Decent work in the Americas: An Agenda for the Hemisphere, 2006-2015, Report of the Director-General, Sixteenth American Regional Meeting, Brasilia, May 2006.

The ILO Programme and Budget for 2006-07 was approved by the International Labour Conference at its 93rd Session (June 2005). The programme recognizes that decent work is a global objective, since men and women all over the world aspire to obtaining productive work in conditions of freedom, equality, security and dignity. The ILO believes that this global objective, which is shared by the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, should be progressively incorporated into national development strategies, the implementation of which will be supported through the decent work country programmes developed and implemented by the Office and its constituents, as established by the Conference.

The ILO has been promoting the creation of decent work since 1999. As indicated in the Office’s Programme and Budget for 2006-07, this aspiration is linked to the following four strategic objectives:
1) to promote and realize standards and fundamental principles and rights at work;
2) to create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment and income;
3) to enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all; and
4) to strengthen tripartism and social dialogue.

The action taken to achieve these strategic objectives will create synergies facilitating the attainment of a set of cross-cutting objectives which are increasingly considered as priority goals for the international community: a fair globalization, working out of poverty, advancing gender equality, enhancing the influence of international labour standards in development, and expanding the influence of the social partners, social dialogue and tripartism.

In the Americas, the belief that the creation of decent work, as defined by the ILO, is the best way to overcome poverty and reinforce democratic governance has progressively been consolidated, especially since 2003. In the case of Latin America, this belief is reflected in the conclusions of the MERCOSUR Regional Conference on Employment (Buenos Aires, April 2004), the Andean Regional Conference on Employment (Lima, November 2004) and the Subregional Tripartite Employment Forum (Tegucigalpa, Honduras, June 2005) with the participation of delegations from Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic. Similarly, the conclusions of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Inter-American Conferences of Ministers of Labour, as well as the declarations of the continent’s Heads of State and Government at the Ibero-American Summits (Santa Cruz, San José, Costa Rica and Salamanca), the Third Latin America and the Caribbean – European Union Summit and the Summits of the Americas held in Nuevo León and Mar del Plata (which include an action plan), all reflect the aspiration to make decent work a global objective. These documents (Appendix) acknowledge that the promotion of decent work is a strategy that can help to ensure increased participation of the poor and the socially excluded in the fruits of economic growth, the strengthening of democracy and the overcoming of poverty, inequality and exclusion within the context of fairer globalization.

Decent work country programmes (DWCPs) are the ILO’s contribution to helping countries incorporate decent work into their development strategies and policies. Throughout this Report, specific proposals are put forward for general policies which each country can adopt and adapt to its own conditions if it considers this to be appropriate, since the decision to make decent work a national objective lies with each country. Within each DWCP, ILO cooperation will be organized in a coherent manner and will respond to one or more key priorities to ensure that the country makes progress in achieving the decent work objectives. In the final section of this Report, I have put forward some thoughts regarding the DWCPs.

The DWCPs can also be suitable mechanisms for focalizing and enhancing both horizontal technical cooperation between the countries of the Americas and international development cooperation, both multilateral and bilateral, within the region and beyond it.

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