelines on the compilation and presentation of labour statistics based on administrative records.(39) The progress made by these countries constitutes a significant improvement in their capacity to produce better-quality labour market information and to monitor employment and labour markets more effectively.

ILO technical advisory activities for the development of national employment policies included:

Employment generation continued to be promoted through activities to develop micro- and small enterprises (MSEs). In Cambodia, in addition to policy advice on the formulation of MSE development policies and programmes, assistance was provided in the strengthening of the Association of Local Economic Development Agencies, which provides basic business training and loans to MSEs. In the Lao People's Democratic Republic, advisory services on MSE development contributed to the formulation of the Socio-economic Development Plan for the Central Region and the national Five-Year Plan. Pilot training programmes for trainers based on the Improve Your Business (IYB) training package were carried out in Viet Nam in collaboration with the national Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Based on the success of pilot activities for the development of cooperatives and small enterprises by rural women's groups, the Government of Thailand is planning to incorporate similar activities in its own national programmes.

A survey was carried out on the short-term socio-economic impact of the construction of rural roads in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. One of the roads covered by the survey was in the Hune district, in the province of Oudomxay in the north of the country. The 24 km road directly serves 20 villages, which were previously linked to the main road only by footpaths and a track. It also indirectly serves other villages in the surrounding hills and mountains, which are still accessible only by footpath.

Since 1994, when road construction was commenced, the survey found a number of important changes in the villages, including:

However, the evaluation also pointed to an intensification of slash and burn agriculture and logging by the army, leading to the destruction of forests and the preparation of new areas of agricultural land.

ILO-supported labour-based infrastructure development activities have played an important role in Cambodia and the Lao People's Democratic Republic in providing short-term employment and in promoting development through the construction of crucial infrastructure. The sustainability of the projects has been promoted by training local government officials and private sector personnel and by institutionalizing labour-based techniques in government programmes and national training curricula.

The effects of globalization and liberalization have placed significant pressure on the rapidly developing countries of East Asia to reform their training systems. In collaboration with the ILO Asian and Pacific Skill Development Programme (APSDEP), advisory services were provided to identify major human resource development issues at the country level and develop the related technical proposals. In view of the increase in labour migration in the subregion, high-level meetings were organized to develop new approaches to regional skills standards. At the national level, the support included:

An independent evaluation of a skills training project launched in Cambodia in 1996 found that, of the 5,000 persons trained, some 77 per cent had used the skills gained for employment and income-generation purposes. The higher incomes gained by the trainees have contributed significantly to improving the nutrition, education and general health of their families.

The ILO helped a number of countries to introduce new social security provisions or expand existing schemes , including:

Throughout these activities, the approach adopted was to ensure that the needs of particular target groups, including youth, persons with disabilities and ethnic minorities, were covered by all technical advisory and cooperation activities. Nevertheless, specific activities were also carried out to help these groups. Examples include the support that continued to be provided to the Disability Review Group, set up at the ILO's recommendation in Mongolia, for the development of a comprehensive policy to promote equal opportunities for persons with disabilities. Situation analyses were also carried out in the Lao People's Democratic Republic to identify programme needs. A project carried out in China, Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam led to the development of guidelines for job placement officers on assisting persons with disabilities in finding employment.(40) The guidelines were introduced to the employment services in these countries through a series of workshops and were tested through pilot activities.

Although working conditions are covered by extensive regulations in many countries in the region, problems of implementation are frequent, particularly in the small and medium-sized enterprises which provide work for the majority of the workforce. Activities to improve working conditions in small enterprises through the Work Improvements in Small Enterprises (WISE) approach were carried out in Bhutan and Nepal. A contribution was also made to raising general awareness of safety and health issues in the region through the translation and wide dissemination of ILO guides and training materials on safety and health in China, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Thailand and Viet Nam, as well as the holding of regional and national conferences and workshops. Important progress was made in this respect in China, where new chemical safety regulations were adopted in January 1997 for the implementation of the Chemicals Convention, 1990 (No. 170), which was ratified by China in 1995.

Social security schemes remain largely undeveloped in relation to the level of economic development attained by many countries in the region. However, the steps taken by a number of countries with the assistance of the ILO demonstrate the higher priority that is being given to social security issues by constitutents. Guidance was also provided to constituents on an emerging problem in the region in the form of a study on ageing in Asia and the needs of older persons for social protection.(41)

South-East Asia and the Pacific Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

The strong economic performance of South-East Asian countries, at least until the very end of the biennium, which has been associated with rapid employment growth and a reduction in poverty levels, stands in stark contrast to the generally lacklustre performance and limited employment opportunities of the Pacific island nations. Nevertheless, despite their very different situations, governments in both South-East Asia and the Pacific are increasingly adopting a more integrated approach that combines policies for productive employment generation with the enhancement of education and training and the building of an effective framework for the development of human resources.

Efforts to promote the ratification and implementation of ILO Conventions during the biennium included:

The South-East Asia and the Pacific Multidisciplinary Advisory Team is composed of five advisers and is based in Manila. It covers Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and the island countries of the South Pacific. Country objectives for Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines were finalized during the biennium 1994-95, while those for Fiji were completed during the biennium 1996-97. The country objectives for the Philippines were updated in 1996. The team's work was successfully implemented in the Philippines and significant progress was made in Fiji. However, problems relating to freedom of association and difficulties in securing funding for technical cooperation projects reduced the intensity of the team's activities in Indonesia.

Although acceptance of ILO principles and international labour standards varies considerably from country to country in the subregion, several member States have now expressed a renewed interest in ratifying fundamental ILO Conventions, and particularly Conventions Nos. 87, 100, 111 and 138. The South Pacific island countries continued to experience difficulties, not only in the ratification of ILO Conventions, but also in meeting their reporting obligations. Technical advice was therefore provided and workshops and seminars held on standards-related matters. Priority was also given to strengthening the institutional capacity of employers' and workers' organizations in South Pacific island countries. Based on a study on the potential for tripartism in Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Vanuatu and Samoa, a high-level subregional meeting was held in August 1997 on the promotion of tripartism.(42) Building on what had already been achieved and based on local custom and practice, various means of action were explored and each participating country developed a national plan of action.

In line with the conclusions of the Social Summit, there is increased awareness in the countries covered by the team of the need to combat social exclusion and ensure that the benefits of overall economic growth reach the most disadvantaged social groups. Assistance was provided to national institutions in Indonesia and the Philippines to evaluate a range of micro-interventions to combat poverty. This included the preparation of a study on targeted programmes to assist special groups and combat social exclusion in Indonesia.(43) The study provides guidance on effective means of promoting equality for women, combating child labour and alleviating poverty. Advisory services were also provided to several countries on labour migration issues, supported by the findings of studies of structural changes, migration pressures and related policy issues in Indonesia and the Philippines. Regional studies were undertaken of the challenges of the globalization process with a view to increasing the understanding of policy-makers of the issues involved and their impact at the national level.(44)

Many requests continued to be received from constituents for assistance in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In response, support was provided to draw up an action agenda to improve productivity in Indonesia and the Philippines, with the active collaboration of employers' and workers' organizations. In close consultation with the tripartite constituents, the authorities in the South Sulawesi province of Indonesia were assisted in formulating strategies for skills development and the promotion of small enterprises. In the Philippines, technical support was provided for the establishment of a one-stop business centre for small enterprises. Integrated small enterprise development programmes were also launched in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, while the integrated human resource development approach formulated in Fiji with ILO support includes components targeted at the promotion of small enterprises, cooperatives and tourism.

The major achievement in the subregion during the biennium in the field of occupational safety and health was the adoption in Fiji , with the full support of the social partners, of the Safety and Health at Work Act, which may be considered as the first example of modern safety and health legislation in the Pacific island countries. The new Act provides a comprehensive framework for dealing with problems at the workplace and establishes the responsibility of employers to ensure a safe and healthy workplace. The Act was developed and introduced with support from both employers' and workers' organizations. The Fiji experience will be used to promote the adoption of more modern and comprehensive safety and health legislation in other Pacific island countries.

Another important step was the setting up with ILO support in the Philippines of a network on chemical safety composed of the relevant government agencies, employers' and workers' representatives and other partners with specialized knowledge.

The increasing importance attached by governments and employers' and workers' organizations to certain key features of workers' welfare and protection resulted in a growing number of requests for assistance in the fields of occupational safety and health, the improvement of working conditions and social protection. In this connection, the strategy of the team has been to strengthen the capacity of the tripartite constituents to act independently and to foster cooperation and partnerships extending beyond the ILO's constituency. Assistance was provided to develop existing occupational safety and health information networks in Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.

Considerable emphasis continued to be given to programmes to improve working conditions in small enterprises. New materials were developed to increase the effectiveness of WISE programmes and strengthen the involvement of employers' and workers' organizations.(45) Complementing the WISE approach, the development of plant-level occupational safety and health capacities among workers' representatives included the instruction of a core group of national trainers and the preparation of training materials in local languages. Building on the lessons learned from IYB and WISE (see Chapters 2 and 3, respectively, for more information on these methodologies), a regional programme was designed to explore practical ways of linking enterprise development with the improvement of working conditions in micro-enterprises. The advice and training on productivity improvement provided to employers' organizations in Indonesia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines also linked productivity enhancement to the improvement of working conditions through the WISE approach.
 

Improve Your Business (IYB) and Work Improvements in Small Enterprises (WISE)

Although the IYB and WISE approaches and materials are widely accepted as tools to address the development and improvement of working conditions in small enterprises, the two issues have normally been addressed separately. During the biennium, a regional programme was implemented in the Philippines, Malaysia and Nepal to develop and test training materials for small enterprises integrating the two concepts of IYB and WISE.

Some 115 entrepreneurs and 70 trainers, drawn from labour ministries, NGOs and small enterprises, were trained during the biennium, including a large proportion of women entrepreneurs. The programme demonstrated the viability of training micro-entrepreneurs through NGOs in Asian countries. Preliminary assessments indicate that trainees have benefited greatly in improving the performance and working conditions of their enterprises, particularly where partner organizations have provided follow-up advisory services and micro-credit. The materials tested in the programme will be fully developed and made available for regional application and the approach will be further refined in subsequent programmes.

Social protection is becoming a major preoccupation in South-East Asia. While social security systems have grown rapidly, they still effectively only cover a limited segment of the workforce. Moreover, the design and management of social security systems have generally been unable to keep pace with the growth of the systems. Progress continued to be made in this field in the Philippines where, as the culmination of several years of assistance, a report on social protection resulted in the appointment of a national coordinating committee to determine policy and priorities for the implementation of the recommendations.(46) Preliminary results of a survey of disability protection resulted in plans to develop a new disability benefit programme covering around 20 million insured persons which will be in conformity with the relevant ILO Conventions. Assistance was also requested in the implementation of the 1995 National Health Insurance Act.

South Asia Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

The opening of South Asian economies is generating pressure for labour market reforms, as well as concerns about employment prospects. Indeed, most South Asian countries face daunting problems of underemployment and poverty, with the majority of the labour force still working in the agricultural sector. Even though the rate of economic growth in recent years has been encouraging, at about 5 per cent per annum, formal sector growth has not been employment-intensive. Labour movement from agriculture has been slow and has concentrated on rural non-agricultural employment and urban informal activities. Urban unemployment is also emerging as a problem in some countries.

The South Asia Multidisciplinary Advisory Team, which is located in New Delhi and is composed of 12 advisers, covers Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The country objectives reviews commenced in the previous biennium were completed for India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The country objectives for Pakistan were updated and those for Bangladesh are nearing finalization.

The situation as regards the ratification of the ILO's fundamental Conventions is as follows:

The countries of South Asia continued to make progress during the biennium in the ratification of the ILO's fundamental Conventions. They have also continued to work towards improvements in the application of ratified Conventions, although much remains to be done in this respect. Bonded labour, equality of opportunity and treatment for women, the protection of freedom of association in EPZs and restrictions on the right to strike are among the issues which still pose major challenges to the social partners in some countries. In this connection, technical assistance was provided to Bangladesh, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for the revision of existing labour laws or the drafting of new legislation.

Significant progress was achieved by several South Asian countries in the fields of industrial relations and dispute settlement , including:

Industrial relations issues have gained considerable significance in South Asia, with broad recognition of the contribution that sound industrial relations can make to employment, efficiency and competitiveness in member States. Assistance in this area focused on tripartism as a tool for social and economic development. An important aspect of this work was the support provided in response to requests by constituents for help in strengthening conciliation skills and improving the functioning of industrial courts. Studies on the administration of labour courts were carried out in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka and assistance was provided to Ministries of Labour in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This included information on the experiences of labour courts in other countries, training materials in the national languages and the organization of tripartite training courses.

The improvement of industrial relations was also pursued through national bipartite workshops to equip the social partners with better negotiating skills, greater bargaining capacity at the enterprise level and the ability to settle disputes in an amicable fashion. Capacity-building activities for trade unions emphasized the problems of rural and migrant workers, contract labour and the conditions of workers in EPZs, as well as action to combat child labour. Studies were carried out of the impact of economic reforms on rural workers and their industries, while workers' education activities on international labour standards in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka gave special emphasis to the Plantations Convention, 1958 (No. 110), and the Rural Workers' Organisations Convention, 1975 (No. 141). The findings of a series of case-studies on contract labour and the casualization of the workforce in specific economic sectors in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were discussed at a regional seminar. In India, the representatives of five national trade unions discussed strategies for the protection of contract workers and made recommendations for amendments to the Contract Labour (Abolition and Regulation) Act, 1970.

As employers in South Asia face increased competitive pressure, they are turning to their representative organizations for assistance. With a view to strengthening the capacity of employers' organizations to provide improved services to their members, capacity-building programmes were developed in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. These focused on productivity enhancement, business support services, the promotion of women in the private sector, the management of change in enterprises, the elimination of child labour, cleaner production and occupational safety and health services. A project on occupational safety and health resulted in the establishment of a Safety Cell in the Employers' Federation of Pakistan. The employer participants at a South Asian Employers' Symposium agreed to coordinate approaches on matters of common concern, and particularly labour law, labour market reform, employment and child labour. In a resolution, they decided to explore the possibility of creating a subregional employers' federation, to be called the South Asian Federation of Employers (SAFE).

The ILO made contributions to the national planning process in several countries, including:

The principal concerns with regard to employment policy were to assist in the development of both macroeconomic policies and micro-interventions designed to alleviate poverty, promote employment and mitigate the adverse effects of the reform process on employment and labour. Assistance in relation to labour market policies focused on the need to develop desirable and economically feasible adjustment programmes leading to increased employment opportunities, greater labour market flexibility and enhanced social protection. At the regional level, reviews and synthesis studies prepared for ten Asian countries on the effects of macroeconomic policies and micro-interventions on poverty were discussed at a regional tripartite workshop. The recommendations emerging from this workshop provided a basis for the technical assistance delivered at the national level. A report on economic reforms and labour policies in India(47) attracted considerable attention among policy-makers and the social partners, and the suggestion to introduce a national minimum wage for unskilled labour is under discussion by tripartite bodies. Following the preparation of a report on the implications of privatization for employment and social protection in Pakistan, the Ministry of Labour is considering setting up a special cell to implement the recommendations of the report.(48) The employment generation schemes that were developed in the subregion included a project for irrigation and rural road construction in Nepal; pilot and demonstration projects in the Indian states of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu; and a project to promote income-generation schemes through community-based organizations and NGOs in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Strategies and action plans for cooperative enterprises were formulated in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, while a cooperative support project for tribal and indigenous peoples (INDISCO) was implemented in India (see Chapter 2).

The growing importance of human resource development and employment-related training in South Asia was reflected in the requests for assistance made by constituents, particularly in support of capacity-building by employers' and workers' organizations. Technical advice was provided on vocational trade testing in Sri Lanka to ensure that the national vocational training system is more demand-oriented and reflects national and international standards. The technical assistance provided in Pakistan led to the establishment of Skill Development Councils (SDCs) and closer collaboration between the Government and employers' organizations. A survey was also carried out on the human resource development concerns of employers' organizations representing 11,000 employers in South Asia. The findings of the survey are being used by employers' organizations in their strategic planning for the coming decade.

In view of the increased importance attached to the development of social security schemes in the subregion, guidance was also provided to several countries on the extension of social protection. The ILO assisted the Government of Pakistan in developing a national pension scheme which will expand coverage from 2 to 7 million beneficiaries and will provide increased benefits. In India, the ILO reviewed the problems of developing a social security system for workers in unorganized sectors. In Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, workers were familiarized with various types of social security schemes and new schemes were recommended to the respective governments.

Europe

Economic and social trends in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Transcaucasia continued to be varied and contradictory. While economic progress is clearly visible in a number of countries in the region, it is not yet reflected in corresponding social improvements. Indeed, differences in income and living conditions are tending to widen at the national level. Unemployment rates remain high and are still rising in some countries. Real wages are lagging behind economic growth and minimum wages are far too low to fulfil their economic and social functions. Industrial relations systems in most countries are still in their initial stages of development and the social partners need to be further strengthened. Social protection systems also need reforming to restore their financial sustainability and fulfil their functions of forging social solidarity and combating poverty. However, there was increased awareness throughout the region of the need to achieve a better balance between economic and social development and of the important role of social dialogue in developing consensus in support of reform measures.

Since the beginning of the Director-General's campaign in 1995 for the more widespread ratification of the ILO's seven fundamental Conventions , the following ratifications (or confirmations of previous obligations) have been registered (as of 31 December 1997):

Central and Eastern Europe Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

The Central and Eastern Multidisciplinary Advisory Team is located in Budapest and is composed of seven advisers. It covers the following 18 countries: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Ukraine. From 1998, Belarus and the Russian Federation will be covered by the Eastern European and Central Asian Multidisciplinary Advisory Team. Much of the ILO's work in the subregion during the biennium drew upon the conclusions and resolutions adopted at the Fifth European Regional Conference (Warsaw, 1995) and focused on tripartism, employment promotion, social security reform and the strengthening of employers' and workers' organizations.

In the ILO's work in Central and Eastern Europe, particular emphasis was placed on the development of labour legislation through the ratification and implementation of international labour standards, and especially the ILO's fundamental Conventions. Since the beginning of the Director-General's campaign, some 20 ratifications of these Conventions by the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (or confirmations of previous obligations) have been registered.

Important steps were taken by a number of countries in the subregion, with ILO support, to set up institutions of social dialogue , including:

In almost all the countries in the subregion, national tripartite seminars were held to discuss industrial relations structures and procedures, based on the provisions of ILO standards and the experience of other countries in the subregion and of Western European countries. Some of the seminars focused on specific areas of labour relations, such as the role of tripartite bodies for economic and social consultation, collective bargaining practices and legislative arrangements, procedures for the settlement of labour disputes and the role of labour courts. Study visits to Western European countries on labour relations issues were organized for experts from Romania, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, and tripartite regional seminars on this subject were held in Cyprus and Warsaw. These opportunities for training and the exchange of experience built up a solid core of experts familiar with ILO principles concerning labour legislation and industrial relations practices.

ILO technical cooperation activities also led to the strengthening of participation by the social partners in the design and implementation of local restructuring policies in three provinces where heavy industry, such as coal and steel production, is no longer competitive. In three provinces in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation respectively, greater awareness was created among the tripartite constituents of possibilities for employment preservation and the creation of new jobs at the local level. A tripartite seminar was also organized in Ukraine, in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to examine the serious problems of wage policy experienced in the country, including wage arrears. The seminar enabled the participants to reach a large measure of consensus on the importance of solving the problem of wage arrears and gradually increasing the minimum wage to a level at which its social and economic function is restored. Following the signature of the Dayton Agreements, the ILO also contributed to reinforcing the peace process in Bosnia and Herzegovina through a concentration of technical cooperation activities designed to bring together members of the different communities (see box).

ILO technical cooperation projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina are designed to reinforce the peace process by promoting democracy, economic restructuring, the return of refugees and the establishment of social institutions. The first projects focused on:

Further projects were launched or planned covering areas such as the establishment of a new industrial relations system, the restructuring of the social protection system, vocational rehabilitation and employment promotion.

Considerable emphasis was placed on strengthening employers' and workers' organizations in the subregion and reinforcing their capacity to represent their members and participate effectively in industrial relations structures at the various levels of the economy. Advisory services were provided to employers' organizations and training seminars were organized in all the countries of the subregion to strengthen their internal management and structures, develop capacities for collective bargaining and enable employers' representatives to fulfil their role in the various tripartitite bodies. Similarly, numerous training seminars and workshops were organized at the national and subregional levels for workers' organizations in all the countries covered by the team. These activities focused on workers' education, collective bargaining, the implications of privatization, women workers' rights, occupational safety and health and trade union journalism. Special surveys were prepared on workers' education and collective bargaining experiences as guidance materials for trade unions in the region.(49) Although it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of these activities, there are indications in most of the countries concerned that, despite many obstacles and setbacks, sometimes due to rivalries between organizations, there is increased recognition of the importance of social dialogue and the role of the social partners in this respect.

After a detailed analysis of the transition process in Hungary over the past seven years, with particular regard to economic and social developments, the national employment policy review pointed out that unemployment is around 10 per cent, and is particularly high for young people and among the gypsy community. In response, a wide range of active labour-market programmes have been developed, particularly for vulnerable groups, although this approach could be taken further. Among a large number of policy recommendations, the review suggested that policies should aim to shift from low value added exports to higher value added production based on more advanced technology. The Minister of Labour of Hungary and other representatives of the Government expressed appreciation of the report. The Government added that it would assist in improving its policy options for the promotion of economic growth and employment.

Although many of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe have been able to restore economic growth, it remains uneven and in almost all cases has been insufficient to attain pre-transition levels of GDP. Moreover, the level of unemployment remains high in most countries, with long-term unemployment increasing and disadvantaged groups and the regions which are undergoing structural reform experiencing particular difficulties. One example of the macro-economic guidance provided to constituents was the country employment policy review carried out in Hungary.(50) A tripartite conference on employment policy was also organized in the Russian Federation. The conference discussed and endorsed wide-ranging policy recommendations and conclusions covering such fields as employment-intensive growth, industrial and regional policies, the promotion of small enterprises, education reforms, special measures for disadvantaged groups and the reform of social protection. A large number of these recommendations were subsequently incorporated into the Government's strategy to tackle its growing employment problems. A similar tripartite conference was organized in Ukraine and will be used as a starting-point for a country employment policy review, which will be finalized during the course of 1998.

With a view to stimulating a broad exchange of experience on the problems of women workers in transition countries, a regional tripartite seminar was organized on gender issues and equality. The subjects examined by the participants included the relevant ILO standards, action by trade unions in favour of women workers, policies for the promotion of entrepreneurship for women, the situation of women on the labour market and ILO action to follow up the Beijing Conference. The participants at the seminar endorsed a series of policy recommendations for the promotion of gender equality in the labour market. In a pilot exercise, designed for replication in other countries in the region, a series of tripartite seminars were organized in Hungary to examine the difficulties of particular categories of women workers. Guidelines and recommendations were also developed and published on promoting the employment of ethnic minorities in Central and Eastern Europe.(51)

ILO action to assist in the development and reform of social protection systems focused on stimulating the policy debate, taking into account ILO standards on social security. It was also designed to increase the transparency of certain policy options through the introduction of social budget modelling and the provision of policy advice on the financial sustainability and improved governance of social protection systems. A project was carried out in Slovakia for the introduction of a social budget model specially designed for transition economies. Officials from various ministries and other government institutions were trained in the operation of the model. A similar project was commenced in Ukraine. In order to clarify a number of issues related to the options and need for the reform of pension systems, a tripartite regional consultation was organized to formulate an ILO approach to the reform and development of pension systems in Central and Eastern Europe. Advisory services on pension reform were also provided to Croatia, Hungary and Poland.

ILO activities in Central Asia, Transcaucasia and Turkey

Although not covered by a Multidisciplinary Advisory Team during the biennium 1996-97, the Central Asian Republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) and the Transcaucasian Republics (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) nevertheless benefited from ILO support and assistance. ILO action in these countries will be reinforced starting in 1998 with the establishment of the new multidisciplinary advisory team in Moscow. During the biennium 1996-97, country objectives were finalized for Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. Similar exercises were under preparation in other countries, including Kyrgyzstan.

At the request of the Governments of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the ILO was involved in social policy reviews, in collaboration with UNDP. These were the first attempts in the countries in the subregion to provide a systematic and critical review of macro-economic and social policies and to propose a coherent policy framework which combines the objectives of social policy as an integral component of macro-economic reform. The exercise was carried out in recognition of the fact that social development policies have to be carefully designed to ensure that average living standards are not allowed to deteriorate during the transition to a market economy, which would threaten the whole process of reform and the prospects for long-term growth. In the case of Uzbekistan, four major programmes have been recommended as part of the social development strategy in support of the reform process, namely:

In Kazakhstan, the exercise focused on the employment and social protection components of a social strategy for the short, medium and long term.

In a pilot project for economically depressed areas in Azerbaijan , the ILO demonstrated how self-employment and income-generation opportunities can be promoted among the most socially disadvantaged groups of the population. By strengthening the capacity of the employment, training and retraining services in each district, designing, planning and coordinating training and employment schemes, and coordinating activities with other support agencies at the local level, the pilot project has resulted in the creation of some 200 jobs. Support mechanisms were also launched, including a revolving credit fund, the supply of raw materials and equipment, and marketing facilities. A tripartite review of the pilot project confirmed the feasibility of the approach and led to the extension of the project to another two districts. Similar projects are under consideration for Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

ILO assistance to the countries in the subregion on standards-related issues was designed to improve national capacities to fulfil reporting requirements, as well as promoting the ratification of ILO Conventions or the confirmation of previous obligations. Since the beginning of the Director-General's campaign for the ratification of the ILO's fundamental Conventions, Georgia and Uzbekistan have ratified or confirmed previous obligations for six of the seven Conventions, while Turkmenistan has done so for all seven Conventions. The ILO also contributed to the translation and publication of reference works on international labour standards for Azerbaijan and Georgia. A tripartite subregional seminar was held in Azerbaijan on national legislation and international labour standards for CIS countries and another tripartite seminar on international labour standards was organized in Tajikistan. High-level officials from Armenia visited ILO headquarters to obtain information on different systems of labour law and the ILO provided comments on the first draft of a new labour code for the country. A seminar was also organized in Kazakhstan on the implementation of the Working Environment (Air Pollution, Noise and Vibration) Convention, 1977 (No. 148), and the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155).

The advisory services provided to the countries in the subregion covered topics ranging from labour migration policies and protecting the rights of migrant workers to the development of labour statistics systems. Projects to promote entrepreneurship were launched in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, while a project on training, employment and income generation in depressed areas was implemented in Azerbaijan. Technical cooperation activities in Turkey covered social security reform and the development of a labour market information system.

Notes

1. Mutuelles de santé en Afrique: Guide pratique à l'usage des promoteurs, administrateurs et gérants, 1997.

2. Employment policy and programme for Kenya: Proposals by an ILO/EAMAT advisory mission, 1995; Federal Republic of Nigeria national employment policy framework, prepared for the National Employment Workshop, Abuja, Dec. 1997; and Employment generation and poverty reduction in Uganda: Report of OAU/ILO/UNDP advisory mission, 1995.

3. Towards Seychelles development and employment generation, 1995.

4. Guns into ox-ploughs: A study into the situation of conflict-affected youth in Uganda and their reintegration into society through training, employment and life skills programmes, by R. Muhumuza, 1997; Challenges for skills and employment promotion in a country emerging from armed conflict: Ethiopia, 1997; Report on the Workshop on the Reintegration of Displaced Female-headed Families in Addis Ababa, Dec. 1997; and Displaced female-headed households in Addis Ababa: A marketable skills assessment (forthcoming) [subsequently published]. A video was also produced in December 1997 by J. Bakker, entitled Displaced from Eritrea: Lost in Ethiopia.

5. L'ajustement stratégique des organisations d'employeurs: L'exemple de l'Afrique du Nord-Ouest, 1997.

6. Observatoires de l'emploi et de la formation en Afrique du Nord-Ouest: Des outils d'aide à la décision, 1996.

7. Etude de faisabilité sur l'intégration d'une composante développement de l'esprit d'entreprise dans les programmes d'enseignement général et technique et de formation professionnelle: Mali and Etude de faisabilité sur l'intégration d'une composante développement de l'esprit d'entreprise dans les programmes d'enseignement général et technique et de formation professionnelle: Sénégal.

8. The social protection of migrant workers in South Africa, by E. Fultz and B. Pieris (forthcoming) [subsequently published].

9. Crecimiento con empleo: La experiencia de los países latinoamericanos y del sudeste asiático, by R. Infante and V. Tokman, 1997; and Costo laboral manufacturero: Incidencia sobre la competitividad y la pro-tección de los trabajadores, by V. Tokman and D. Martínez, 1996.

10. Panorama laboral/Labour overview, 1996 (1997 edition forthcoming) [subsequently published].

11. Diagnosis: Planeamiento estratégico en las organizaciones de empleadores (Perú, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia y Venezuela), by W. Smith, 1996.

12. Manual de balance social para el Perú y América Latina, OIT-CONFIEP, 1997; and Manual de balance social para Colombia y América Latina, OIT-ANDI, 1997.

13. Empleo, productividad e ingreso: Bolivia, 1990-96 (forthcoming) [subsequently published]; Empleo, productividad e ingreso: Colombia, 1990-96 (forthcoming) [subsequently published]; Empleo, productividad e ingreso: Ecuador, 1990-96 (forthcoming) [subsequently published]; Empleo, productividad e ingreso: Perú, 1990-96 (forthcoming) [subsequently published]; and Empleo, productividad e ingreso: Venezuela, 1990-96 (forthcoming) [subsequently published].

14. Estudio de demanda de capacitación en centros urbanos de Bolivia: Análisis de resultados, by E. Flores, 1996.

15. Bolivia: Cambio tecnológico y mercado de trabajo, by G. Grossmann, 1996; Cambios en la industria boliviana: La visión de los trabajadores, by I. Arauco, 1996; and Bolivia: Estrategias de productividad, empleo y capacitación en el sector industrial, by I. Arauco, 1997.

16. El sector informal en Bogotá: Una perspectiva interdisciplinaria, C. Maldonado and M. Hurtado (eds.), 1997 (a joint publication by the ILO, the Colombian Ministry of Labour and Social Security and the Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje -- SENA).

17. Pueblos indígenas y desarrollo sostenible (forthcoming) [subsequently published].

18. La situación socio-laboral en las zonas francas y empresas maquiladoras del Istmo Centroamericano y República Dominicana, 1996.

19. Declaración de Guatemala sobre zonas francas y empresas procesadoras de exportación, adoptada por la Reunión Subregional de Empleadores del Istmo Centroamericano y República Dominicana sobre zonas francas y empresas procesadoras de exportación, Guatemala, 21 and 22 April 1997 (the Declaration is available on the San José MDT's Web site, which is accessible through the ILO Web site).

20. Organizaciones sindicales latinoamericanas y la acción en favor de la igualdad de oportunidades para las mujeres, by M.E. Feres and H. Henríquez, 1996.

21. Chile: Crecimiento, empleo y el desafío de la justicia social (forthcoming) [subsequently published].

22. Brasil: Trabalho a domicilio: Novas contratualidades; Trabajo a domicilo en Paraguay; Argentina: El trabajo a domicilio: Viejas y nuevas formas; and Trabajo a domicilio en Chile.

23. Promoting productive employment for poverty eradication: Issues, policies and programmes in the Caribbean, by G. Strachan, 1996.

24. The challenge of youth employment in the Caribbean: The role of youth employment training programmes, by D. Pantin, 1996.

25. Digest of Caribbean labour statistics, 1996.

26. Employment assistance for women in Asia: Guidelines, 1997.

27. A module on the enforcement of the Anti-sexual Harassment Act of 1995 (A legal orientation), Women's Legal Bureau, (Philippines), 1996.

28. Entrepreneurship development for women: A manual for trainers, 1996.

29. Factors affecting women entrepreneurship in small and cottage industries in Nepal, 1996; Factors affecting women entrepreneurship in small and cottage industries in India, 1996; Factors affecting women entrepreneurship in small and cottage industries in Sri Lanka, 1996; and Factors affecting women entrepreneurship in small and cottage industries in Thailand, 1996.

30. Effective conciliation: A practical guide, by R. Heron and C. Vandenabeele, 1997.

31. Labour inspection: A practical guide on policy and planning, by R. Heron (forthcoming); and Labour inspection: A practical guide on conducting inspection visits, by R. Heron (forthcoming).

32. Trainer training for labour administrations: A practical guide, by R. Heron, 1997.

33. Collective bargaining for trade unionists: A computerized education manual (forthcoming).

34. Effective negotiation: A practical guide, by R. Heron and C. Vandenabeele, 1997; Effective conciliation: A practical guide, by R. Heron and C. Vandenabeele, 1997; and Glossary of industrial relations and related terms, by D. Macdonald and C. Vandenabeele, 1996.

35. The impact of recent macroeconomic and sectoral changes on the poor and women in China, 1997; Employment, growth and liberalization: China's performance in a globalizing world economy, 1996; Globalization, employment and equity: The Malaysian experience, 1996; Adapting macroeconomic, sectoral and targeted policies to benefit the poor and women: Study on Mongolia, 1997; Macroeconomic policies and poverty in Thailand, 1997; and Globalization and employment in Asia: Vietnam study, 1996.

36. A study of the strategy and measures for poverty alleviation in rural China, 1997.

37. Emigration pressure and structural change: Vietnam, 1996; and Economic reform and emigration pressures in China, 1996.

38. Emigration pressure and structural change in South-East and East Asia: A synthesis, 1997.

39. Labour statistics based on administrative records: Guidelines on compilation and presentation, by R. Pember, 1997; Labour statistics in Cambodia: What needs to be done? by R. Pember, 1996; Cambodia: Towards an improved labour market information system, by R. Pember, 1996; and Directory of labour statistics and statistical capabilities in Lao PDR, by R. Pember, 1996.

40. Assisting disabled persons in finding employment (forthcoming) [subsequently published].

41. Ageing in Asia: The growing need for social protection, by S. Hoekstra, 1997.

42. Promotion of tripartism in the South Pacific, by A. Boulton and D. Fraser (forthcoming).

43. Targeted programmes for special groups and combating social exclusion in Indonesia: Inputs for the World Bank report on employment and sustainable livelihoods in Indonesia being prepared under the ACC Task Force programme as a follow-up to the Social Summit, 1996.

44. The impact of globalization on the world of work, 1996.

45. A better place to work: Safety, health and productivity. Action manual for workers (a joint publication by the ILO and the Department of Labor and Employment of the Philippines), 1996.

46. Social security protection in the Philippines, 1997.

47. India: Economic reforms and labour policies (TSS1 report), 1996.

48. Pakistan: Privatization, employment, retraining and social protection (TSS1 report), 1996.

49. Trade union experiences in collective bargaining in Central Europe, by P. Aro and P. Repo, 1997.

50. Hungary: Country review on employment and sustainable livelihoods: A report for the United Nations ACC Task Force on Full Employment and Sustainable Livelihoods, 1997.

51. Ethnic minorities in Central and Eastern Europe: Guidelines and recommendations for promoting their employment, 1997.

 

Updated by VC. Approved by RH. Last update: 26 January 2000.

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