Trade Unions and Poverty Alleviation in Africa Edited by Mohammed Mwamadzingo and Ditiro Saleshando © 2003 Bureau for Workers Activities, International Labour Organization Copyright © International Labour Organization 2003 First published 2003 Publications of the International Labour Office enjoy copyright under Protocol 2 of the Universal Copyright Convention. Nevertheless, short excerpts from them may be reproduced without authorisation, on condition that the source is indicated. For rights of reproduction or translation, application should be made to the Publications Bureau (Rights and Permissions), International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland. The International Labour Office welcomes such applications. 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Mohammed Mwamadzingo and Ditiro Saleshando, editors Trade Unions and Poverty Alleviation in Africa Harare and Geneva, International Labour Office, 2003 ISBN 92-2-114143-8 ISBN 92-2-115155-7 (PDF format) The designations employed in ILO publications, which are in conformity with United Nations practice, and the presentation of material therein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the International Labour Office concerning the legal status of any country, area or territory or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. The responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles, studies and other contributions rests solely with their authors, and publication does not constitute an endorsement by the International Labour Office of the opinions expressed in them. Reference to names of firms and commercial products and processes does not imply their endorsement by the International Labour Office, and any failure to mention a particular firm, commercial product or process is not a sign of disapproval. ILO publications can be obtained through major booksellers or ILO local offices in many countries, or direct from ILO Publications, International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland. Catalogues or lists of new publications are available free of charge from the above address, or by email: [email protected] Visit our website: www.ilo.org/publns Cover design and typeset by Fontline Electronic Publishing (PVT.) Ltd, Harare, Zimbabwe Printed by Précigraph, Les Pailles, Mauritius Foreword For almost all history on record, poverty has been a severe thorn in the side of mankind, to such an extent that it is now accepted as a permanent feature of our existence. Consequently, pervasive poverty, inequality, and underdevelopment are so widespread that they are perceived as some of the deadly threats to political stability, social cohesion, environmental health, and global development. It is, therefore, no wonder that the threat poverty constitutes to the world at large has brought about a need for further reflection and is finally inducing the moral indignation that it deserves. The ILO has been a pioneer of international action against poverty ever since its creation in 1919. The preamble to the Constitution adopted in 1919 mandates the ILO to pursue social justice, and the 1944 Declaration of Philadelphia states poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere . The World Employment Programme, which was launched in 1969, gave rise to extensive work on how employment strategies could help in the realisation of basic needs and strongly influenced development thinking during the 1970s and early 1980s. Undoubtedly, one of the more recent turning points in gaining widespread recognition of the extent and implications of world poverty was the 1995 Copenhagen United Nations World Summit for Social Development, which mapped out a global action programme for employment and the elimination of poverty. The ten commitments agreed on at the Summit as prime goals of global development policy included full employment, the eradication of poverty, and popular participation. Furthermore, world leaders called for a reorientation of the work of international institutions, including the United Nations. In order for poverty in Africa to be halved by 2015 the target agreed at the Copenhagen World Summit all African economies will, among other things, have to grow by an average of 8% per annum rather than the average growth of about 3% of the last few years. Of the nine countries in the middle-income category, seven Botswana, Cape Verde, Gabon, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, and Swaziland have a combined population of less than six million, this being a mere 1% of the regional total. The other two Angola and South Africa are special cases, associated with the effects of civil war and wide disparities in incomes, respectively. Juan Somavia, through his role as Chairman of the Copenhagen Summit, brought new impetus and strong moral persuasion to the ILOs poverty eradication activities when he became its Director General. In his first Report of the Director General to the International Labour Conference in 1999 he defined the decent work agenda as the promotion of opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Decent work is now the driving force behind the ILOs conviction that a broad-based strategy for poverty reduction is needed. In translating the concept of decent work into a policy framework for poverty reduction, the ILO has adopted four broad and interconnected components, Trade Unions and Poverty Alleviation in Africa iiiiii Foreword namely (i) Employment; (ii) Standards and Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work; (iii) Social Protection; and (iv) Social Dialogue. These provide the ILO with a framework to adopt and implement integrated strategies for poverty reduction. The immediate goal certainly involves a combination of measures to promote productive employment, social protection rights and representation, and the effective functioning of social dialogue among ILO constituents. In effect, this is where the comparative advantage of the ILO within the multilateral system can be brought into effective use. It is imperative to build on ILOs knowledge of the world of work and of tripartite systems of social dialogue as well as to focus on the institutional framework needed to promote decent work and thus enhanced poverty reduction. Given its constitutional tripartite structure (governments, employers and workers organisations), the ILO has a well-built institutional forum with which to catalyse action in its constituencies by supporting the implementation of policies and programmes designed to expand and deepen decent work opportunities and thus realise the targets for poverty reduction. The concept of decent work is thus built on the foundation of long experience of working with constituents in a variety of programmes, and in analysis of the interactions between employment, labour market and social protection policies in many different circumstances. Within this perspective, a persistent theme in the ILOs work is the importance of embedding both labour and social policies in an institutional framework that creates opportunities for full, productive, and freely chosen employment. However, the decent work approach also recognises the need for the ILO to re-examine how, based on an enduring set of fundamental principles and rights, existing institutions of and around the labour market should respond to increasing international economic integration while at the same time contributing to a more coherent international architecture for sustained and equitable growth. More specifically, the Copenhagen Summit went a long way towards meeting trade union demands for a global solidarity pact. The trade union movement strongly believes that the best approach to the eradication of poverty is through social dialogue. It is on realisation of this that the Bureau for Workers Activities of the ILO endorsed the interest for the labour movement in Africa to hold a high level workshop in Nairobi in December 2001. We are glad to note that the workshop provided a forum for participants not only to exchange views and experiences but also deliberate on how trade unions can strategically plan actions that will shape and guide their organisations towards enhanced participation in the processes of poverty alleviation. Through this same workshop, from which this publication is derived, the ILO and the trade unions gained critical information on innovative and good practices adopted by workers organisations at the national, sectoral, and enterprise level. This publication also highlights the environment within which social dialogue takes place, the conditions that influence its effectiveness (or not), and the lessons that trade unions can learn from each other with respect to alleviating poverty, amongst their members in particular and the community at large. Manuel Simón Velasco Director Bureau for Workers Activities International Labour Organization iv Trade Unions and Poverty Alleviation in Africa Acknowledgements For a long time now the labour movement in Africa has looked upon poverty in