Social Dialogue for Formalization and Employability in the Southern Neighbourhood Region
For the countries of the Southern Neighbourhood, there is a need to promote inclusive and effective mechanisms for social dialogue that address the concerns of all employers and workers, including those in the informal economy.
Social dialogue is what happens when representatives of governments, employers and workers come together to discuss, and build solutions to, issues of common concern in the economic and social spheres. It includes all types of information-sharing, consultation and negotiation between the parties.
Workers and employers in the informal economy should be encouraged, including through supportive laws and policies, to exercise their right to freedom of association and to join representative social partner organizations that can defend and promote their rights and interests.
The importance of an inclusive social dialogue, in which the voices of a broad set of actors, including often excluded groups such as youth, women, the unemployed and those in the informal economy are heard, is crucial for poverty reduction, economic and social development.
SOLIFEM will work with the ILO tripartite constituents to strengthen social dialogue institutions and mechanisms at the national and regional levels, and to build the capacity of these institutions to support the transition from the informal to the formal economy and to address the risks of informalization.
The Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy Recommendation, 2015 (No. 204) states that ILO Members should create an enabling environment for employers and workers to exercise their right to organize and to bargain collectively and to participate in social dialogue in the transition to the formal economy. It also calls on employers’ and workers’ organizations, where appropriate, to extend their membership and services to workers and economic units in the informal economy.
The Human Resources Development Convention, 1975 (No. 142) calls for the cooperation of social partners in vocational guidance and training policies and programmes, while Recommendation No. 195 on Human Resources Development acknowledges the role of skills and lifelong learning in supporting workers and enterprises in the informal economy to move into the formal economy.
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