Action areas
The 2021-2024 Action Plan was tabled by IALI members for discussion at the IALI General Assembly on 15 Jul 2021. It continues the 6 key Action Areas and their Strategic Objectives defined originally in the 2008 – 2011 to reflect IALI’s key roles as an international association.
The 6 existing Action Areas and their Strategic Objectives for IALI are:
IALI as the professional association - Objective: To provide the professional foundation for building strong, modernised and effective labour inspection worldwide.
IALI as influencer - Objective: To promote the profession and interests of labour inspection through development of spheres of influence.
IALI as partner - Objective: To build IALI's participation in both formal and informal partnerships and alliances with related organisations and in specific projects to promote decent work around the world.
IALI as catalyst - Objective: To act as a catalyst for the development of regional cooperation in labour inspection.
IALI as facilitator and communicator - Objective: To provide information for members and to facilitate member initiatives to improve their labour inspection service.
IALI as source of technical expertise - Objective: To provide a resource for accessing technical expertise in labour inspection.
The IALI Action Plan for the Future was first developed in 2008 and provides a strategic blueprint to guide IALI’s specific work for each triennium towards achieving long-term and ongoing objectives. Each role or Action Area has a Strategic Objective and a more detailed Description of the role and purpose of that area of work can be found in Annex A.
In practice, many of these roles are interdependent and specific activities carried out by IALI may impact on more than one. Additionally, the work of IALI to deliver these roles in any triennium will be a mixture of Ongoing Tasks and activities (which effectively roll on over time) and Specific Tasks and deliverables for that Triennium. Both types of work being progressed and delivered as time and resources allow.
This proposed Action Plan is put forward by the current Executive Committee based on:
its reflections of progress made over the last four years in delivering the previous Action Plan.
issues identified over that period that need further work actions necessary to build on what has been delivered in 2017 – 2020; and
responding to wider developments and opportunities that have emerged in the last four years
new formal, informal, direct, and personal contacts developed during the last four years.
Regional Cooperation – a key theme
Together with host countries, since 2005 we have run the first and second IALI conferences in Asia (Macao and Beijing), the first IALI conference in North America (Toronto), the first IALI conference in the Pacific region (Adelaide), and conferences in Lisbon, Banja Luka and Azerbaijan. Many other joint IALI conferences throughout the world now feature regularly on IALI’s calendar (eg countries of the Baltic, SE Europe, North Africa, Dusseldorf, China and Vietnam).
IALI’s strategic focus for the last 6 years has been on developing alliances through regional cooperation and IALI has built its role as a catalyst for the development of regional cooperation agreements resulting in, since 2008, formal arrangements including the Sofia Agreement 2008, uniting South East Europe, Azerbaijan and Ukraine; the North African Alliance of Labour Inspectors 2010, uniting the Maghreb countries of Africa; the Halong Bay Recommendation 2010, on cooperation in Labour Inspection throughout ASEAN countries; and the Moscow Declaration 2011, uniting the CIS countries of Eastern Europe and Mongolia.
Integrity and Professionalism – a key theme
Building a professional foundation for Labour Inspection through development and implementation of IALI’s Global Code of Integrity; and promoting influence through demonstrating and measuring the effectiveness of Labour Inspection activities are IALI’s two other current key priorities.
Our pledge at the 2008 General Assembly to promulgate the then newly approved Global Code of Integrity for Labour inspection has resulted in extensive activities aimed at implementing codes of integrity locally in many countries. IALI members have taken the initiative to arrange translation of our Code into 11 languages with more to come.
The Code is intended to provide a framework designed to stimulate each country to discuss and adopt its own code reflecting these common principles and suited to local conditions. Some inspectorates have chosen to implement the Code directly and have already required their inspectorate to work according to its principles as well as acting on their commitment to ensure the necessary conditions are in place to provide an environment that is conducive to ethical work practices.
By implementing this Code, countries will be committing their Labour Inspectorates to the dynamic development of principles which reflect integrity and professional and ethical behaviour. The Code will become a platform for leadership at the highest level and determine employee conduct throughout the organisation. Of particular interest to members worldwide will be reports of experiences, strategies and solutions for overcoming obstacles to implementation of the principles of the Code; and this core work is destined to occupy our thoughts and deliberations for many years to come.
IALI has completed two key underpinning documents for professional labour inspection: A set of common principles of operation for labour inspectorates and work on measurement tools and evaluation methods for labour inspection.
