24 Jul 2024 | The extra assistance to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is to promote workers’ rights, full employment, and the social dialogue between unions, employers, and government as well as to strengthen the social safety net in developing countries.

Dutch development minister Bert Koenders has pledged the two million euros for the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda. Koenders spoke with ILO Director-General Juan Somavia about the need to lay a ‘social floor’ worldwide. Existing ILO treaties on social security will probably have to be modernised to enable developing countries to comply with their provisions.

‘What I seek is globalisation with a human face,’ said Koenders, ‘focusing on the role of the unions, economic growth, and distribution.’ This extra assistance brings the Netherlands’ annual contribution to the ILO’s development programme to a total of eight million euros.