2016 retreat of field office Directors in the Africa region. Welcoming remarks by: Aeneas C. Chuma. ILO Assistant Director-General and

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1 2016 retreat of field office Directors in the Africa region Welcoming remarks by: Aeneas C. Chuma ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Africa 18 January 2016 Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe 1

2 - Hon Prisca Mupfumira, Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare of Zimbabwe; - ILO s social partners, represented here by Mr John Mufukare, Executive Director of the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe and Mr Japhet Moyo, Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions; - Gilbert Honugbo, ILO Deputy Director-General for Field Operations and Partnerships; - Greg Vines, ILO Deputy Director-General for Management and Reform; - Hopolang Phororo, Director of the ILO Office in Harare, and our host; - Directors, Distinguished guests, Dear colleagues; It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Victoria Falls, to Zimbabwe, and to the 2016 retreat of field office Directors in the Africa region. I am indeed proud to welcome you to my home country! I acknowledge with gratitude the presence of the Honourable Prisca Mupfumira, Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare of Zimbabwe. I wish to thank the Minister profoundly, and through her the Government of Zimbabwe, for hosting this meeting. The presence of the Government of Zimbabwe at the opening of our meeting bears testimony to the close relationship that exists between the ILO and our Zimbabwean constituents. 2

3 Honourable Minister, Allow me once again to thank and congratulate you on your successful chairing of the government group during the 13 th African Regional Meeting of the ILO. Zimbabwe continues to play a significant coordinating role amongst the African governments in the ILO, considerably facilitating our work. Zimbabwe has also made significant advances in many areas that are central to our work, and here I highlight the passing of the Labour Law Amendment Act last year, which seeks to strengthen the rights of Zimbabwean workers, as well as the establishment of the Employment Creation Fund by the Ministry of Finance, also in Rest assured that the ILO stands ready to support you in these important endeavours. I acknowledge the presence of our social partners and thank them for having made the journey from Harare to be with us today. A special welcome to ILO Deputy Director-General for Field Operations and Partnerships, Gilbert Houngbo, and ILO Deputy Director-General for Management and Reform, Greg Vines. 3

4 I also welcome all ILO colleagues who accepted our invitation to join us from headquarters and of course our colleagues from across the region. A warm welcome to Vera Perdigao, Mary Kawar, Dramane Haidara and Dennis Zulu who participate for the first time as Directors of the ILO Offices in Yaoundé, Dar es Salaam, Abidjan and Abuja respectively. I extend a special welcome to Nancy Donaldson who joins us from ILO- Washington and Ms Claire Courteille from ILO-Brussels. I am also very pleased to have with us representatives of two distinguished development partners, Mr Eric Biel of the United States Department of Labour and Mr David Kaluba, representing the Green Climate Fund. I thank and commend the team in CO-Harare for having supported the preparations of our meeting, under the leadership of Hopolang Phororo. Finally, I am delighted that Andreas Klemmer and Robin Poppe from ITC-Turin were able to work with us to design this year s retreat agenda. Welcome back to the region Andreas! I know you are no stranger to Zimbabwe. 4

5 Dear colleagues, I am excited about this year s retreat, which comes at the beginning of a new biennium. When I joined the ILO, the previous biennium was well underway and the table set, so to say. As we embark on a new biennium, we do so with solid guidance from our constituents on what they expect from the ILO over the coming years. The 13 th African Regional Meeting left us with 14 priority policy areas that should shape all our work plans as we go forward. I will have an occasion in a later session to share with you some reflections on our performance, but I wish to take this occasion to profoundly thank all the Directors for your tremendous support to me in my function and to congratulate you on your achievements. It makes me proud to meet constituents all across the region, and I have now visited more than 30 countries, who underline and appreciate the consistent support they receive from the ILO. I also thank our colleagues from headquarters, without whom we could not provide the desired quality support to our constituency. When we met last January in Algiers, I noted that we were looking forward to a year of stocktaking and planning. In 2016, I see a year of implementation. As I remarked in my end-of-year message to you all, our programme of work for 2015 was largely prescribed to us, whilst the year ahead gives us more space to define our own agenda. 5

6 The decisions of the field structure review have been communicated and we are adapting to the new reality on the ground, ensuring smooth hand-overs of country coverage where relevant. The 13 th African Regional Meeting absorbed most of our time towards the end of last year and was declared a success not merely by ourselves, but, more importantly, by our clients our tripartite constituents. For the Regional Office, the relocation to Abidjan is well underway and on track. All this in a year when significant developments took place in the Africa region the African Union s Agenda 2063 was adopted, the Ouagadougou+10 Declaration and Plan of Action were passed by Africa s leaders, Africa hosted the 3 rd Global Summit on Financing for Development, and only last month, the Human Development Report for 2015 was globally launched in Addis Ababa under the theme of Work for Human Development, giving an additional boost to the ILO s mandate within the universal development agenda. In Algiers, I outlined my vision for the Regional Office. One year later, and wiser for the wear so to speak, I stand firm in my belief that we are on the right track. Let me recall the strategic direction that I shared with you last year, centred on four priorities: First, employment, notably youth employment: This, I believe remains the key to Africa s development. I am confident that we have the tools to unlock the 6

7 unemployment and underemployment challenge. I am delighted to report that along with the African Union, the African Development Bank and the Economic Commission for Africa, the ILO has re-engaged on a regional Joint Youth Employment Initiative that was first adopted during the 12th African Meeting of the ILO in This initiative has been designed to ensure policy coherence, build synergies and increase impact of various youth employment activities across the Africa region. The ILO aims to play a leading role as the initiative unfolds. Second, social protection: The Africa region is pleased to be part of the ILO s global flagship programme on Building social protection floors for all, taking forward work that has successfully been piloted in countries across the region. I am also very pleased that the ILO has fully engaged in the follow-up to the Ouagadougou+10 Plan of Action by availing specialized support in the field of social protection. Together with sister UN Agencies, we are currently championing social protection floors in the design of UNDAFs. Third, labour migration: Increased mobility of working women and men across borders is set to become a permanent feature of the African and global economy. I am proud that the ILO plays a lead role in the joint African Union, International Organisation for Migration, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and ILO Joint Labour Migration Programme that will, 7

8 amongst other things, strengthen effective governance and regulation of labour migration in Africa with the involvement of key stakeholders. Fourth, fragile states: 14 out of the 20 self-declared so-called fragile states across the world are in Africa. The ILO has a role to play in these circumstances by building the resilience of people and nations - through employment-centred recovery and through promoting social justice as a key driver to prevent conflict. The Regional Office has developed a framework strategy for our engagement in fragile states. The strategy was endorsed by the 13th African Regional Meeting and will constitute our roadmap for developing a meaningful and effective approach to advancing the Decent Work agenda in some of the most vulnerable settings in our region. I am also pleased to confirm that in the effort to step up our engagement in fragile states, we are looking carefully at the profile of Specialists being recruited to our Decent Work Teams. DWT-Dakar, for example, will be the first Team to have a combined Employment and Socio-economic Recovery Specialist, followed by DWT-Yaoundé. I would like to take some time during our retreat to consider the key enablers that can safeguard our performance in the coming year. I have tried to summarize these under three Cs : Collaboration, Capital and Compliance. I 8

9 will have an occasion to expand on these later today, but in brief these Cs have informed the agenda you have before you, which is built around your own priorities and seeks to balance key strategic operational matters with larger policy issues in the Africa region. Collaboration is essential: Between the ROAF and field offices, between Decent Work Teams and Country Offices and between the field and headquarters. The field structure review has left us with some new configurations in terms of geographical and technical coverage and we need to explore how to strengthen, improve and consolidate our ways of engaging, supporting each other, communicating and collaborating. Capital, both financial and human are key assets without which we cannot deliver. Both have to be secured, in a timely manner, and managed well! Compliance, I aim to strengthen monitoring in the coming year monitoring of delivery and compliance with procedures. This is not intended to give the sensation that the ROAF will enhance control, but is intended to help us all stay on course and lead by example. Lastly, I remind us all that these Directors retreats are an essential opportunity for us in the region to be better informed of each other s work to interact and 9

10 share knowledge and to become better leaders and managers. I encourage you to take the occasion to meet with colleagues, especially from headquarters, and discuss informally amongst yourselves in-between and after the sessions. Thank you for your attention. Having said that, I also urge you to take the time during your stay here to visit the Victoria Falls themselves one of the true natural wonders of the world! With no disrespect to any Zambians in the room, I do believe I remain on firm ground when saying you have come to the right side of the river for the best views of the falls! Thank you for your attention. 10