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The International Labour Organization (ILO) is the specialized agency of the United Nations dealing specifically with labour issues. It promotes the development of independent employers’ and workers’ organizations and provides training and advisory services to those organizations and through them to their members. Within the UN system, the ILO has a unique tripartite structure with workers and employers participating as equal partners with governments in the organization’s governance. The ILO seeks to improve working conditions, create employment, and provide information and training opportunities to ensure workers and employers know their rights and responsibilities in the workplace. With these goals in mind, the ILO’s Factory Improvement Programme was created to demonstrate the potential of strengthened workplace cooperation and communications for achieving productivity, quality and thus increased competitiveness. It does this by building the capacity of local institutions to help factories introduce supportive systems and the managerial competencies that lead to productive, competitive and viable operations based on both good management and good labour practices. 
The ILO's Job Creation and Enterprise Development Programme (ENTERPRISE) is dedicated to unlocking the enormous potential of enterprises to create decent, long-lasting jobs. Decent work can only exist in competitive, productive, and economically viable firms. The programme seeks to enhance the positive interaction that exists between the improved competencies of managers, basic workers' rights and productivity. The aim of this programme is to assist governments, employers, workers and other groups concerned with job creation and enterprise development. Among the programme's specific objectives, several are addressed by the FIP such as: • Identify and implement policies and legal frameworks that foster competitive and economically viable small enterprises and cooperatives. • Encourage management practices which:
• Foster economic opportunities for women as entrepreneurs, employees and members • Improve market opportunities for micro and small enterprises. • Design, develop and implement strategies to enhance the competitiveness and productivity of micro, small and cooperative enterprises. • Improve the access to business development and training services for micro and small enterprises and cooperative enterprises. • Strengthen association building, workers' cooperatives, indigenous peoples, and self-help organisations to generate quality employment particularly within the informal economy. • Promote decent employment through local economic development programmes. Project Donors 
The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco) is the Confederation's competence centre for all core issues relating to economic policy. Seco's aim is to create the basic regulatory and economic policy conditions to enable business to flourish for the benefit of all. In terms of domestic policy, seco acts as an interface between business, social partners and economic policy. It supports the regionally and structurally balanced development of the economy and ensures the protection of employees. Seco contributes to the prevention and tackling of unemployment and thereby to the upholding of social peace. A further concern for seco is to provide support for competitive conditions for Switzerland as a location for business. Seco also helps to assure access to all markets for Swiss goods and services. In terms of foreign trade policy, seco is active in the shaping of efficient, fair and transparent rules for the world economy. Seco represents Switzerland in the large multilateral trade organisations as well as in international negotiations. Switzerland's relations to the European Union and to the European Free Trade Association are coordinated by the Integration Office, a joint office to the DFA and the DEA. Seco is also involved in efforts to reduce poverty in the form of economic development assistance. 
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) fosters and promotes the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States by improving their working conditions, advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, protecting their retirement and health care benefits, helping employers find workers, strengthening free collective bargaining, and tracking changes in employment, prices, and other national economic measurements. In carrying out this mission, the Department administers a variety of Federal labour laws including those that guarantee workers’ rights to safe and healthful working conditions; a minimum hourly wage and overtime pay; freedom from employment discrimination; unemployment insurance; and other income support. Within the Department of Labor, the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) carries out the international responsibilities of the Department under the direction of the Deputy Under Secretary for International Labor Affairs. ILAB conducts research on and formulates international economic, trade, immigration, and labor policies in collaboration with other U.S. Government agencies and provides international technical assistance in support of U.S. foreign labour policy objectives. ILAB is working together with other U.S. Government agencies to create a more stable, secure, and prosperous international economic system in which all workers can achieve greater economic security, share in the benefits of increased international trade, and have safer and healthier workplaces where the basic rights of workers and children are respected and protected. For more details, consult the following websites: • ENTERPRISE – Click here • Seco – Click here • US Department of Labor – Click here | ||||
