The meeting commenced on 25th November, 2011 as scheduled at Birchwood, Johannesburg - South Africa with over two hundred and fifty (250) delegates, guests, observers, partners, local and international media.
The message from President Zuma particularly congratulated the efforts of the Trade Union and highlighted the critical role of the labour movement in sensitizing the government in policy making, legislation etc.
The 12th African Regional Meeting will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from Tuesday 11 to Friday 14 October 2011. The Meeting will focus particularly on the themes taken up in the Report that the Director-General will submit, entitled Empowering Africa’s Peoples with Decent Work. The proposed agenda of the Meeting is thus to discuss progress made by the countries in the region towards achieving the targets set by the Decent Work Agenda in Africa, 2007-15, adopted by the 11th African Regional Meeting, as well as to set out future priority actions for the region to achieve the Decent Work Agenda in Africa.
The purpose of the seminar was to create more knowledge and understanding on the challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples in Africa using a rights based approach.
ILO, through the program Promoting and Implementing the Rights of San peoples in Namibia (PRO169), and in partnership with University of Pretoria, organized this course.
At the request of the management of the Standard/Stanbic Bank, the ILO organized and facilitated separate in-house Training Workshops on Conflict Prevention and Negotiation Skills for Trade Union and Management Negotiators for the Bank.
- concept note - (pdf, 185KB)
27 - 28 August 2011, Maseru, Lesotho
Domestic workers summit
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the South African Domestic Service & Allied Workers Union (SADSAWU), together with NACTU and FEDUSA and international labour organisations, hosted a Summit for Domestic Workers the weekend, 27-28 August 2011, at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.
Domestic workers' have won a 3-year struggle at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to get the Convention that recognises Domestic Work as Decent Work, setting an International Labour Standard for national governments.
August 2011, Maseru, Lesotho
Month of the women entrepreneur in Lesotho
This year Month of the Women Entrepreneur (MOWE) is going to be used to promote Women Entrepreneurs as role models through highlighting three obstacles every Micro to small entrepreneur faces daily; access to information, access to registration and access to finance.The week starting the 06.08.11 will be declared a business week which will be highlighted by number of activities to disseminate information on access to information, finance and registration.
July 2011
July 2011, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Women Entrepreneurship Development Training
The Women Entrepreneurship Development training is aimed at improving the skills of staff in the DoL to enable them to provide effective services to women entrepreneurs.
4 - 8 July 2011, Johannesburg, South Africa
Certificate in managing Social Security and Pensions
TThe Graduate School of Public and Development Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, in partnership with the International Labour Office (ILO), is hostingthe big South African Social Security Debate.
On a broader scale the workshop was intended to encourage ILO Constituents to undertake a self assessment regarding gender equality.
July 2011, Durban, South Africa
Action my Business Growth Training of Trainers in South Africa
The WEDGE South Africa project is rolling out a Training of Trainers in Durban for the Action my Business Growth (AMG) tool in July 2011. The AMG tool is a NEW tool for the WEDGE project and is a short and sharp introduction to growth for growth oriented women entrepreneurs (GOWEs).
June 2011
28-29 June 2011, Windhoek, Namibia
National Multi-stakeholder workshop on Employment and Employment policy
The objective of the National Multistakeholder workshop on Employment and Employment policy is to bring all major stakeholders around the table and formulate strategies and solutions that will provide answers on how to deal with the challenge of employment and unemployment in Namibia. This will lay out the basis for a new Namibian Employment Policy
May 2011
26 May 2011, Windhoek, Namibia
Namibia Tripartite Agreement on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work.
The signing of this tripartite memorandum between the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, the
National Union of Namibian Workers and the Namibia Employers Federation marks a historic moment in the response to HIV and AIDS within the Namibian Labour Sector.
The tripartite Partners through this memorandum jointly make an attempt at accelerating, expanding, scaling up and replicating effective and comprehensive HIV and AIDS/Wellness Workplace Programs in the public and private sector, through collective action to urgently and immediately implement the Code on HIV and AIDS and Employment.
9 - 13 May 2011, Pretoria, South Africa
Participatory Gender Audit Facilitators Workshop
The purpose of the Participatory Gender Audit Facilitators Workshop was for ILO constituents to reflect and acquire information on the methodology which promotes organizational learning on mainstreaming gender practically and effectively.
On a broader scale the workshop was intended to encourage ILO Constituents to undertake a self assessment regarding gender equality..
May 2011, Johannesburg, South Africa
WED Enabling Environment Research in Final phase
The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), through the Gender and Women’s Empowerment Unit (GWE), in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO) is revising its (2006) Draft Strategic Framework on Gender and Women’s Economic Empowerment.
The framework is an important milestone for gender and women empowerment in South Africa, which provides guidance, focus and specific recommendations for the support required to ensure the full participation of women within the South African economy.
An extensive field base study, which consisted of provincial consultations, in the form of focus group discussions in all nine provinces, and 2 national consultations, has been completed. To this end, the research is in final draft and will be launched shortly by the Department of Trade and Industry.
17 May 2011, Johannesburg, South Africa
ILO-TECL II Girls meet UN’s First Youth Champion in South Africa
MONIQUE COLEMAN, American actress, and United Nations (UN)s first Youth Champion, visited South Africa from the 12 to the 18 May 2011 to promote the observance of the UNs International Year of Youth (August 2010 – August 2011).
The ILO Director, Mr Vic van Vuuren, welcomed the guests and informed the guests that the ILO is not only supporting the girls through the project, staff, including himself, have decided to mentor and emotionally support the girls.
April 2011
12-13 April 2011, Johannesburg, South Africa
Freedom Association for rural women workers workshop
The purpose of the workshop was to receive inputs and comments from trade unions on a manual currently drafted by the ILO on rural women workers. The manual is envisioned to be a global tool trade unions can use to reach out to women workers in the rural sector and inform them of their rights to freedom of association.
Trade union representatives participated in the two-days workshop.
5-8 April 2011, Johannesburg, South Africa
Social Enterprise World Forum
The ILO took part in the Social Enterprise World Forum from 4-7 April 2011, which brought social enterprise practitioners together from around the world. This was the fourth time the Forum has taken place, and the first time it has been held in Africa.
It was hosted by the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Social Economy, and the main sponsor was the South African government through the Economic Development Department. Delegates held lively debates and shared tips on social enterprise development, and many South African social enterprises took the opportunity to showcase their activities.
The ILO stall was one of the most popular. At the closing ceremony, the ILO Pretoria Director, Vic van Vuuren, presented a resource pack of ILO social enterprise development tools to the Director General of the Economic Development Department. For more information on the event, see www.sewf2011.
March 2011
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8 March 2011, Johannesburg, South Africa
International Womens Day
The International Labor Organization in collaboration with United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women UN WOMEN celebrated the 100th anniversary of the International Women's Day (IWD) in a award night to honor South African companies for their commitment to end sexual harassment in the world of work.
In their speeches both UN Women Regional Director, Nomcebo Manzini and ILO Country Director Vic Van Vuuren commended South Africa for being one of the few countries with specific provisions to address sexual harassment in the workplace and highlighted that companies have the obligation to observe and implement the Code of Good Pracytice on Sexual Harassment.
February 2011
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17 February 2011, Gaborone, Botswana
Botswana Decent Work Country Programme
The Botswana DWCP was signed on the 17th February 2011 in Gaborone. The DWCP was signed for by:Honourable Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Hon. Peter Letlhogonolo Siele on behalf of government, Vic Van Vuuren on behalf of the ILO, Maria Machailo Ellis on behalf of BOCCIM and Mr Allan Keitsing on behalf of BFTU.
In his remarks, the Minister higlighted that, " DWCP is a blueprint for strategic action, Decent Work has to be taken seriously and the priorites are still important even after the crisis".
January 2011
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27 January 2011, Windhoek, Namibia
Namibia Decent Work Country Programme
At a ceremony held at Windhoek Country Club on Thursday 27 of January, 2011 the Government of the Republic of Namibia, represented by the Minister of labour, the Namibian Employers Federation, the trade unions (Namibian Union of National Workers - NUNW, and the Trade Union Congress of Namibia -TUCNA), and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), launched the Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) for Namibia 2010-2014
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24-26 January 2011, Pretoria, South Africa
Joint Programming Meeting for Eastern and Southern Africa
DWT/CO Pretoria, COs- Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Lusaka and Harare met in Pretoria for the annual joint meeting.
Directors and Programme staff of the ILO Country Offices in Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Lusaka and Harare met over three days with the Director and programme staff and Decent Work Team Specialists for ILO DWT Eastern and Southern Africa and Country Office for South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.
The objective of the Joint Programming Meeting was to review and plan for the effective delivery of ILO support to the constituents of Eastern and Southern Africa in 2011.The JPM also began the process of planning for the 2012-2013 biennium.
The JPM resolved to deepend the results based management approach in the finalisation and implementation of the DWCP in the sub region. Emphasis was on use of resources to achieve measurable and concrete results in pursuance of the Decent Work Agenda. The JPM also resolved to undertake aggressive and innovative resource utiliyation to facilitate delivery of work commitments.
December 2010
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1-2 December 2010, Pretoria, South Africa
Action My Business Growth Business
The WEDGE South Africa project held a training of trainers (ToT) for the ILO tool called "Action My Business Growth (AMG)" on the 01-02 December 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The AMG tool is a new tool for the WEDGE project and is a short and sharp introduction to growth, for growth oriented women entrepreneurs (GOWE’s). This one day training course is designed to assist GOWE’s to review their current growth strategies and identify future opportunities. The ToT was attended by 19 trainers from South Africa Malawi and Lesotho with rollout of the tool has started in January 2011.
Directors and Programme staff of the ILO Country Offices in Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Lusaka and Harare met over three days with the Director and programme staff and Decent Work Team Specialists for ILO DWT Eastern and Southern Africa and Country Office for South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.
November 2010
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11 November 2010, Polokwane, South Africa
ILO South Africa honoured for excellence
The provincial ILO EPWP technical team were presented an award for the recognition of excellence in technical support to the implementation of the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) .
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1-5 November 2010, Windhoek, Namibia
Workshop on Building Modern and Effective Labour Inspections Systems in Namibia
Labour inspection, as a part of the overall labour administration, is an essential element in creating decent work. In the framework of the recently signed Decent Work Country Program, the Government of Namibia requested the International Labour Organization for assistance in optimizing and modernizing the existing labour inspection system with special attention to the New Labour Act 2007. The workshop was the first scheduled event in a series of actions that will improve the existing labour inspection system.
October 2010
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27 October 2010, Mbabane, Swaziland
Swaziland Decent Work Country Programme - (pdf, 340Kb)
The Swaziland Decent Work Country Programme was signed on the 27th October in Mbabane.
The document was signed by the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Federation of Swaziland Employers and Chamber of Commerce on behalf of Business as well as Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions on behalf of Workers.
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25 - 28 October 2010, Mbabane, Swaziland
ILO High Level Mission in Swaziland - (pdf, 25Kb)
An 8 member ILO delegation took a mission to Swaziland in order to assist the government in bringing legislation into full conformity with Convention No.87, as well as enquire into the May day 2010 incident and facilitate the promotion of meaningful an effective social dialogue in the country.
The ILO delegation members were: Guy Ryder, Karen Curtis, Cecile Balima-Vittin, Vic Van Vuuren, Limpho Mandoro, Peter Wamoto, George Machai ad Thabo Makeka.
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10 - 13 October 2010, Windhoek, Namibia
Nambian San Programme Workshop
This was a regional workshop constituting representation from Angola, Rwanda, Botswana, South Africa, Geneva and Namibia. The representation was a total of 119 participants.
The purpose of the workshop was to officially launch the book on The rights of Indigenous peoples in 24 African countries.
To present three reports findings which were carried out by LAC. To develop action plans to outline a way forward in terms of Namibia San program.
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6-8 October 2010, Yaounde
The 2nd African Decent Work Symposium.
The 2nd African Decent Work Symposium on “Building a Social Protection Floor with the Global Jobs Pact” convened under the auspices of H.E. President Paul Biya, Republic of Cameroon and organized in collaboration with the ILO, will be held from 6-8 October 2010 in Yaounde.
September 2010
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29 September - 1 October 2010, Pretoria, South Africa
Capacity building workshop for labour inspectors
This workshop focused on understanding hurdles related to the implementation of ratified key equality conventions in South Africa, linked to lack of effective capacity in ensuring compliance with such commitments and lack of adequate awareness of the provisions of such conventions.
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29 September 2010, Rosebank, South Africa
South Africa Decent Work Country Programme - (pdf, 559Kb)
The Decent Work Country Programme was signed on the 29th September at NEDLAC, and the session was chaired by the NEDLAC Executive Director Mr Herbert Mkhize.
The document was signed for, by the following people on behalf of their respectivce constituents:
The Minister of Labour, Min Mdladlana on behalf of Government, Mr Bheki Ntshalintshali, representing the Workers, Mr Mthunzi Mdwaba, representing the Employers, Ms Pat Horn, representing the Community and Mr Vic Van Vuuren, representing the ILO. The session was then followed by a press briefing.
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27-28 September 2010, Pretoria, South Africa
National Labour Inspection Policy Conference.
The theme for this conference Strengthening Labour Inspection Systems, and the purpose for this conference was to apparaisse management of inspections and enforcement services on techinical cooperation between the International Labour Organisation and the Department of Labour.
August 2010
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August 2010, Cape Town, South Africa
Women's Entrepreneurship Development Capacity Building.
The ILO WEDGE (Women Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality) Project hosted the first ever EYB Training of Trainers seminar in Pretoria at the end of August 2010. The EYB Programme aims to assist growth-oriented entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.
July 2010
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26 - 30 July 2010, Maseru, Lesotho
Training for Building Women Entrepreneurs' Associations in Lesotho.
The objective of the training is:
- 1. To create awareness regarding gender inequalities faced by the diversity of womens entrepreneurs, including women entrepreneurs with diabilities and suggest ways of addresing these challenges through the creation of gender sensitive services in WEA'S.
- 2. To ensure that women entrepreneurs have greater access to representation and voice in their business affairs and in influencing the policies and decisions that affect them.
- 3. To guide women in the formation and management of a member-based business association.
- 4. To build the administrative, organisational, technical and financial capacities of new and existing associations to enable women entrepreneurs to better serve their diverse memberships.
- 5. To promote linkages between WEAs regionally and internationally, and foster linkages with other key private sector actors (e.g. employers organisations).
June 2010
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14 June 2010, Pretoria, South Africa
The biggest Red Card To Child Labour in the world inagurated by the ILO in Pretoria, South Africa.
The Red Card will be displayed, for the whole duration of the football World Cup, on the ILO Premises facing the motorway connecting Pretoria with Johannesburg. The motorway is used daily by thousands of commuters and, in these days, by the many tourists who are visiting South Africa.
The inauguration is part of a series of events and communication activities which are taking place in South Africa and all over the world for the ILO Global Campaign,Go for the Goal,End Child Labour.
May 2010
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18 - 20 May 2010, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Improve your exhibition skills training (IYES).
Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business scores with the first ILO WEDGE South Africa Improve Your Exhibition Skills (IYES) training, facilitated by WEDGE IYES trainers (Mandisa Jostrey and Tessa Green Mills). The exhibitors form part of building the capacity of traders and exhibitors for the FIFA World Cup.
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11 May 2010, Pretoria, South Africa
New ILO Global Report on Child Labour presented today in Pretoria.
The ILO and its partners applaud the efforts by Governments of the Southern Africa region to combat worst forms of child labour. However, in its third Global report on Child Labour, which was launched at a media conference today, the ILO cites an further increase to 58 million of the numbers children of ages 5 - 14 from 49 million which was reported in 2004. Despite some progress to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in some of the regions, a lot remains to be done to achieve the goal set for 2016.
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1 May 2010, Durban, South Africa
Workers Day COSATU Commemorations
Vic Van Vuuren, ILO Country Director for Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland Attending the COSATU Workers Day rally on 1 May 2010 in Durban.
April 2010
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29-30th APRIL 2010, Maputo, Mozambique
Meeting OF SADC MINISTERS responsible for Employment and Labour and Social Partners
Ministers and Social Partners recalled that they approved the following priorities for implementation under the SADC/ILO Decent Work Agenda Programme:
i) Employment Creation;
ii) Strengthening Social Dialogue;
iii)Capacity Building for Social Partners;
iv) Labour Market Information Systems; and
v) Social Protection.
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8 -10 April 2010, Johannesburg, South Africa
African Employers Conference on the G2O Summit.
High-Level Conference on Employment and Sustainable Enterprises: The Contribution of the African Private Sector to the G20 Debates
In order to draw the attention of the international community to these specific needs of the private sector in Africa and to provide input to the next G20 meeting of Ministers of Labour scheduled for April 2010 in Washington, the Pan African Employers Confederation (PEC) and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE), with support of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the South African Government, convened an employers conference in Johannesburg on 9-10 April 2010 with the participation of the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank and other institutions.
March 2010
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31 March - 1 April, Windhoek, Namibia
SADC Ministers/Social Partners for Employment and Labour for enhanced job creation policies
New policies for job creation and regional integration were high on the Agenda of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Employment and Labour Meeting of Ministers and Social Partners in Windhoek. Promoting an employment-rich growth, investing in workforce skills and protecting the most vulnerable are the way forward for SADC tripartite entities, suggested ILO Assistant Director General/Regional Director for Africa, Charles Dan. "Full employment should become a key macroeconomic objective alongside low inflation and sound fiscal accounts", stated Mr. Dan together with H.E. Nahas Angula, Prime Minister of the Republic of Namibia.
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8 -12 March 2010, Johannesburg, South Africa
ILO / DOL - Training of Trainers Workshop on strengthening Labour Inspection Systems
The International Labour Organization began the second phase of the Train the Trainer Workshop Johannesburg on 8-Mar-10 to 12-Mar-10 to strengthen the Labour Inspection System in South Africa. The Workshop successfully completed the first phase of this workshop at the Birchwood Hotel Johannesburg, S. Africa from 22-26 Feb, 2010.
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8 March 2010, Geneva, Switzerland
International Women's Day - What's working for working women!
Each year, ILO celebrates International Women's Day with an event honouring women of courage and conviction, from different aspects of the world of work. In 2010, the theme for ILO's celebration is "What's working for working women!".
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3-5 March 2010, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Role of the Social Partners in the Elimination of Child Labour
To raise awareness and strengthen the capacities of workers' and employers' organizations in the fight against child labour.
Promote a sub-regional exchange of information on good practices against child labour.
To encourage workers' and employers' organizations to take action to raise awareness among their members regarding the human cost of child labour as well as its negative economic and social consequences.
October 2009
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19 - 21 October 2009 , Johannesburg , South Africa
The Social Economy - Africa's response to the Global Crisis
This conference will bring together social economy promoters and stakeholders from Africa, government representatives from 25 African countries, employers' and workers' organisations, social economy organisations from other parts of the world, and ILO HQ units and field specialists to adopt an action programme aiming at mobilising the social economy in Africa in response to the crisis, at local, national and regional levels.
