ILO Partnership Programme 4, 2018-2021

Sida funds are supporting development of global products and processes, as well as country level interventions with the aim to strengthen the ILOs development cooperation in achieving the overall objective of the ILO. Examples of results achieved are: [GLOB/NORM, NAT/INST] The Partnership has supported sharpening of diagnostics, analysis, and guidance to support policy development on employment, youth employment and skills development. These are used to both influence the global policy debate on employment, as well as strengthen the ILOs advisory tools and services at national level. For example, this work contributed to the development of a labour market diagnostics tools focused on changing labour markets and how to review and design relevant employment strategies at national level. The tool has supported the development of employment policies in El Salvador, Ethiopia and Kenya. The tool was further developed as a part of the ILOs COVID-19 response and was used in a number of country analysis with focus on the pandemics effects on the economy and labour market, as well as reskilling and upskilling needs, with the aim of supporting the constituents in developing national employment policies to address challenges for vulnerable workers in sectors hit especially hard. [GLOB/NORM, NAT/INST] The Partnership also supported the development and expansion of knowledge products for social dialogue and industrial relations, such as the ILO Global Legal Database on Industrial Relations (IRLex) and a training toolkit on industrial relations (IR Toolkit). The IRLex is a source for comparative information on legal and institutional frameworks regulating industrial relations used for advice in the context of labour law reforms to government officials, social partners, industrial relations and legal practitioners as well as researchers in labour law and industrial relations, and the IR Toolkit aims at improving industrial relations and strengthening decent work and sustainable development in global supply chains. The IR Toolkit has been pilot tested at country level as part of ongoing programmes, including in the Sida funded programmes in Myanmar and Ethiopia, which provided valuable feedback to inform further development of the tool. [GLOB/NORM, NAT/INST] The support contributed to revision and development of laws and policies to protect women and men workers from unacceptable forms of work. At the global level, the Standard-Setting Committee on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work adopted the Violence and Harassment Convention 2019 (No. 190) and its accompanying Recommendation (No. 206) in June 2019 - the first international labour standards on violence and harassment in the world of work. Sidas contribution supported legal reviews and tripartite consultations which were important parts of the standard setting process and promotion of the Convention. At national level capacity building of constituents on national labour legislation and relevant international instruments has taken place. This led to progress in a number of national processes. In Cameroon there was progress in preparing bills regulating wages and hours of work, and also in protecting domestic workers from violence and harassment. Bolivia adopted a legislation granting compulsory accident insurance to women and men workers in construction, while in Bangladesh, working conditions were enhanced for tea plantation workers, including women workers, through a collective agreement. [GLOB/NORM, NAT/INST] Support was also aimed at further developing the ILOs work related to Just Transition and Environmental Sustainability. At the global level, the latest evaluation confirms that global products produced under the SIDA-ILO Partnership have succeeded in achieving high-level impact. This both internally through the development of a General Note on mainstreaming Just transition in ILO operations, and at UN level with the production of the labor and working conditions-safeguard standard for the UN Environment Management Groups common approach to environmental and social standards in UN programming. At national level, capacity building was organised for constituents and partners in Tanzania to enhance understanding and practical modalities to advance a just transition. This country-level process revealed the need for sector-specific interventions, and a market system analysis was conducted in line with the MSD approach in the horticulture sector. This resulted in recommendation of specific policy recommendations and sector level interventions to promote greener jobs in the sector. To further catalyse efforts on green business development, a national green business competition was organised in collaboration with the Tanzania Employers Association, the Tanzania Recyclers Association, and UN Environment, followed by enterprise training and coaching to support their role in sustainable growth. During the second half of the partnership period the COVID-19 pandemic presented unprecedented challenges and need to adapt the work. Across all regions, the ILO adopted new delivery modalities enabling continued support to its constituents, such as the further development of tools for data and analysis (monitors and rapid assessments) for efficient policy making, including in the context of the UN Common Country Analysis under the UNSDCFs. The ILO also advanced digitalisation of products and services to expand the reach of the ILOs capacity development and knowledge initiatives and improve the ILO functioning (including the work of the supervisory bodies). A lesson learned was that these need to be accompanied by successful efforts to breach the digital divide and ensure that technologies are accessible and adapted to the reality on the ground.