The Contribution of Decent Work to a Culture of Peace

The culture of peace concept is premised on the assumption that “it is in the minds of men and women that wars and armed conflicts begin. It is, therefore, in the minds of men and women that lasting peace must be built”. Lasting peace, however, depends on a wide range of measures. Critical among them is access to decent work. It helps to re-orient people’s minds from conflict and destructive activities to constructive thinking. It improves their material welfare and reduces poverty, social exclusion and disintegration, which are often some of the structural root causes, as well as the adverse impacts of armed conflicts.

Such productive activities also provide human security, a channel for social healing and a means for reducing the plight of the diverse conflict-affected vulnerable groups. They constitute an integral part of the enabling environment for socio-economic revival and stability of post-conflict communities. Unfortunately, conflict prevention, resolution, peace building and post-conflict reconstruction programmes and agreements continue to give inadequate attention to decent work promotion.

Promoting the socio-economic integration and improved material welfare of the diverse conflict-affected groups through enhancing their access to decent work can play a major role in the operationalization and institutionalization of a culture of peace. Since the ILO is the only international organization with a mandate in the employment promotion field, it has a major contribution to make in promoting a culture of peace. It can ensure that the aims of promoting decent work for men and women, social dialogue, equity and social justice are systematically factored into the post-conflict peace-building, reintegration, reconstruction and economic recovery process.

Additionally, the ILO is better placed now to play this role since it currently has a major global programme - the InFocus Programme on Crisis Response and Reconstruction. The Programme provides the Organization with an opportunity to pursue this issue in a systematic and comprehensive way through the Programme’s country-level programme formulation and implementation activities, research and tools development, advocacy and capacity-building interventions.

Source:

https://escarpmentpress.org/globallabour/article/viewFile/2327/2424

http://www.iaw.edu/index.php/project-detail/kultur-der-guten-arbeit-bildungs-und-sozialsiegel-zur-kulturellen-verankerung-von-arbeits-und-lebensqualitaet-machbarkeitsstudie