Introduction

The overarching objective of the ILO is the promotion of “opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity”. Decent work is the converging focus of the four strategic objectives of the Organization, namely rights at work, employment, social protection and social dialogue.

At the Thirteenth ILO Asian Regional Meeting, held in Bangkok in August 2001, delegates “urged all members States in the region to define, through a tripartite process, a national plan of action for decent work”. Furthermore, the delegates requested that the ILO “provide assistance to the tripartite constituents in the design of these national plans of actions”.

Throughout the Asian and Pacific region, the ILO’s technical work has increasingly focused on assisting the government and employers’ and workers’ organizations to work towards the elaboration and implementation of a coordinated set of national policies and programmes for decent work. This work is based on the experiences and lessons from ongoing projects and international initiatives.

Member states within the South East Asia and Pacific subregion have been very active in working with the ILO to develop National Action Plans for Decent Work and are at different stages of the development.

Hence, the varying  approaches and stages of development in preparing and implementing National Action Plans for Decent Work across the sub-region creates an ideal environment for shared learning across the sub-region. For this purpose, it is planned to conduct a sub-regional tripartite forum as recommended by that Asian Regional Meeting (Conclusions No 21) and in accordance with the decision taken by Governing Body of the International Labour Office at its 287^th Session (June 2003). 

Purpose of the Forum

The purpose of the tripartite forum is to:

q       Consolidate the significant progress that has been made in promoting the Decent Work Agenda across the sub-region.

q       Share the lessons and best practices, and identify common issues and solutions, in developing and implementing National Action Plans for Decent Work.

q       Enable all countries that participate in the forum to take effective responsibility for developing and implementing their own plans.

Forum host and venue

New Zealand has offered to host the forum, with the view towards reinforcing the conclusion of the Asian Regional Meeting (August 2001). The forum will be held in Auckland, New Zealand.

Dates

q       6^th to 8^th of October 2003 (inclusive)

Participation

Each of the ILO member countries in the sub-region will send one representative from government, and one each from workers’ and employers’ organizations; namely:

In addition, Timor Leste and Vanuatu will be invited and supported to participate in the forum as they are advancing their membership of the ILO. Other non-member countries will be encouraged to send, at their own cost, representatives to the forum [1] .

Forum organisations

The ILO Manila Office (Werner Blenk, Director - blenk@ilo.org) will be the responsible ILO Official for the forum in close consultation with the ILO Directors in Jakarta and Fiji (Alan Boulton - boulton@ilojkt.or.id and AM Zakaria - zakaria@ilosuva.org.fj, respectively). The technical coordinator of the forum will be David Lamotte, ILO Manila (lamotte@ilo.org).

Forum outcome

Through the tripartite forum:

·        A report has been prepared that describes and consolidates the progress and lessons learnt in developing National Action Plans for Decent Work and provides recommendations for strengthening and further evolution of the implementation of these plans in the sub-region, and in the framework of the ILO’s sub-regional work plan.

·        Participating countries can take responsibility for progressing their own plans in the way that best suits their particular circumstances.

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