
Ms. Jacqueline Mugo, Executive Director & CEO, Federation of Kenya Employers lead a team of 17 delegates who represented employers at the 111th Annual International Labour Conference in Geneva, which kicked off on 5th June 2023. The conference whose theme was "Social Justice for All", brought together employers, workers and government delegates from the ILO's 187 Member States who tackled a wide range of issues, including a just transition towards sustainable and inclusive economies, quality apprenticeships, and labour protection.
The Executive Director was the Employer's Spokesperson of the Tripartite General Discussion Committee on Just Transition which came up with conventions to guide the work of the ILO. The Employers identified five key drivers for enabling just transition which include:-
- Sustainable Enterprise Development, which required a conducive business environment and business support.
- Skills development, which acted both as an enabler for growth and as a buffer against the negative impacts resulting from climate and environmental change and other global crises. Filling skills gaps and adapting to skills mismatches required coordination and strengthened frameworks for skills anticipation, mapping, and training.
- Technology transfer and adoption were crucial. Access to key technologies like renewable energy infrastructure, energy efficiency improvements, digital management, electric mobility, and agricultural productivity measures was thus critical, in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
- Productivity must be boosted through investment in human capital, innovation, and societal well-being.
- The transition from the informal to the formal economy must be accelerated. Persistent structural issues such as poor regulatory frameworks and unpredictable business environments were barriers to a swift transition.
The International Labour Conference adopted the following:
- Recommendation on quality apprenticeships.
- Committee on a Just Transition
- Committee on Labour Protection and
- Committee on the Application of Standards (CAN)