Annan to address Global Employment Forum in Geneva next week

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will head to Geneva next week to address the Global Employment Forum, a conference on creating decent work in the 21st century sponsored by the International Labour Organization (ILO), Mr. Annan's spokesman announced today.

The three-day Forum aims to give priority to decent employment in national and global policies, and to provide policy options to deal with 500 million additional members of the global work force over the next decade, according to ILO. It is also designed to build a platform for strategic alliances among UN agencies to ensure an integrated approach to employment issues.

The Secretary-General will arrive in Geneva on Tuesday and address the Forum's opening on Thursday.

While in Geneva, Mr. Annan "will take the opportunity to meet with staff, as he's been doing here at Headquarters," said his spokesman, Fred Eckhard. The Secretary-General is expected to return to New York at the end of next week.