Annual General Meeting of the SIYB Association of Sri Lanka 4 th September Address by Tine Staermose Director ILO Office Colombo

Transcription

1 Annual General Meeting of the SIYB Association of Sri Lanka 4 th September 2008 Address by Tine Staermose Director ILO Office Colombo Good Morning, It is a great pleasure for me to be here this morning addressing you on behalf of the International Labour Organization on the occasion of the Annual General Meeting of the Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) Association. SIYB is an initiative that the ILO has been involved in for many years not only here in Sri Lanka, but also regionally and globally. Being the successor to ILO's Enter- Growth project, the SIYB Association in Sri Lanka has been in operation with the objective of strengthening local business development service (BDS) providers to deliver business management training that will make it possible for micro and smallscale entrepreneurs to start and improve their businesses thereby creating sustainable jobs for themselves and others, as a strategy for creating more and better quality employment. So, what has the SIYB Association meant to the creation of jobs and reduction of poverty in Sri Lanka during the last five years? Micro and small enterprises, after agriculture, are the main employer in the country and the fastest growing one. They are vital to local economic development, which creates jobs and reduces poverty. The Business Development Services market in Sri Lanka has experienced rapid expansion over the last years. At the same time, 1

2 thousands of micro and small enterprises, especially in the rural areas, are not aware of how business development services can help them. This is where the SIYB Association steps in and focuses on nurturing the enterprise spirit among men and women, with a vision of creating a competitive market for business development services. After having read your annual report, I am very confident that the Association continues to be successful to a great extent in achieving that vision. The number of BDS providers partnering with SIYB Association to provide SIYB training has risen to 47 in the past year. The partners activity rate has also increased. Although a small drop in the number of participants for SIYB training can be noted, the year's performance is still very good. Through the expansion of its outreach to neighbouring countries such as India and also through conducting training modules in English, Sinhala and Tamil, the SIYB Association has strived to create an entrepreneurial culture both at home and abroad. I believe that the Association has made its mark as a strong and effective SIYB training provider in Sri Lanka. The general notion is that entrepreneurship cannot be taught through textbooks. It is something that goes beyond the classroom to include real world involvement and capacity-building. For a trainee, the much anticipated end result of such training is obtaining a job. However, a job is not just a job. That's why we today again and again hear people talk about decent work. This reflects the belief that we need to promote quality 2

3 employment opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work but not alone, the environment, the conditions also have to be right. In the words of Juan Somavia, Director General of the ILO, the Decent Work Agenda was developed at the ILO by governments, employers and workers representatives. It has a strong foundation in values, in particular fundamental principles and rights at work. But rights at work are not of much use if you do not have work. Our agenda is thus also a sustainable development agenda; an investment and enterprise creation agenda; and a poverty eradication agenda. For most people the main route out of poverty is a decent job. The goal of decent work is best expressed through the eyes of people. It is about their job and future prospects; about their working conditions; about balancing work and family life, putting kids through school or getting them out of child labour. It is about gender equality, equal recognition, and enabling women to make choices and take control of their lives. It is about our personal abilities to compete in the market place, keep up with new technological skills and remain healthy. It is about developing our entrepreneurial skills, about receiving a fair share of the wealth that we have helped to create and not being discriminated against; it is about having a voice in our workplaces and in our communities. In the most extreme situations it is about moving from subsistence to existence. For many, it is the primary route out of poverty. For many more, it is about realizing personal aspirations in their daily existence and about solidarity with others. And everywhere, and for everybody, decent work is about securing human dignity. 3

4 In a nutshell, Decent Work is the heart of social progress. It consists of four pillars, employment creation, basic rights in the world of work, social protection and social dialogue. The primary goal is to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. We promote it through programmes such as SIYB, through a wide variety of skill training programmes, through small credit programmes, through promoting productive cooperatives, just to mention a few. I suspect that by now, many of you will be thinking, What does all this have to do with us? We are talking about starting up a business, about training partners to train people who want to become entrepreneurs. These people will be self-employed. So, decent work has nothing to do with this". I hope to convince you that it is very important to apply the concept of decent work in self-employment too. It is important that the basic principles of decent work are fully and visibly integrated into future SIYB training modules, so that the trainees mainstream decent work practices at work. In closing, I would like to say that the ILO appreciates the valuable contribution made by the SIYB Association in supporting activities to empower men and women through training and enterprise development. I believe the SIYB approach can be one of the answers to the economic empowerment of many Sri Lankans. The role of international organizations is always limited and assistance is only meant to kick-start, support and facilitates sustainable development, be it at the local or national levels. The SIYB Association has been an impetus in continuing what we gave birth to. You 4

5 have our full support and we stand ready to provide you with technical assistance in areas related to the mandate of the ILO and in the implementation of the decent work agenda within your Association's future endeavours. Thank you very much for listening. 5