2005

1. Microfinance in south-eastern Europe: How small business helps to create jobs

   01 August 2005

   Experience in Western countries shows that microfinance can be a useful tool in the fight against unemployment, by helping people start their own viable small businesses. An ILO project is now bringing these successful experiences to three countries in south-eastern Europe, helping to introduce microfinance as a tool in active labour market policy. The effort is particularly timely, as 2005 has been designated the "International Year of Microcredit" by the United Nations.

2. Girl-combatants: Women warriors fight their way back into Liberian society

   01 August 2005

   For thousands of women during Liberia's savage civil war, taking up arms was a case of kill or be killed. Now that the war is over, fear and uncertainty still stalk some of the women fighters. Their experiences have helped the ILO develop gender-sensitive policies and programmes that may help reintegrate them into society. ILO consultant Irma Specht reports.

3. Education for HIV/AIDS prevention at work in the Russian North

   01 August 2005

   Today, 1 385 people are registered with the Oblast Center for Preventing and Combating AIDS. In the northern Russian city of Murmansk, 1 out of every 100 men is HIV-positive, as is 1 out of every 200 women, aged 20 to 29. In December 2004, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and US Department of Labour launched a programme to bring education on HIV/AIDS prevention to the workplace.

4. New ILO Report: A global alliance against forced labour

   01 August 2005

   Is forced labour a thing of the past? A major new ILO study, A global alliance against forced labour, reveals that not only is it a present-day issue, but it is also one of the most hidden problems of our era. The ILO estimates that 12.3 million people worldwide, half of them children, are trapped in forced labour. The study challenges conventional views about the issue and serves as a worldwide call to action against forced labour.

5. Modern daddy: Norway's progressive policy on paternity leave

   01 August 2005

   After a baby is born, Mom is entitled to maternity leave, but what about Dad? Shouldn't he have some time off to adjust, too? Norway tops the European league table of family-friendly nations as far as new dads are concerned, and the government is now proposing to extend the "daddy quota" from four to five weeks, for exclusive use by the father.

6. Decent food at work: Raising workers' productivity and well-being

   28 July 2005

   In the workplace, the main concerns of employers and trade unions seem to be safety, wages and job security. The question how do workers eat while at work is not always given much thought, according to a new ILO study. Too often the workplace meal programme is either an afterthought or not even considered by employers. But access to healthy food is as essential as protection from workplace chemicals or noise. The study demonstrates that good nutrition at work is good business leading to gains in productivity and worker morale, prevention of accidents and premature deaths, and reductions in health-care costs. Adequate nourishment can raise national productivity levels by 20 per cent and a 1 per cent kilocalorie (kcal) increase results in a 2.27 per cent increase in general labour productivity.

7. "Female future": employers' organizations address gender equity

   20 July 2005

   From Norway to New Zealand, via Croatia, Kenya, Jamaica, Malaysia and the Philippines, there is almost universal recognition that equality and educational opportunities for men and women and a better balance between work and family life are vital elements in achieving equality in employment. Though the situation of women varies considerably between countries, a new ILO study on employers' organizations addressing gender equity reveals that almost everywhere more could be done to promote effective gender equality in practice.

8. Fuelling Gender Equality in the Canadian Auto Workers Union

   11 July 2005

   The ILO Bureau for Gender Equality has included the Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW) into its recent compilation of 25 good practices entitled "Gender Equality and Decent Work, Good Practices at the Workplace" ( Note 1). The CAW, Canada's largest private-sector union with about 260,000 members, has a long-standing reputation in promoting gender equality, advocating for women workers' rights and fostering women's activism.

9. Smoothing the way from education to employment: UK becomes first Western country in the Youth Employment Network

   05 July 2005

   During this year's International Labour Conference, the UK Parliamentary Under Secretary for the Department of Work and Pensions, James Plaskitt, MP, announced that the UK would join the Youth Employment Network (YEN). Mr. Plaskitt called the joint ILO, UN, World Bank network a "framework we can use to exchange our experiences with other countries". UK participation in the YEN comes just as the UK hosts a G8 summit and assumes the Presidency of the European Union and is a sign of the growing importance which the Millennium Goal of decent and productive work for young people is taking on within the intertwined global agenda for development and collective security.

10. Rethinking social security: pension reform in Latin America

    01 July 2005

    SANTIAGO de Chile (ILO on line) - In the past decade, many Latin American governments have radically restructured their old age income security systems, following the lead of Chile, which undertook its major pension reform in 1981. The defining characteristic of the reforms has been a shift in the basis of public pensions from social to individual responsibility. Numerous countries in the region, including Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay, have adopted a system that relies on individual savings accounts. The United States is considering a pension reform proposed by President George W. Bush which foresees a private system, similar to the one introduced in Chile in 1981. ILO online asked Fabio Bertranou, a Senior Social Security Specialist with the International Labour Office in Chile, about the pros and cons of private retirement plans.