ILO, World Bank create new, comprehensive database

Listing and examining policy responses taken by 77 countries:

The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank (WB) have created a comprehensive new database that for the first time lists and examines the policy responses taken by 77 countries since the start of the financial and economic crisis.

The information contained in the database was collected over a two-year period (mid-2008 to end-2010) and comprises 55 low-income and middle-income countries and 22 high-income countries. In Asia Pacific, these include Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam.

It is organized around seven categories: macroeconomic policies; measures to increase labour demand; active labour market policies; unemployment benefits; social protection measures; social dialogue and labour standards. The web-based policy inventory has been built as a user-focused platform to facilitate interaction between interested stakeholders, including ministries, social partners, the private sector, implementing agencies, private corporate partnerships, individuals, and NGOs.

The genesis of the database was the G20 summit in London in April 2009, in which the ILO was asked to "work with other relevant organizations, to assess the actions taken and those required for the future". Earlier that year the ILO adopted a "Global Jobs Pact" including a portfolio of suggested policies aimed at reducing the lag time between economic and employment recovery. In early 2010, the ILO and the World Bank decided to conduct a joint survey of policy responses to the crisis, based on the structure of the Global Jobs Pact. This database is the result of that collaboration.

Using this database, the ILO and the WB will be issuing a "Joint Synthesis report" which offers early policy insights, to indentify effective approaches to maintain and promote employment during times of crisis. The report is expected to be issued later today, in Geneva.

The database and report were enabled by financial support provided by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), for the ILO, and by the Multi-donor Trust Fund on "Labour Markets, Job Creation, and Economic Growth" with funding from Austria, Germany, Korea, Norway, and Switzerland for the World Bank. ILO News