Decent Work Decent Life

The ILO Decent Work Agenda was initiated by Juan Somavia, who took over as ILO director general in 1999. In a relatively short period of time, the concept has led to an international consensus that productive employment and decent work are key elements to achieving poverty reduction. In the final outcome statement of the UN World Summit in September 2005, 150 global leaders agreed to place full and productive employment and decent work as a central objective of relevant national and international policies. (...)

To encourage nations to live up to this joint statement, five organisations — Solidar, ITUC, ETUC, World Solidarity and the Global Progressive Forum — launched the Decent Work, Decent Life campaign at the World Social Forum in Nairobi in January 2007 and have since then worked in an alliance to make access to Decent Work Decent Life possible for all people of the world. The need for decent working conditions in order to live a decent life is more important than ever.

The Decent Work campaign is about:
 building awareness of Decent Work amongst citizens, decision makers and key institutions;
 showing that Decent Work is the only sustainable way out of poverty and is fundamental to build democracy and social cohesion; and
 placing Decent Work at the core of development, economic, trade, financial and social policies at the national, European and international level.

The alliance has been urging individuals and institutions to sign a Call to Action for Decent Work, Decent Life for two years. On the World Day for Decent Work on 7 October 2009, the alliance handed over the signatures and endorsements of the Call to Action to several institutions all over the world: to the African Union in Ethiopia; to the Organization of American States during a meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina; to the World Trade Organization in Switzerland; to the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium; and to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in a meeting in Istanbul, Turkey.