I have often talked about the need for team play in the multilateral system to face the challenges of today’s world. Most would agree that the multilateral system is underperforming in this respect. We can and must renew our efforts to work together in a true global partnership of mutual responsibility and accountability.
Recently, this consensus has been recognized implicitly in the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Doha and explicitly at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.
The ILO is ready, willing and able to continue its role as an active team player in the struggle against poverty and for sustainable development.
The challenge of reducing and eradicating extreme poverty calls for policies that focus on different dimensions of the life of people living in poverty.
All too often, well-intentioned measures fail because they only address one aspect of poverty reduction. If poverty-fighting efforts do not result in empowerment, income and work, they fall short.
This requires greater policy integration at the level of different institutions and the development community – by building on our respective experiences and mandates to produce a coherent policy approach to poverty eradication. For example, the ILO is working with the Bretton Woods institutions to build the goals of employment and decent work into country-level poverty reduction strategies. The ILO is leading the Youth Employment Network – a partnership between the United Nations, the World Bank and the ILO to combat youth unemployment. The Organization is working with the UNDP on making employment part of our common strategy for developing countries; with UNESCO on skills development; with UNICEF on child labour; with all regional development banks and the United Nations Regional Commissions; with UNAIDS on HIV/AIDS; with WHO on health and safety at the workplace; with FAO on rural employment; and many others.
The challenge of integration is an internal one as well. The Office is continuing to build upon an integrated approach in which standards, protection, employment creation and social dialogue all contribute in a strategic and unified way. It is a key objective of the next programme and budget.
To learn more about this author, visit International Labour Organization's Website.
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