UN agencies team up to reduce refugee poverty

The United Nations refugee and labour agencies said today they would strengthen their cooperation on reducing poverty for refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) by implementing programmes dealing with skills and enterprise development, micro-finance and social protection.

"Accumulated experience has demonstrated the effectiveness of employment-oriented strategies for promoting sustainable livelihoods in bridging relief and development," the heads of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Director-General Juan Somavia, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Ruud Lubbers, said in a joint statement, as the ILO's Governing Council kicked off its 2004 session in Geneva.

Acknowledging that refugees and returnees can work on socioeconomic development either in their host countries or in their countries of origin, the partnership would also contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing extreme poverty.

With funding from Italy, the two agencies launched a joint programme to integrate refugees, returnees and IDPs at the end of last year.

Their current projects are located in Angola, Eritrea, Mozambique, Serbia and Montenegro, Somalia, southern Sudan and Uganda, with plans in place to send experts soon to Benin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ghana and the northern Caucasus region.

The ILO Governing Council of government, employer and worker representatives will debate labour rights, partnerships and fair globalization through 19 November.