Mr. Adekunle King – Sierra Leone’s Minister of Labor and Social Security was among those who addressed the panel. He spoke about Sierra Leone’s experience with the ILO after its fifty-eight years membership, especially the country’s commitment to social justice.
Among other things he informed his audience that ever since Sierra Leone attained membership of the ILO some fifty-eight years ago, Sierra Leone has remained committed to achieving the goal of decent work for all despite recent challenges.
“Indeed by our resilience and commitment to the principles that underpin the ILO, Sierra Leone has adopted practical and normative measures sourced internationally and nationally to concretely work towards achieving the goal of ensuring decent work for all on or before the Agenda 2030 SDG 8 target,” the Labour Minister said.
He added that on action taken from the international normative level, Sierra Leone in February 2019 ratified 5 ILO conventions, namely Convention 97 on Migration for Employment, Convention 143 on Migrant Workers, Convention 155 on Occupational Safety, and Convention 187 on Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Recommendation and the Maritime Labor Convention.
He went on to say that Sierra Leone is working currently on ratifying six more conventions before the end of 2019 namely Convention 160 on Labor Statistics, Convention 181 on Private Employment Agencies, Convention 102 on Social Security Minimum Standards, Convention 189 Domestic Workers, Convention 150 on Labor Administration and Protocol 29 of 2014 to the first Labor Convention.
He further informed his audience that at the national operative level, Sierra Leone is hard at work in the implementation of the international conventions and activities that meet some of the tenets of the future of decent work.
He said the Government of Sierra Leone’s flagship program, free quality education is geared towards building a nation and workforce that is adaptable and resourceful to take advantage of future opportunities and meet the challenges as well.