Ministry of Labour
Friday May 10, 2019
The UN agency labour, International Labour Organisation (ILO), and the Italian Government signed a new cooperation agreement to promote decent employment, peace and resilience in building the capacity of trade unions in collaboration with the Federation of Somali Trade Unions (FESTU). The agreement was signed by Mr. Carlo Campanile, Italian Ambassador to Somalia, and Mr. Alexio Musindo, ILO Country Director for Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan and South Sudan who was represented by Head of ILO Somalia Office Mr. Saad Gilani.
The Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of Somali Federal Government Hon. Sadik Warfa and Head of Italian Cooperation Agency for Somalia Mr. Guglielmo Giordano witnessed the signing of this cooperation agreement which is distinctively designed to support the trade unions with necessary technical skills and systems to strengthen their capacity development and start social dialogue on key labour-related issues.
Minister Warfa stated that the government is strongly committed to providing decent job opportunities to unemployed and underemployed Somalis through the development of job- rich recovery programs, noting that the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs exerts efforts with its development partners to empower workers of Somalia and develop their skills to improve standards of living and positively contribute to developing the society and economy.
Ambassador Campanille said “I’m proud that we are launching a new scope of cooperation between Italy and Somalia through which some key challenges facing workers and their organisations can be tackled. We will work in collaboration with the ILO and FESTU to strengthen trade union capacity, improve workers’ rights and increase job opportunities available to young people of Somalia”.
From his side Mr. Gilani stated that this new partnership is in line with the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda on strengthening institutional capacity of workers' organizations. This project, he said, aims to create conducive environment for trade unions to operate and enhance their capacity to make policy engagements to expressively contribute to national development agenda.
Meanwhile, Mr. Giordano emphasized that the purpose of the project is to support capacity development of trade unions and strengthening relations between ILO tripartite constituents through promotion of social peace and enhancing the performance of unions to provide relevant services and representation to the workers.
“This strategic support is appreciated at a time when Somalia and its tripartite constituents need to engage in a meaningful social dialogue to embrace social peace and to ensure national collective efforts for social justice. As accredited workers’ organisation, we will ensure that labour unions play their roles effectively in order to realise domestication of international labour standards, capacitation of workers, and social dialogue becomes entrenched,” said FESTU general secretary Omar Faruk Osman.
Italy is a leading donor country in supporting labour sector development through several UN agencies such as UNIDO, WFP, ILO, UNICEF and UNDP.