Decent Work - tools to counter the crisis

The Foreign Minister's remarks were based on the following:

Thank you, Minister Mdladlana, state secretary Scheele and Director-General Somavia, for co-hosting this event with me. To our guests around the table, thank you for taking the time to participate in this discussion. Let me also thank the delegates at the labour conference who have joined us. I hope you will find the discussion interesting.

Last September I hosted an international conference in Oslo, together with the leaders of Norway’s social partners, trade unions and business leaders. Director General Juan Somavia, WTO’s Director General Pascal Lamy and Mary Robinson were among the 250 participants from more than 30 countries. We discussed the ground-braking ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization.

Among the conclusions from the conference was the need to work actively for better coherence across all relevant institutions, and a proposal to ensure that we have relevant forums to ensure such coherence, both at the national and at the international level. I am pleased to say that this initiative has gained momentum. I took the initiative to organise today’s event in order to discuss with you how to move forward on greater policy-coherence and accountability in the international system. We are interested in the variety of experiences and policies pursued.

The ILO Declaration on Decent Work was in my mind a breakthrough for greater coherence and accountability. It has a striking dualism in its approach: First, it reminds us that labour standards should not be used for protectionist trade purposes. Second, the Declaration clearly states that the violation of fundamental principles and rights cannot be used as a legitimate comparative advantage. We are thus talking about a potential breakthrough for coherence in global governance, putting social justice on par with economic efficiency and growth, paving the way for the sustainable company.

The global economic crisis has made the decent work agenda and the objective of greater coherency even more important. Decent work is increasingly recognized as key to any strategy for countering this crisis. We believe in a rights-based approach, and that advocating human rights, workers’ rights and the decent work agenda is part of the solution. As is our trade, development and foreign policy efforts. We are particularly concerned that women’s rights and gender equality must be at the heart of our decent work agenda. The work to improve the situation for women in the labour marked must continue to be strengthened - not undermined - during the ongoing financial crisis.

Our challenge is as follows: How do we approach the real governance issues of the global economy in order to make globalisation work for all. What experiences can we draw upon for the core elements of the decent work agenda to be the tools we apply for overcoming the crisis, and creating greater coherency and accountability?

We have divided this session into one introductory part and two parts with discussions. Director-General Somavia will give a brief introduction in this first part. Co-host Minister Mdladlana from South Africa will introduce the discussion on experiences of tackling unemployment and promoting social protection and social dialogue. The Center for Amercian progress will then present some of their findings which you can find in full in their paper, “Institutions Matter”. We will then open the discussion and I encourage you to be brief so that there will be time for as many views and comments as possible.

In the final part, co-host state secretary Scheele from Germany will introduce the discussion on coherence and accountability. This will be followed by a brief presentation of the main findings in the FAFO paper, “From Financial Crisis towards a Coherent Agenda for Decent Work and Sustainable Globalization”. Then we will open for discussion on that topic.

I’m looking forward to listening to your views and concrete proposals, to be better prepared for the debates and action needed in the time to come.