Employment and Decent Work in Fragile Settings: Towards a Common Understanding of Fragility and Peace Dividends

On 20 March 2014, during the 320th session of its Governing Body (GB), the ILO organised a high-level panel on decent work in fragile states – a joint event with the permanent representatives of New Zealand and Timor-Leste. The event was very successful and the high-profile panellists attracted a large audience from the UN system, permanent missions, academia and wider civil society. The event concluded with the signing of a cooperation agreement between the ILO and the g7+ Secretariat (the ILO is the first UN agency to sign such an agreement with the g7+). On the same day the GB deliberated on the ILO’s current and prospective role in assisting countries in fragile situations in their pursuit of socio-economic development. The discussions covered both operational and conceptual issues regarding the organisation’s involvement in fragile states and were based around a background paper that was prepared specifically for that purpose, and which included an analysis of over 150 technical cooperation projects and provided recommendations for the ILO’s future involvement. These recommendations were subsequently endorsed (in document GB.320/POL/9), and the ILO has now been tasked to prepare a comprehensive strategy to expand the organisation’s involvement in fragile states. In light of the adopted GB paper, the ILO’s Fragile States and Disaster Response Group (FSDR) has decided to establish a joint initiative with the Graduate Institute’s Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) in order to generate a labour/employment-related concept of fragility to guide the organisation’s prospective engagement in fragile situations.

Project symbol

GLO/14/28/NZE

Admin unit

DEVINVEST

Start date

01/08/2014

End date

31/12/2015

Total allocation

55679

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

55478

Development Partners

New Zealand, Permanent Mission in Geneva

Country/Countries

Global

Outcomes

More and better jobs for inclusive growth and improved youth employment prospects