Committee on Economic Policy, Labour and National Resources
05-06 November 2009
Latifa Perry
The Socialist International Committee on Economic Policy, Labour and National Resources met on 5-6 November at the headquarters of the International Labour Organisation ILO in Geneva, focussing its discussions on Informal Labour.
Participating in the meeting along with the Committee Chair Christoph Zopel (SPD, Germany) and SI Secretary General Luis Ayala were members from Bulgaria, France, Greece, Palestine, Russian Federation, Sweden and Tunisia. From the ILO participated the Director-General Juan Somavia along with several experts.
The ILO Director-General warmly welcomed the Committee and thanked the SI for the issues on its agenda, which were at the heart of understanding different development models. Without answers for people working in the informal sector there is no real answer to development. He particularly referred to the ILO Global Jobs Pact from June 2009, aimed at creating jobs, protecting workers and stimulating economic recovery, a portfolio of policy options and a document of the actors of the real economy, outlining what needed to be done to put right the `mess' created by the actors of the financial economy.
The discussions of the Committee covered wide-ranging aspects of informal labour and its implications in different regions of the world. While this is an ever growing segment of the world's labour markets, there remains great concern in the social democratic movement over the lack of social security mechanisms and the increasing vulnerability of this work force with the consequent repercussions on social and economic development.
Participants exchanged views on the content of a Discussion Paper by the Committee - Linking Labour with Social Integration and Social Protection Globally. An important source for the debate was the comprehensive OECD report on unprotected informal labour “Is informal normal”, published by its Development Centre from 2009. This Discussion Paper forms part of the Committee's ongoing work for the coming period, and it was agreed to make it available to the SI Council for information.
The Committee's work at this meeting also included the discussion and preparation of a draft resolution - The Challenges of Global Development at the End of 2009 and the Perspectives for 2010 - The Economic, Social, Environmental and Cultural Dimensions - for the upcoming meeting of the Council of the Socialist International in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on 23- 24 November.
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Other activities
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Meeting of the SI Committee on Economic Policy, Labour and National Resources, Moscow
04 June 2010
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Global Welfare Statehood - the Nordic Experience: discussions of the SI Committee on Economic Policy, Labour and National Resources in Stockholm
11-12 June 2009
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Advancing a global welfare statehood: SI Committee on Economic Policy, Labour and National Resources meeting in London
06 April 2009
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Meeting of the SI Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment, in Tel Aviv
22 May 2005
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SI Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment meets in Geneva
14 January 2005
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SI Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment discusses its future work and agrees a proposal for Johannesburg
15-16 October 2004
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Meeting of the Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment in Geneva
03-04 October 2003
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Socialist International at the 5th WTO Ministerial Conference, CancĂșn
10-14 September 2003
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SI Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment in Berlin
27 June-28 October 2003
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Meeting of the SI Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment
24-25 March 2003
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Meeting of the Committee in Geneva
13-14 December 2002
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Meeting of the SI Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment, New York, United Nations
15-16 February 2002
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Meeting of the SI Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment, Mexico City
01-02 October 2001
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Meeting of the SI Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment, Casablanca
04-05 May 2001
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Meeting of the Socialist International Working Group on the World Trade Organisation, London
10 April 2001
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Berlin meeting of the SI Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment
15-16 September 2000
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WorkingGroup on the Kyoto Agreement
If you are looking for an earlier meeting, please consult the LIBRARY section.