Do international labour standards help in eliminating poverty in developing countries? Firstly, I will define International Labour Organisation. In my understanding ILO is an organisation which promotes equal opportunities for women and men at work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Its main aims are to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, develop social protection and strengthen work-related issues. Also I will look into statements which promote International Labour Organisation and the way it works. Additionally, I will give some examples of developing countries and International Labour Organisation role in those countries.
The ILO is the international organization responsible for drawing up and overseeing international labour standards. It is the only 'tripartite' United Nations agency that brings together representatives of governments, employers and workers and promoting decent work for all. This unique arrangement gives the ILO ability to understand the 'real world' knowledge about employment and work. International labour standards have grown into a comprehensive system of instruments on work and social policy, backed by a supervisory system which is designed to address all sort of problems in their application at the national level. The International Labour Organization (ILO) is dedicated to promoting social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights, following its founding mission that labour peace is essential to prosperity. Today, the ILO helps advance the creation of decent work and the economic and working conditions that give working people and business people an opportunity in lasting peace, prosperity and progress. Today, only 20 per cent of the world’s population has adequate social security coverage, and more than half lack any coverage at all. They face dangers in the workplace and poor or non-existent pension and health insurance coverage. The situation reflects levels of economic development, with fewer than 10 per cent of workers in least-developed countries covered by social security. In middle-income countries, coverage ranges from 20 to 60 per cent, while in most industrial nations, it is close to 100 per cent.
Skills development is an essential element in improving the employability and potential productivity of the working poor and can be an important tool for reducing poverty and exclusion and enhancing competitiveness and employability. Education and skills can enable the working poor and helpless groups, such as persons in rural communities, persons with disabilities, or disadvantaged youth to escape the inhuman circle of inadequate education, poor training, low productivity and poor quality jobs with low wages. Women in these groups typically face additional difficulties or discrimination in accessing good quality training and using it to secure better work. The ILO has developed a body of knowledge on skills development in the informal economy. Currently the ILO’s work in the area of skills development for poverty reduction focuses on extending training in rural communities, on upgrading informal apprenticeship systems and meeting the special needs of Africa to improve skills development and employability.
First ILO’s Training for Rural Economic Empowerment (TREE) Programme is a proven platform that assists those working in poor rural communities to build the skills and abilities for employment and income generation. Starting with institutional arrangements and planning among partner organizations at the national and local levels, a TREE programme aims to systematically identify potential economic opportunities at the community level, design and deliver community-based training programmes through local public and private training providers; and provide the necessary post-training support like access to credits and markets. By connecting training directly to community-determined economic opportunities, TREE programmes ensure that skills given are relevant. In communities where formal training institutions do not exist, for example in remote rural locations, arrangements for mobile training may bring in teachers and equipment to identify appropriate levels of training and train locally. This can serve as one measure to strengthen training delivery by formal institutions through development of new training programmes that meet local demands. The ILO’s Training for Rural Economic Empowerment (TREE) Programme is a proven stage that supports those working in largely informal economies to build the skills and abilities needed to generate additional income. Recently tested technical cooperation projects in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Madagascar, Burkina Faso and Niger shows that TREE builds on ILO’s long-standing experience in promoting Community-Based Training worldwide.
The second programme which is one of the greatest plans, implemented by the ILO, is the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). In the recent years, the ILO has acquired substantial knowledge in child labour. After global estimates on child labour were summed up it was concluded that poverty cannot be overcame without dealing with the problem of child labour. So ILO continues to research on the problem of child labour. Additional researches to the child labour estimates include an influence of labour on child's health and education, an interrelation between wages and productivity, children's work and school attendance. The ILO is engaged in work with government statistical offices and ILO national part is to develop a global compromise on an international statistical standard for measuring child labour. Totally, since 2001 to 2004, the ILO carried out one hundred and seventy seven projects, designed for solving problems of child labour. The projects were accompanied by numerous recommendations, good practices as well as legislation and policy responses. The Implementation of Child labour programme is currently operating in about eighty six countries. Sixty of those countries have signed an agreement of cooperating with ILO.
To conclude, ILO has developed a Global Monitoring Plan which matches achievements and effectiveness. This Plan shows that a systematic use of methodologies, strategies, research results and good practices, developed by the ILO are observed in fifty two countries. A number of countries, which trust the ILO's projects, are continuously increasing and succeeding in reducing poverty. More than 2 million children have benefited from the programme during the year 2004-2005, the number was doubled during 2005-2007 and this number is increasing constantly. The results of ILO work are more than noticeable. It is clear that International Labour Organisation gains an incredible level and growth which delivers positive practices throughout the globe and helps reducing poverty all over the world, especially in developing countries.