The ILO is anchored in social justice. The opening phrase of the Constitution of the ILO, drafted in 1919, speaks to the headlines of today: “universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice”.
What constitutes one of the biggest obstacles to peace and social justice?
The Declaration of Philadelphia, adopted by the ILO in 1944 and annexed to its Constitution, makes it clear: poverty.
As the Declaration states, “poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere”. In this time of heightened tension and conflict, this profound truth is more important than ever.
In 1969, the year in which the ILO won the Nobel Peace Prize, my predecessor David Morse put it succinctly: “Let us make it possible for future generations to look back on this great 50th anniversary Conference as marking the beginning of an era – an era when the instincts of solidarity among the peoples of the world were effectively mobilized in a concerted, worldwide attack on poverty.”These are the issues on which the daily security of people and their families depends.
The ILO’s means of action are knowledge, service and advocacy. The ILO is not a funding institution. We provide policy proposals and advice. We help formulate rules of the game and international standards. We offer technical cooperation for pilot projects and programmes. We leverage our modest resources.
We know only too well that it is precisely the world of work that holds the key for solid, progressive and long-lasting eradication of poverty. It is through work that people can expand their choices to a better quality of life.
It is through work that wealth is created, distributed and accumulated. It is through work that people find a dignified way out of poverty. As this Report details, the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda is the crucial underpinning of a broader development agenda for social justice in a richer and globalizing world.
Each of the Organization’s constituents – governments, employers and workers – has a concrete role to play in ending poverty: the State as steward of shared values, growth and distribution and provider of public goods, services and the enabling environment; the private sector as an engine to create jobs, investment and enterprise, and tap new markets using sustainable business models; and workers and their representatives as producers and as defenders of rights, extending organization and taking full advantage of the power of dialogue and collective bargaining. All of them working together to bring progress and hope to our societies.
The reasoning developed in this Report leads to an inevitable conclusion:
We need a decisive tripartite commitment to the eradication of poverty.
Tripartism has national roots embedded in local realities. At the same time, it can also operate globally through the ILO. Tripartism is thus probably the single most important development instrument that countries can utilize to ensure ownership of poverty reduction strategies, stability of national policies and fairness at home and in relations with donors and international organizations.
Together, our role in the international effort to eradicate poverty is to promote public policies, rights, social institutions and market solutions that permit people to earn a decent living, balance family needs and work out of poverty. But to do so, women and men need an enabling environment for empowerment.
To learn more about this author, visit International Labour Organization's Website.
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Given the multifaceted and interconnected character of poverty, there
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1.0 Overview: Working Out of Poverty
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