The three-day meeting, February 22-24, and coordinated by the International Labor Organization (ILO), brought together heads of State and Government, directors of international organizations and multilateral development banks, employers and workers from around the world who proposed concrete actions in the face of the social and economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
To that end, it concluded with renewed commitments to drive a recovery that puts people first and addresses the dangerous inequalities aggravated by the health crisis, a topic addressed by ILO Director-General Guy Ryder in highlighting the extreme vulnerabilities and, indeed, the inequalities that exist in the world of work.
Both aspects, in his opinion, were revealed by the pandemic, sometimes in a very brutal, very cruel way.
Hence, the Forum addressed the most pressing issues facing the world of work: inclusive growth and decent employment, universal social protection, and protection for workers and business maintenance, and the just transition to carbon neutrality.
Several delegates referred to the inequalities aggravated by the pandemic, described by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his opening remarks, as a major divergence between and within countries that threatens economic and employment recovery.
“While rich countries invest a much higher percentage of their GDP in recovery, low-income countries are trapped by spiraling debt and starving – victims of a global financial system that puts profits before people – and face a massive and long-lasting jobs deficit,” Guterres said.
Other interventions mentioned the path outlined in the ILO Global Call to Action and the ILO/UN Global Accelerator for Employment and Social Protection, which calls for investments to create at least 400 million jobs and extend social protection to four billion women, men and children without coverage.
In correspondence between the most outstanding results of the World Forum, a new association between the ILO and the United Nations Development Program stands out with a common road map that promotes these two mechanisms, and launching the joint Global Initiative on the Promotion of the Paths to Formality.
It also included a deepening of cooperation that strengthens the links between the institutions of the health sector and the world of work, in order to better protect workers for their mental health and occupational injuries and illnesses, and to prepare jobs in the face of health crises.
A new framework agreement aimed at strengthening cooperation on projects and technical assistance in areas such as gender equality, just transition and climate action for jobs, was included in the list of approved proposals.
In addition, a new Memorandum of Understanding will be signed that will support a human-centered recovery, which provides for cooperation in areas such as the economic empowerment of young people, gender equality, decent work in crisis situations and the promotion of cooperation South-South triangle.
Likewise, a deepening of the link between the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the ILO was proposed for the sake of just transition and productivity growth, and collaboration with the African Development Bank in the areas of development of skills and youth employment.
To this end, all the agencies and programs of the United Nations and the main central banks committed themselves to making the purpose of a people-centered recovery a reality, in addition to the heads of state or government of Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Egypt, Spain, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mozambique, Republic of Korea, Samoa, Senegal and Switzerland, present at the event.
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