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OAS, ILO and ISCOD Join Efforts to Promote Gender-Sensitive Labor Migration Policies

The Organization of American States (OAS), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the “Instituto Sindical de Cooperación para el Desarrollo” or ISCOD have launched in San Jose, Costa Rica, a project to promote the adoption and implementation of gender-sensitive labor migration policies.

The launch was held during the First Tripartite Meeting: “Gender-Sensitive Labor Migration Policies,” with the participation of Sandra Piszk, Minister of Labor of Costa Rica; Philippe Jacques, Senior Advisor of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) and Responsible for Cooperation of the EU with Costa Rica and Panama; María José Chamorro, Gender Specialist of the ILO; Gloria de Pascual, Director of the MIGRANT Department at the ILO; Araceli Azuara, Coordinator of the Migration Program of the OAS Department of Social Development and Employment; and Almudena González, regional representative for Central America and the Caribbean of ISCOD-UGT. Also present were representatives of the governments, labor unions and associations of entrepreneurs from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Dominican Republic.

During the length of the meeting, issues were analyzed such as intraregional labor migratory flows; protection strategies for migrant workers, including indigenous populations, in labor migration policies and their practical application through bi-national or regional agreements; labor mobility initiatives, with particular attention to poor migration to agriculture, agricultural industries, domestic work, construction and the services sector; and social protection of migrant workers.

Araceli Azuara, Coordinator of the OAS Migration Program, recalled that the hemispheric organization “promotes the adoption and implementation of public policies and legislation on gender-sensitive labor migration, with the objective of improving the regulation of the flow of labor migration, in agreement with social interlocutors and achieving recommendations that allow for progress towards more just and equal conditions for women of the region.”

"The meeting served to analyze in depth—with governments, workers’ representatives and employers—issues such as protection of migrants, the recognition and valuation of their training, and how to improve their access to social security,” said María José Chamorro, Gender Specialist on the ILO’s Decent Work Technical Team for Central America, Haiti, Panama and Dominican Republic. Chamorro added that the objective is “to make tripartite progress on the decent work agenda.”

Philippe Jacques, Senior Advisor of the Delegation of the European Union, which sponsored the project, asserted that “sectors such as agricultural production and construction could not fully develop without the efforts of both female and male migrant workers. Similarly, domestic work is part of a chain of care and security that allows families in destination countries to enjoy tranquility in the home and outside of it. Certainly, many of the facets of development in Central America and the Caribbean have male and female migrant workers as protagonists.”

A gallery of photos of the event will be available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-040/12