South-South cooperation

IX Brazil-ILO Annual Review Meeting, 2015

Brazil and ILO announced a new South-South cooperation project to promote decent work in the cotton industry during a meeting between representatives of the Brazilian Government and workers' and employers' organizations and the ILO.

Brazil and ILO announce new South-South cooperation project

Brazil and the ILO promote South-South and triangular cooperation, which has channeled more than $ 20 million from the Brazilian Government over the last decade, mainly to countries in Africa and Latin America, as well as Portuguese-speaking countries.

This amount includes some $ 6.8 million under a new horizontal cooperation initiative announced on 10 June in Geneva at a meeting involving the Minister of Labour and Employment of Brazil, Manoel Dias, representatives of Brazilian employers' and workers' organizations, ILO Deputy Director-General for Field Operations and Partnerships, Mr Gilbert Houngbo, and ILO Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr José Manuel Salazar Xirinachs. The new project will begin by identifying cotton-producing countries interested in participating in the initiative, and developing work to help improve working conditions in the sector, addressing such key issues as forced labor and child labour.

Background

The success of Brazil in various areas of public policy, including programmes and activities addressing various areas of the Decent Work Agenda, such as combating child labour and forced labour, has received increasing attention in the international community and generated interest from other developing countries, which received with enthusiasm the new possibilities for cooperation with the Government. The ILO has in recent years pursued South-South cooperation as a new opportunity to spread its experience in these areas, focusing initially on the theme of child labour, the ILO’s most consolidated technical cooperation programme in Brazil, and moving to other areas such as forced labour, social protection, social security, green jobs, sectoral matters, and migration.

Brazilian horizontal cooperation with the ILO started in the 1987 when an agreement was reached for cooperation between Africa and the Americas. Subsequently two South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) MOU’s were signed, in December 2007 and March 2008: the first on the prevention and elimination of child labour, and the second on promoting social protection in several regions, with special focus on the Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa (PALOP). The most comprehensive framework agreement was signed in March 2009 by the Director-General of the ILO and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil - the “Complementary Agreement to the Technical Cooperation Agreement with Latin America and Africa Countries for the Implementation of the ILO - Brazil Partnership Programme for the Promotion of South-South Cooperation”

In geographical terms, Brazil-ILO SSTC cooperation is concentrated mainly in Latin America, Africa and Asia:
  • Africa: South Africa (through IBSA), the PALOPs (Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, São Tome and Principe), United Republic of Tanzania, and Nigeria
  • Latin America and the Caribbean: Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador and Haiti. Through the “ Regional Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour” , 25 countries are involved in joint policy making and resource mobilization
  • Asia: India (through IBSA), Timor Leste
  • Arab States: occupied Palestinian territory (through humanitarian inter-regional programme with Turin)
  • Regional and subregional, inter-regional support: G20, MERCOSUR, CPLP, BRICS, IBSA, PALOPS.
In the period 2005–2015 nearly USD $ 20 million was approved for contribution to the four strategic objectives of the ILO, both for South-South and triangular cooperation, as well as for the implementation of projects in Brazil and in other developing countries.

Agenda

I) Opening
Chair: Mr. Jürgen Schwettmann, Director, Department of Partnerships and Field Support (PARDEV)
  • H.E. Mr. Manoel Dias, Minister of Labour and Employment:
    Brazil and South-South Cooperation in the World of Work
  • H.E. Mr Jose Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Regional Director:
    Brazilian support to South-South Cooperation in the Americas
  • Mr. Antônio Lisboa, Secretary of International Relations – Central Workers Union:
    South-South Cooperation and Social Dialogue
  • Mr. Alexandre Furlan, Chairman of the Labour Relations Council of the CNI - National Confederation of Industry:
    South-South Cooperation and Social Dialogue: the employers’ dimension
II) Launch of the South-South Cooperation Cotton Project
  • HE Ambassador Regina Dunlop, Permanent Representative of Brazil to UNOG
  • Mr Moussa Oumarou, Director, Tripartism and Governance Department
  • Ms. Alette van Leur, Director, SECTOR and Co-Leader of the ACI on Decent Work in the Rural Economy
III) Brazil-ILO Partnership for the Promotion of South-South Cooperation: Current development cooperation initiatives
  • Ms. Anita Amorim, Head, Emerging and Special Partnerships Unit (ESPU-PARDEV):
    Overview of the ILO-Brazil Complementary Agreement on SSC
  • Mr. Peter Poschen, Director, ENTERPRISES:
    Bolsa Verde and Social Protection
  • Ms. Corinne Vargha, Chief, FPRW:
    Brazilian support to Forced Labour and Child Labour Initiatives
  • Virgilio Levaggi, Director, ILO San Jose IBSA project in Haiti
  • Permanent Mission of Brazil to UNOG
IV) Close
  • H.E. Mr. Manoel Dias, Minister of Labour and Employment:
    Brazil and South-South Cooperation in the World of Work
  • Mr. Gilbert Houngbo, ILO Deputy Director-General for Field Operations and Partnerships