A high-level tripartite conference on the above theme will take place on 7-8 December 2009, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Organized by the ILO Conditions of Work and Employment Programme, this conference will bring together national and regional researchers, government officials, representatives of employers and trade unions from the following countries: Burundi, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Mozambique, Zambia, and the host, Tanzania.

The objective of this conference will be to share and examine the efforts being made across the region to improve working conditions, and to identify effective policy and practical approaches for the future. Discussion will be informed by a report on the work undertaken by ILO TRAVAIL in Mozambique and Tanzania, under the auspices of the DANIDA-funded project, Improving job quality through the concerted efforts of Governments, employers and workers. The participants will have the opportunity to review overall achievements and lessons learned within the project, with the aim that they can adopt or adapt these to develop new and concrete commitments to take action on improving working conditions in Africa.

The context

Working conditions are a key dimension of decent and productive work and have a direct and important impact upon productivity. They are pivotal to the health and well-being of workers and their families, and to their right to live a life out of poverty. They are also determinants of the quality of produce and the efficiency of production, and thus, of business and national economic performance.

In times of crisis or in the face of ongoing economic constraints, when individual enterprises and national economies are struggling to survive, the important and long term benefits achieved through improved working conditions are often forgotten.

This effect is not, unfortunately, a short term phenomenon. As the ILO Director General stated, during a debate on the global economic crisis at the Center for American Progress, Washington DC, in December 2008, "It is important not to lose sight [of the fact] that there was a crisis before the [global economic] crisis". This confirms the report in 2007 by The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) which records that, prior to the current global crisis growth had increasingly failed to translate into new and better jobs that would lead to a reduction in poverty. In essence, high and sustained economic growth had gone hand in hand with rising unemployment and increased informality of the labour market.

ILO's response to the global economic crisis is the Global Jobs Pact (GJP) approved by ILO constituents in June 2009, but its efforts started much earlier with the Decent Work Agenda promoting employment, social protection and fundamental principles and rights at work and social dialogue. The vision and strategy of the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, 2008 is also relevant in this context. All of these responses recognize the centrality of promoting decent working conditions, if workers, enterprises, and the national and global economies are to have a healthy and prosperous future.

Contact information in Geneva and Dar es Salaam

Contact in Geneva:

Conditions of Work and Employment Programme (TRAVAIL)
Tel: +41 22 799 6754 +41 22 799 6754
Fax: +41 22 799 8451
E-mail: travail@ilo.org

Contact in Dar es Salaam:

Ms Annamarie Kashaija Kiaga, National Programme Coordinator
Improving Job Quality in Africa Programme
ILO Office for Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda
Plot No. 76/25 & 105/27 Maktaba Street
P. O. Box 9212, Dar es Salaam
Tel: +255 22 219 6700 +255 22 219 6700 (General)
Tel: +255 22 219 6707 +255 22 219 6707 (Direct)
Fax: +255 22 212 6627
E mail: kiaga@ilo.org