The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) have created a new joint framework to develop areas of common interest, including the launch of a number of…
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) have created a new joint framework to develop areas of common interest, including the launch of a number of pilot projects.
The agreement, which covers subjects ranging from developing tourism as a sector with high growth job potential to promoting educational standards, was reached following a series of meetings between the two organizations held at the ILO headquarters in Geneva in July.
“As tourism is a leading industry in providing work opportunities worldwide, this new accord is a very important step forward for both organizations,” said Eduardo Fayos Sola, UNWTO Head of Education and Knowledge Management (UNWTO.EKM).
“Both UNWTO and ILO are specialized agencies of the United Nations and as such we see the need to develop a good form of governance. This new framework will help in enabling us to interact better with civil society and the private sector.”
The agreement is based on three main areas of co-operation – statistics, entrepreneurship and community tourism, and ethics and quality – and will include pilot schemes to be developed between the EKM department and those at ILO covering employability, job creation and enterprise development, sectorial activities and analysis.
Among the areas of interest to be developed will be working with indigenous communities through programmes such as UNWTO’s ST-EP (Sustainable Tourism – Eliminating Poverty) initiative, improving Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with multinational groups, and institutional reinforcement in developing countries.
The two organizations will also be looking at developing a range of instruments to aid their work, including a UNWTO Tourism Labour Market Observatory to monitor the needs and gaps in the industry.
Other tools will include mechanisms for joint fund raising from public and private donors; private-public partnerships; and ILO participation in various UNWTO initiatives such as UNWTO.Tedqual and UNWTO.Sbest certification, the Organization’s Affiliate Members group with its private sector membership, and the Tourism Policy Forum.
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