• Category

  • Content Type

Advertisement

ILO Pledges Assistance to Jamaica

March 2, 2012

The Full Story

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has pledged assistance to Jamaica in a number of areas aimed at improving labour and productivity, including HIV/AIDS in the workplace.

“As far as HIV/AIDS is concerned we have targeted Jamaica, because there are resources, which will be made available through the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)”, said ILO Representative, Giovanni di Cola.

“We have a specialist ready to provide additional support to help you to shape your own workplace policy, which feeds in to the national policy,” he added.

Mr. di Cola was addressing a meeting involving representatives from the ILO and officials from various agencies of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS), held on February 29, at the Ministry’s North Street location in Kingston.

He gave a commitment to provide continued support to the MLSS, and the Ministry of Education, with regards to the ‘Tackle Project’ geared at reducing child labour in Jamaica through education.

He said the organisation is also willing to assist with the Jamaica Employment Programme (JEEP) to boost the country’s overall productivity.

“In relation to JEEP, we received some briefing from an (ILO) expert, who went to Guyana for a work maintenance programme, which was very beneficial. Although road maintenance is only a component (of JEEP), but with the help of experts from Geneva in Switzerland, we can provide methodologies, which will be beneficial to that programme,” Mr. di Cola stated.

ILO Senior Specialist for Employment and Labour Market Policies, Reynold Simons, who also addressed the gathering, said that the organisation is also committed to assisting the MLSS with the World Work for Youth Project “because youth intervention is crucial to national development in any country”.

“The MLSS has to take the lead in implementing policy designs and analysis regarding the project, and from there, can move to the next level,” he stated.

Labour Minister, Hon. Derrick Kellier, in his remarks, said that Jamaica has benefitted from the work of the ILO over the years, and welcomes any additional support to improve the efforts of the Ministry to boost the productive sector.

“We have been assisted by the ILO in a number of areas, for which we are very grateful. We have also advanced in several areas, which involves the development of programmes, and policies in achieving our objectives,” he said.

Minister Kellier expressed gratitude to the ILO for including Jamaica in the first phase of the World Work for Youth Project, which involves several other countries.

The project allows ILO to conduct School-To-Work Transition Surveys in 28 countries, including Jamaica, to strengthen the link between labour market information and policy making to benefit the youth.

 

By Jeneva Gordon, JIS PRO

Last Updated: July 31, 2013

Skip to content