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Self Report 2019

The self-report on WHS Commitments below is organized according to the 24 transformations of the Agenda for Humanity. It is based on commitments pledged at the time of report submission. Click on the 'Expand' symbol to expand each section and read the reporting inputs by transformation.

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  • 3A
    Reduce and address displacement

    Individual Commitments (8)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • ILO acknowledges the global public good provided by countries and communities which are hosting large numbers of refugees. It commits to providing communities with large numbers of displaced populations or receiving large of number of returnees with the necessary financial, political and policy support to address the humanitarian and socio-economic impact. To this end, it commit to strengthen multilateral financing instruments and to foster host communities' self-reliance and resilience.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • ILO commit to a new approach to addressing forced displacement that not only meets immediate humanitarian needs but reduces vulnerability and improves the resilience, self-reliance and protection of refugees and IDPs. It commits to implementing this new approach through coherent international, regional and national efforts that recognize both the humanitarian and development challenges of displacement. It commits to take the necessary political, policy, legal and financial steps required to address these challenges for the specific context.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • ILO commits to actively work to uphold the institution of asylum and the principle of non-refoulement. It commits to support further accession to and strengthened implementation of national, regional and international laws and policy frameworks that ensure and improve the protection of refugees and IDPs, such as the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol or the AU Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala convention) or the Guiding Principles on internal displacement.



      The ILO commits to review by 2017, its existing Recommendation on the Transition from War to Peace, (No. 71), 1944, to ensure a robust normative framework capable of responding to modern challenges. This is in-line with the growing global recognition that labour market interventions must be at the core of humanitarian responses. The updated ILO Recommendation will provide an important normative basis for the UN system to engage in helping to build jobs and livelihood support in humanitarian contexts and facilitate the development of stronger labour market institutions and governance to support host countries in managing the crisis in the longer term.

    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • ILO commits to collectively work towards a Global Compact on responsibility-sharing for refugees to safeguard the rights of refugees, while also effectively and predictably supporting States affected by such movements.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • ILO commits to promote and support safe, dignified and durable solutions for internally displaced persons and refugees. It commit to do so in a coherent and measurable manner through international, regional and national programmes and by taking the necessary policy, legal and financial steps required for the specific contexts and in order to work towards a target of 50 percent reduction in internal displacement by 2030.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • ILO will expand legal, social and economic opportunities for refugees by supporting labour markets solutions and social protection, without discrimination, and in a manner which also supports host communities. This will be supported in frontline states hosting Syrian refugees, in particular Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, to provide livelihood support, promote inclusive development, combining short-, medium- and long-term responses that take into consideration the mass influx in already fragmented labour markets and large informal economies. Thus, beneficiaries of the ILO work will include nationals and refugees. This will also provide important opportunities to advance the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 8 on economic growth and decent work while also supporting domestic and foreign investment in decent work strategies.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    • ILO will provide long-term, predictable technical and financial support to countries hosting large numbers of refugees and IDPs, in such ways that improve services and inclusive economic opportunities. Recognizing that decent work is one of the best sources of generating financial resources, labour market solutions will be expanded.
    • Financial
    • Leave No One Behind
    • The ILO commits to further strengthening its response to the decent work challenges created by forced displacement on affected countries and populations. ILO aims to ensure that early interventions are aligned with humanitarian and development frameworks and partnerships to ensure access to decent work and reinforce labour market governance. The aim is to mitigate the high degree of fiscal stress on public accounts of countries impacted by forced displacement; combine effectively short, medium and long-term job opportunities and employability adapted to the forced displacement context; stabilise economies impacted by forced displacement by supporting longer term development strategies; promote sustainable livelihoods that recognise and harness the productive capacities of the displaced and their hosts; and conduct comprehensive analysis and joint programming of interventions to inform policy and legislative frameworks.
    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    Core Commitments (5)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new approach to addressing forced displacement that not only meets immediate humanitarian needs but reduces vulnerability and improves the resilience, self-reliance and protection of refugees and IDPs. Commit to implementing this new approach through coherent international, regional and national efforts that recognize both the humanitarian and development challenges of displacement. Commit to take the necessary political, policy, legal and financial steps required to address these challenges for the specific context.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Commit to promote and support safe, dignified and durable solutions for internally displaced persons and refugees. Commit to do so in a coherent and measurable manner through international, regional and national programs and by taking the necessary policy, legal and financial steps required for the specific contexts and in order to work towards a target of 50 percent reduction in internal displacement by 2030.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Acknowledge the global public good provided by countries and communities which are hosting large numbers of refugees. Commit to providing communities with large numbers of displaced population or receiving large numbers of returnees with the necessary political, policy and financial, support to address the humanitarian and socio-economic impact. To this end, commit to strengthen multilateral financing instruments. Commit to foster host communities' self-reliance and resilience, as part of the comprehensive and integrated approach outlined in core commitment 1.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Commit to collectively work towards a Global Compact on responsibility-sharing for refugees to safeguard the rights of refugees, while also effectively and predictably supporting States affected by such movements.
    • Leave No One Behind
    • Commit to actively work to uphold the institution of asylum and the principle of non-refoulement. Commit to support further accession to and strengthened implementation of national, regional and international laws and policy frameworks that ensure and improve the protection of refugees and IDPs, such as the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol or the AU Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala convention) or the Guiding Principles on internal displacement.
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Refugees

    Following the adoption of its Guiding Principles on the access of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons to labour market and Recommendation No. 205, the International Labour Organization (ILO) continued to strengthen its decent work response to displacement. At the global level, ILO’s close involvement with the development of the Global Compact for Refugees has led to the inclusion in the document of the "promotion of decent work and economic opportunities for host communities and refugees and to job creation and entrepreneurship programmes", and to the explicit reference to the Guiding Principles and Resolution 205.  At the operational level, the ILO strengthened its interventions to respond to refugee situations in the countries affected by the Syrian situation, in a manner that considers the demand and supply sides of the labour market – integrating skills development measures that are aligned with labour market needs to better employment opportunities and decent jobs for host communities and refugees are facilitated. ILO’s involvement  in the Inclusive Jobs and Education for Forcibly Displaced Persons and Host Communities Programme supported by the Dutch government and implemented in 8 countries, in the Horn of Africa and in the Middle East and North Africa in partnership with UNHCR, UNICEF, World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) further expand the support towards access of refugees, internally displaced persons and host communities to decent work.

    IDPs (due to conflict, violence, and disaster)

    In 2019, the ILO will continue to reinforce socio-economic inclusion and decent work programmes for refugees, other displaced persons and host communities in countries impacted by large refugee movements and also expand its response in countries experiencing mixed migration flows such as the countries responding to the Venezuelan displacement situation. It is also establishing a presence in Libya where refugees and migrants are facing some of the worth form of work. The ILO and UNHCR will also review their operational joint plan of action developed in 2017 to assess progress made towards labour market-related interventions at global, regional and national levels.  

    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Field conditions, including insecurity and access
    • Human resources/capacity
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Restrictions imposed by laws/policies. Local economic conditions, language barriers, mismatched/insufficient skills and complex administrative procedures. The deteriorating security situation impede the smooth implementation of projects. The variety of stakeholders involved in is an impediment if not accompanied by more efficient sharing of knowledge to inform programming and greater coordination to avoid duplication. 

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    ILO will continue to reinforce socio-economic inclusion and decent work programmes for refugees, other displaced persons and host communities in countries impacted by large refugee movements and expand its response in countries experiencing mixed migration flows such as the countries responding to the Venezuelan displacement situation. ILO is establishing a presence in Libya where refugees and migrants. ILO and UNHCR will review their operational joint plan of action to assess progress made towards labour market-related interventions.  

    Keywords

    Displacement

  • 4A
    Reinforce, do not replace, national and local systems

    Individual Commitments (9)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • As part of its Flagship Programme on Building Social Protection Floors for All, the ILO will by 2020 finance the start-up cost for the implementation of at least two social protection schemes that mitigate risks and provide a basic income security to populations affected by crises, including displaced persons.
    • Financial
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • By 2020, in two countries the ILO will contribute to collective recovery efforts drawing upon its core competencies in supporting the creation of necessary social protection institutions embedded in national law. It will also contribute to collective preparedness efforts by developing national capacities to design, implement and operate nationally-owned and sustainable social protection systems in line with international labour and social security standards, designed to build longer-term resilience to future crises.

    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • By 2020, in two countries the ILO will promote the channelling of international humanitarian aid through existing social protection systems to reinforce rather than replace national relief capacities, capitalizing on the existing delivery structures to reduce the cost of distributing aid, and allowing for more rapid deployment of urgent, lifesaving assistance to those in need.

    • Advocacy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • By 2020, in two countries the ILO will promote the establishment of flexible and scalable national social protection systems that take into account the diverse nature and likelihood of risks faced by crisis-vulnerable communities, including displaced persons, and deploy appropriate services and transfers following such events. This may include emergency protocols for relaxed eligibility criteria in the lead-up to or wake of a crisis, weather-indexed or otherwise automated top-up payments, and other design features that introduce anticipatory protection functions to social protection systems.

    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • By 2020, the ILO commits to strengthening national and local capacities on social protection and climate change, and social protection for displaced persons, refugees and host communities, through the development of courses, good practices guides, and South-South learning.

    • Capacity
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • By 2020, the ILO commits to support one country in the design and implementation of nationally-owned and domestically-resourced social protection schemes that can also be supported, when necessary, through additional financing windows, including international humanitarian aid.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • By 2020, the ILO commits to support three countries in the design and implementation of social protection schemes inclusive of displaced persons and refugees using innovative and coordinated delivery mechanisms embedded in national administration and a management information system to collect and analyse data on the extension of social protection coverage.

    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • By 2020, the ILO will also in at least three countries initiate and take a leading role in the establishment of United Nations Social Protection Task forces that will provide a joint UN response to governments seeking advice and technical support in the development of social protection schemes that respond to the specific needs of displaced persons, refugees and host communities.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • ILO commits to support and invest in national and local leadership and response systems wherever possible, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Core Commitments (6)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to reinforce national and local leadership and capacities in managing disaster and climate-related risks through strengthened preparedness and predictable response and recovery arrangements.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to increase investment in building community resilience as a critical first line of response, with the full and effective participation of women.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to ensure regional and global humanitarian assistance for natural disasters complements national and local efforts.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Commit to increase substantially and diversify global support and share of resources for humanitarian assistance aimed to address the differentiated needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises in fragile situations and complex emergencies, including increasing cash-based programming in situations where relevant.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    • Commit to empower national and local humanitarian action by increasing the share of financing accessible to local and national humanitarian actors and supporting the enhancement of their national delivery systems, capacities and preparedness planning.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need Invest in Humanity
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Strengthening national/local leadership and systems

    The ILO works in humanitarian contexts where State-organized social security and assistance is under strain from lowered administrative capacity and increased demand. The ILO evaluates national social protection systems in refugee-hosting countries to determine the capacity of those systems to cover non-national populations, avoiding the creation of parallel social protection systems.

    In 2018, as part of the second phase of the joint ILO-UNHCR partnership on assessing and improving health protection for refugees, ILO carried out assessments in 4 additional countries (Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Rwanda and Senegal) to examine public options for refugees' health protection. In May 2018, a workshop with UNHCR's regional bureaux was successfully carried out, and in December 2018, UNHCR and ILO concluded an update of the UNHCR operational guidance on health insurance for refugees following a two-day workshop.

    The first call for concept notes launched in March 2019 by the UN Joint Fund for Agenda 2030 (USD 60 million), focuses on social protection. This incentivises UN Country Teams and UN Resident Coordinators to work as One UN on social protection including in fragile contexts. Other projects (ILO/Dutch worth USD 80 million and ILO/UNICEF/ European Commission's Directorate-General for International cooperation and Development (DEVCO) for USD 23 million) have a strong focus on the humanitarian-development nexus on social protection.

    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Challenges to implementation include differing levels of political commitment by constituent governments to opening access to public services and benefits programs to non-nationals or internally-displaced persons, and the continued challenges to improving coordination across a wide range of actors within and outside the UN system who are active in humanitarian contexts.

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Improving coordination through UN country level social protection teams, regional UN Development Group thematic working groups on social protection and the Social Protection Floors Policy Group of the Joint Fund Window for Social Protection Floors (UN-JFWSPF) at the global level. ILO and UNHCR negotiate phase 3 of the project on improving social health protection for refugees, to focus on providing support for countries to develop and implement multi-sectorial work plans. 

    Keywords

    Displacement, Humanitarian-development nexus, Local action, Strengthening local systems

  • 4C
    Deliver collective outcomes: transcend humanitarian-development divides

    Individual Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility
    • ILO commits to review by 2017, its existing recommendation on the Transition from War to Peace, (No. 71), 1944, to ensure a robust normative framework capable of responding to modern challenges. This is in-line with the growing global recognition that labour market interventions must be at the core of humanitarian responses. The updated ILO recommendation will provide an important normative basis for the UN system to engage in helping to build jobs and livelihood support in humanitarian contexts and facilitate the development of stronger labour market institutions and governance to support host countries in managing the crisis in the longer term.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • ILO will scale-up interventions to enhance labour market capacity absorption in the private sector, in particular through encouraging sustainable and inclusive economic growth and investment. ILO will leverage, adapt or develop models of intervention or develop new ones as relevant, and ensure meaningful engagement with national, regional and international partners to enhance coherence, integration and impact. Enhanced regulatory frameworks and a rights-based approach (incl. the fundamental principles of rights, wages, occupational safety and health, etc.) will also be elaborated in operational manuals and training courses provided for various implementing partners.
    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    • Through the UNDG Arab States Thematic Working Group on Social Protection and other global and regional coordination bodies such as the SPIAC-B, the ILO commits to building consensus among humanitarian and development actors on principles for social protection provision, including graduation from humanitarian aid to participation in sustainable social protection systems.
    • Advocacy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    Core Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Core Responsibility
    • Commit to a new way of working that meets people's immediate humanitarian needs, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years through the achievement of collective outcomes. To achieve this, commit to the following: a) Anticipate, Do Not Wait: to invest in risk analysis and to incentivize early action in order to minimize the impact and frequency of known risks and hazards on people. b) Reinforce, Do Not Replace: to support and invest in local, national and regional leadership, capacity strengthening and response systems, avoiding duplicative international mechanisms wherever possible. c) Preserve and retain emergency capacity: to deliver predictable and flexible urgent and life-saving assistance and protection in accordance with humanitarian principles. d) Transcend Humanitarian-Development Divides: work together, toward collective outcomes that ensure humanitarian needs are met, while at the same time reducing risk and vulnerability over multiple years and based on the comparative advantage of a diverse range of actors. The primacy of humanitarian principles will continue to underpin humanitarian action.
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis and planning towards collective outcomes

    The adoption of Recommendation No. 205 reinvigorated ILO's mandate to support Member States in crisis situations arising from conflict and disaster. ILO works in complementarity with humanitarian assistance with the aim to reduce aid dependency and improve sustainability through the promotion of employment and decent work for peace and resilience by: providing comprehensive guidance to support policy-making; implementing field operations to promote job creation (through its Jobs for Peace and Resilience global flagship); collecting concrete evidence to explain the relationship between employment and peace.

    Actions have been taken in accordance with the implementation strategy of Recommendation No. 205. Main achievements include: dissemination and promotion of Recommendation No. 205 through training courses, events and meetings, also in collaboration with the International Training Centre of the ILO; development and launch of Jobs for Peace and Resilience programmes in Central African Republic, Comoros, Gambia, Myanmar, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka and of projects targeting labour market integration of refugees in host communities in Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Sudan, Uganda; development of tools and research to assist and empower employers’ and workers' organizations in crisis situations; expansion of the collaboration with the Peacebuilding Support Office and Switzerland in the area of employment for peacebuilding and with UNHCR and Germany, Netherlands and Norway, among others, in the development of project proposals and implementation of operations in crisis contexts.

    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Institutional/Internal constraints
    • Multi-stakeholder coordination
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Effective implementation depends on internal coordination, smooth processes and knowledge management. ILO has created the Coordination Support Unit for Peace and Resilience, a cross-departmental and cross-thematic support for interventions in conflict and disaster response contexts. It will promote complementarity, coherence and a ONE ILO approach in situations of fragility, conflict or disaster.

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Advancing implementation requires high internal and external coordination. ILO will ensure a consistent interdisciplinary and intra-Office approach, including through joint programming with its regional/country offices and the International Training Centre.

    Employment and decent work have a central role to play in crisis situations, including by contributing to social cohesion and peacebuilding through action on conflict drivers. ILO promotes this in complementarity with mandates of and in cooperation with other specialized UN agencies and international organizations.

    Keywords

    Community resilience, Displacement, Humanitarian-development nexus