Introduction and welcome

1. Welcome to this event, at which the International Labour Organization (ILO) makes available to Pacific Island countries and delegates attending the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States, our latest report titled “Decent Work and Social Justice in Pacific Small Island Developing States”.

2. This report was prepared as a resource in the build up to the third Small Island Developing States Conference to be hosted by Samoa, in month. This may not be the first time you have seen some parts of this report, as in it preparation we have circulate and used draft sections as inputs to the pre-conference dialogue.

3. We decided to make this report widely available here today, rather than at the SIDS Conference, because it is our ambition that you will use this report in your preparations and further deliberations at the conference.

4. Later this morning, my colleague Mr Satsohi Sasaki will present the scope of materials in this report. So now, it is my job to welcome you and thank you for your presence, and it explain why we prepare this report.

5. The International Labour Organization (ILO) is the United Nations agency devoted to promoting rights at work, encouraging decent employment opportunities for women and men in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity, and enhancing social protection. We call this Decent Work.

6. Preparing a report on Decent Work in Pacific Small Island Developing States presents a number of formidable challenges. Firstly, we must recognise the diversity of cultures, natural resource endowments, and economic and industrial growth prospects – from small aid-dependent atoll nations to sizeable resource-rich economies. Secondly, in many of the Pacific island countries there is a lack of update-to-date labour market and employment information, which makes analysis and evidence based policy setting policy particularly challenging

7. However, notwithstanding these challenges we know, and this report summarizes, there are serious decent work deficits in the majority of Pacific SIDS - and in some cases these deficits are growing.

8. We also decided to launch this report on the United Nations International Youth Day, because it is young women and young men that bear the future brunt of these decent work deficits. At this year’s International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, delegates said in a Call for Action on the youth employment crisis, that “Unless immediate and vigorous action is taken, the global community confronts the grim legacy of a lost generation,”

9. Consequently, generating Decent Work for all women and men - and in particular for our growing number of young women and men - is a high priority development goal.

10. However, as I am sure you will agree, it is never sufficient to describe only the extent of the problem - we must look to practical the solutions. Thus, the last part of our report also describes six clusters of policies to address these decent work deficits, namely the formation of:
1. Policies to foster strong, sustained and balanced economic growth:
2. Policies to create decent jobs through climate change resilience and adaptation
3. Policies to enhance human capital
4. Policies to create an inclusive labour force
5. Policies to promote labour protection
6. Policies to foster sustainable labour migration and mobility

11. Again later this morning my Mr Sasaki will provide more details on these potential policy responses.

Closing

12. In closing my introduction, I want to stress that it is internationally accepted that decent work and social justice are building blocks for sustainable development. Productive employment that provides adequate livelihoods, social protection and respect for worker rights, are essential elements of environmental, social and economic sustainability.

13. There can no doubt that the Pacific SIDS faces formidable challenges in achieving decent work for all of their citizens.

14. The ILO recognises that the SIDS require additional resources and tailored solutions to address the major geographic, environmental and other special constraints to development that they face.

15. However, they do have assets and opportunities at their disposal to forge a unique path of development and decent job creation. The test will be how well these countries turn their emerging challenges into new opportunities. For example, whilst climate change presents potentially disastrous consequences for the SIDS, it is also an emerging area of decent job creation, particularly if investment can be concentrated on locally constructed climate-resilient infrastructure. Similarly, while the large number of youth presents potential security and social issues, with quality education and training young people can stimulate growth through the regeneration of the public sector, entrepreneurship, remittances from increased labour migration and through new ideas in emerging sectors such as telecommunications, tourism or creative industries.

16. Before ending my introduction, I wish to express my appreciation to the team that worked on preparing this report. In particular, I want to thank Ms Sophia Kagan and Ms Anne Boyd who worked with me on various drafts of this report. In addition, the report was peer reviewed by our Decent Work Team in the ILO’s Regional Office for Asia and Pacific. Also I wish to thank the ILO team who have proudly organized today’s event - well done. It is an honour for me to work with you all.

17. Finally, to the people present you here today - thank you for your participation. We hope that you take copies of this report and empower your delegates to the SIDS Conference to use this material, as they see appropriate. The ILO as part of the UN Country Team in Samoa is supporting the SIDS Conference. The ILO is leading two Conference side-events and actively supporting the pre-conference Forums – particularly the Youth Forum. We look forward to seeing your delegates at the SIDS conference and we hope you find this report useful in your deliberations.

18. Thanks you and I hope that you enjoy and find useful, the remainder of this proceedings.