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<p>Dr .Muttaqa Yusha’u</p><div class="LF4exFrZ" style="clear:both;float:left;width:100%;margin:0 0 20px 0;"><script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>

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<p>The 113th Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) of the International Labour Organization (ILO) took place in 2025. This is one of the largest gatherings under the United Nations system larger even than the UN General Assembly.</p>
<p>What makes the ILO unique is its tripartite structure, bringing together representatives of workers, governments, and employers. It is a genuine example of democracy in action in the governance of work. Since its founding in 1919, the ILO has remained one of the oldest UN agencies, with a clear mandate to promote social justice.</p>
<p>The report of the ILO Director-General to the 113th Session, themed &#8220;Jobs, Rights and Growth,&#8221; captures the core dilemma confronting the world of work. Economic growth alone, without social justice, cannot address the mounting social and political unrest seen across the globe. Social and economic inequalities have grown significantly.</p><div class="89uD5TOG" style="clear:both;float:left;width:100%;margin:0 0 20px 0;"><script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>

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<p>The working people who generate wealth continue to live in poverty, as the real value of wages declines due to market-driven and often unfriendly economic policies. Precarious jobs lacking fundamental rights at work are on the rise. Bridging the gaps between jobs, rights, and economic growth has become urgent.</p>
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<p>A major highlight of the Conference was the adoption of the Resolution concerning the Promotion of Quality Apprenticeships, aimed at addressing youth unemployment and skills mismatch. This resolution recognizes that apprenticeships are a powerful tool for building the future workforce, but it emphasizes that quality and protection must be central to their design and implementation. It calls on member States to adopt a rights-based approach to apprenticeships that is consistent with existing international labour standards.</p>
<p>Additionally, the Conference held a general discussion on Decent Work in the Care Economy, which underlined the disproportionate burden on women in unpaid or underpaid care work and called for concrete action to formalize and recognize care work as central to sustainable development and social justice. The discussion resulted in the adoption of conclusions recommending stronger investment in the care economy, the protection of care workers’ rights, and the expansion of social protection coverage.</p>
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<p>It is clear that isolated actions or blame-shifting among the social partners governments, workers, and employers who are central to addressing this triple dilemma, will not yield results. This is why the optimism expressed in the Director-General’s report, particularly his call for strengthening social dialogue as a key tool for achieving decent work in an increasingly unstable world, is so timely and important.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, in many countries, social dialogue is at a crossroads.</p>
<p>According to the ILO Global Social Dialogue Report 2024, only 35% of countries have strong and inclusive mechanisms for tripartite dialogue. In many African countries, these challenges are even more pronounced. Several factors undermine effective dialogue, including weak institutions, lack of trust among tripartite actors, limited technical capacity of trade unions, and political interference in labour relations.</p>
<p>Moreover, dialogue structures are often ad hoc and not institutionalized, making continuity and implementation difficult.<br />
Shrinking civic space, legislative restrictions on union activity, and delays in tripartite consultations further erode the potential of social dialogue. For instance, in some countries, national labour advisory councils exist only in name, meeting irregularly and lacking real influence over labour market reforms. In others, economic austerity and structural adjustment policies imposed by international financial institutions have weakened collective bargaining and sidelined workers’ voices in national economic decision-making.</p>
<p>The Director-General’s call for embedding democratic values is therefore critical not just in principle, but in practice. Upholding the policies, processes, and institutions that enable inclusive dialogue is essential to restoring the credibility and effectiveness of the ILO’s mission, particularly in regions like Africa where the gap between formal frameworks and practical implementation remains wide.</p>
<p>The 113th Session also marked continued debates around the effective implementation of fundamental principles and rights at work. Follow-up discussions on Convention No. 190 (Violence and Harassment in the World of Work) and the enduring call for the ratification and enforcement of Convention No. 102 (Social Security Minimum Standards) reflect a shared concern that global labour standards must translate into real protections at the national level. Resolutions reiterated the ILO’s supervisory role and urged member States to close the widening gap between commitment and action.<br />
Achieving growth with equity, as the report advocates, requires reinforcing democratic values and broadening civic space. It is concerning that these spaces are shrinking in many parts of the world, particularly in Africa, where restrictions on freedom of association and protest, along with weakening trade union rights, have limited the capacity of social partners to work collaboratively.</p>
<p>The question is: what must be done?<br />
Social partners must ensure that the excellent discussions and declarations made in Geneva are not left behind. More robust national-level debates are needed especially across Africa, where unemployment, informality, and wage stagnation continue to deepen.</p>
<p>The conversation must continue on key issues such as promoting decent work for platform workers, adopting innovative approaches to the transition from the informal to the formal economy, and ensuring the practical realization of conventions and recommendations adopted at the Conference.</p>
<p>Only through shared responsibility and sustained dialogue can the ILO’s vision of decent work for all become a reality.</p>
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