International Labour Organisation

Lord Chidgey Excerpts
Tuesday 5th April 2011

(13 years, 10 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Verma Portrait Baroness Verma
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My Lords, the United Kingdom, led by the Department for Work and Pensions, remains a fully paid-up member of the ILO governing body. We will continue to engage proactively with the International Labour Organisation and we will pursue a range of reform-related issues, including the reform of the workings of the governing body and improving audit arrangements. All this will carry on, and the ILO, on a country-by-country, programme-by-programme, basis, is still able to apply to DfID for funding, as long as it has a provable business plan.

Lord Chidgey Portrait Lord Chidgey
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My Lords, what was the basis of the multilateral aid review’s findings on the effectiveness of the ILO as a development organisation, particularly as regards inputs to and impacts on the millennium development goals? What discussions are planned with the ILO in that regard on in-country funding and specific projects?

Baroness Verma Portrait Baroness Verma
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My noble friend is aware that the ILO has published a review of our decision. It found that while the multilateral aid review recognised the value of standard-setting and policy-making, unfortunately, it found no evidence that a difference was being made to poor people in developing countries.