International Labour Organization (ILO)

The International Labour Organization (ILO) exists alongside numerous other specialized agencies of the wider UN system, such as UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF, and the World Bank. In 1946, the ILO was the first specialized agency to be associated with the United Nations and laid the foundation for an organizational model whereby the United Nations would address particular policy fields through dedicated, semiautonomous institutions.

Originally founded in 1919, the ILO is one of the oldest international labor organizations. In a broad sense, it is dedicated to bringing decent work and livelihoods, job-related security, and better living standards to the world's people, in both developed and developing countries, irrespective of a country's political ideology. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. The ILO's four strategic objectives are the following:

• 1.
  Promote and realize standards and fundamental principles and rights at work
• 2.
  Create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment and income
• 3.
  Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all
• 4.
  Strengthen tripartism and social dialogue

In particular, the last point sets the ILO apart from other UN agencies: Its governance structure and major activities include employers’ associations as well as unions and other work-based forms of representation in addition to member-states. Historically, the ILO is a product of the age of industrialization, was close to the cooperative movement, and was dedicated to the search for industrial peace, the notion and reality of work and its conditions, and the impact of changing work environments on individuals and societies. Over the decades, its activities changed to address new challenges, be they deskilling of the labor force in countries undergoing deindustrialization, the changing roles of unions, industrial dispute settlement, or the rise of service jobs. Current globalization processes are a case in point, as the significant expansion of the world economy and the shift of production from the developed to the emerging economies is changing the working environments and lives of billions of people.