The World Bank’s private sector arm and the International Labor Organization (ILO) will begin developing a program to improve global working standards, including rules to ban child labor, writes World Bank Press Review, Monday.
The so-called Better Work Program will draw from the ILO’s five-year-old garment factory project in Cambodia where the labor body monitors compliance with national and world labor standards, remedies shortcomings and offers training.
That initiative has been widely credited with improving conditions and standards in Cambodia and helping its garment industry grow after a global system of preferential trade quotas expired, a joint International Finance Corp. (IFC) and ILO statement said.
The project will cover the garments and footwear, plantations, electronic equipment, and light manufacturing industries in the Middle East, Southern Africa and East Asia.
The first phase of the IFC-ILO collaboration begins next month in drafting rules that meet the ILO’s four core standards banning child labor, forced labor, discrimination and allowing freedom of worker association in a way that suits local circumstances.
So far Jordan, Lesotho and Vietnam have volunteered to be part of a pilot project in helping set up the program.
The ILO has agreed to develop a global Web site and extend its Information Management System for use in other countries and for public labor inspection.
The IFC agreed to support implementation of the pilot projects through its regional offices from which it will offer technical assistance and supply the ILO with a grant to help fund the program, the statement added.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
