Labour and Human Resource Development Minister Idith Alexander addresses the 105th session of the International Labour Conference, Geneva |11 June 2016

‘Ending poverty should be a shared responsibility’

Ending poverty should be a shared responsibility of all actors involved in the economy, Minister Idith Alexander has said.

She was speaking at the 105th session of the international labour conference organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland from May 30 to June 11, 2016.

The minister responsible for labour and human resource development led a tripartite delegation from Seychelles to the conference and she delivered her speech on Wednesday June 8 and it was in relation to the report of ILO director general Guy Ryder entitled ‘The End to Poverty Initiative – The ILO and the 2030 Agenda’.

In her intervention, Minister Alexander stated that living in poverty in Seychelles is not an option as the government continuously places its people at the heart of development and it remains committed to uphold their standard of living.

“We are indeed a country where our people benefit from free education, free health care, generous social welfare programmes, guaranteed pension and low unemployment rate. We have since last year been ranked as a high income country by the World Bank. For those considered as vulnerable, the government consults and listens to their concerns. Recently, the national minimum wage was increased by 25%, a mandatory thirteenth month pay will soon be regulated by law, a new wage subsidy programme is being implemented for the youths and a revised skills development programme was launched,” explained Minister Alexander.

The minister also noted that ending poverty should be a shared responsibility of all actors involved in the economy and in this regard recommended for public and private partnerships. She also encouraged countries to conduct national dialogues on the ‘Future of work’, of which Seychelles was the first to implement in the region.

Finally, the minister called on the technical support of the ILO for a better understanding of poverty: “in-depth research is required to effectively tackle poverty given the transformations in today’s world of work. Poverty is mainly known to occur as a result of war or political instability. But nowadays, it can also be a result of discouraged jobseekers and people’s unwillingness to use available opportunities,” explained the minister.

Minister Alexander also met the Minister of Labour, Industrial Relations, Employment and Training of Mauritius, Soodesh Satkam Callichurn, and the Minister for Manpower of Singapore Swee Say Lim, where they discussed potential areas of future technical cooperation.

A meeting was equally held with the ILO regional director for Africa, Aenaes Chapinga Chuma, in regards to the recommendations of the national conference on ‘Future of work’ organised by Seychelles in April this year.

Minister Alexander was accompanied to the ILO conference by her principal secretary Veronique Bresson, Susan Morel, director policy planning and research in the ministry, Michelle Labrosse, executive secretary of the Federation of the Employers’ Association of Seychelles, and Antoine Robinson, secretary general of the Seychelles Federation of Workers’ Union.