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Regional Technical Workshop on Labor Standards

Closing Remarks
Kunio Senga
Director General
Strategy and Policy Department
Asian Development Bank

ADB Headquarters
18 - 19 September 2002

Distinguished guests, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of ADB, as Head of the Strategy and Policy Department and also as ex-ILO expert myself, it is my honor to address you in closing this important event.

Judging from the agenda and hearing the discussions, I conclude that you have covered a wide range of issues relating to labor standards. I also note that you had an in depth and lively discussions on how the governments, ADB and other development institutions can work together to effectively address this crucial challenge.

ADB is committed. Since the approval of ADB's Social Protection Strategy in September 2001, labor standards are an integral part of ADB's development mission. The ADB Social Protection Strategy and its Action Plan commits ADB to comply with these labor standards, and guides ADB operations to good labor and social protection practices. The recommendations from this regional workshop have given us further ideas on how to keep improving our work.

To start, the regional findings provide us with additional justification about the importance of respecting labor standards.

(i) There are significant economic and social benefits coming from promoting good working conditions. (ii) Labor standards are also a governance issue. Enforcing good governance is a strategic objective of the ADB, and enforcing labor standards is a good corporate responsible practice.

As child labor is prevalent in the region, the findings on the regional presentation on child labor prove very useful. I take note the recommendations including:

1. mainstreaming the child labor issue in economic development strategies;
2. incorporating child labor programs in social protection and poverty reduction programs;
3. raising awareness and cooperation of key stakeholders; and
4. emphasizing the importance of institutions and governance structures.

Discrimination at the workplace for reasons of gender, race, caste, age, among others, also requires our attention. Thus, the recommendations to development agencies, and national governments as outlined are important for all of us to consider, to enhanced our earlier work on Gender and Development.

From the regional presentation on occupational health and safety (OSH), areas such as national policy, legislation, statistics, and inspectorate, pose problems for the DMCs. Reducing the number of occupational accidents and diseases is very important for the development of the region. In dealing with this, some of the recommendations of this workshop include:

1. Strengthening of national laws.
2. Raising public awareness and improve capacity building.
3. Strengthening national enforcement systems.

As mentioned before, since the approval of the ADB Social Protection Strategy last year, ADB is starting to incorporate labor standards concerns at country programming, project design and implementation. Also, ADB has developed labor market projects over the years. I have found some of the recommendations very useful to assist us to improve our work, such as:

1. Strengthening our work in country strategies.
2. Building capacity among staff and executing agencies in committed developing countries.
3. Working together with stakeholders and other institutions - as we have being doing with the ILO, not only in this occasion, but signing a Memorandum of Understanding between ILO and ADB this year.

For Governments, improved labor standards are important for broad based development. Child labor is not only a consequence of poverty but also a cause of poverty; it deprives children of their childhood and the right to study and become better productive adults. Despite being a short-term benefit to families or firms, it results in lower skills formation, stunted growth, a high tax on future economic development, and lowers the country's future productivity. The same applies about discrimination at the work place, or lack of occupational safety - they result in important long-term development losses for DMCs. Government's commitment to labor standards is essential to ensure social and economic progress in the region.

The recommendations of this workshop do not apply only to governments and development institutions. You listened this morning how important is to bring private sector into the picture. The wider aim of social responsibility is to create higher standards of living for those both within and outside the corporation while preserving the profitability of the corporation.

The discussion on social accountability and corporate social responsibility has likewise been very helpful in moving forward the labor standards agenda. Social accountability, as the bedrock of good corporate ethics facilitates the development, implementation and maintenance of policies covering issues such as child and forced labor, health and safety, working hours, compensation, discrimination and freedom of association. Successful implementation will depend on:

1. public awareness and support,
2. multi-stakeholder participation,
3. sustained commitment of different sectors, and
4. better addressed cultural and national concerns.

These are among the many ideas that have come forward during the past two days. You have given examples of good practices where the ADB, ILO, and other development institutions and the governments should focus their efforts on ensuring compliance of labor standards. A good assessment of compliance will definitely help us at ADB to refine our assistance to DMCs.

In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to state that ADB firmly believes that promoting employment, adequate working conditions, investing in human capital, and reducing vulnerability of people at risk, is the best way to assist countries to develop their human potential, reduce poverty and achieve sustainable growth.

Thank you all, for participating in this important meeting and sharing your experiences and ideas. I hope that you will all continue to reflect upon the discussions and commitment we made to focus our efforts to reduce poverty while seeking means to eliminate child labor, prevent the discrimination of women, and reduce, or even remove occupational safety and health hazards.

Thank you very much.