WORLD COMMISSION ON THE SOCIAL DIMENSION OF GLOBALISATION

Chairperson: Advocate Rams Ramashia - Government

Speakers: Tayo Fashoyin - ILO
               Lord Brett - ILO
               Zwelinzima Vavi - Labour

Respondents:
Business: Vic van Vuuren
Labour: Ebrahim Patel

Rapporteurs: Tsholo Lelaka and Refilwe Mosuwe 

1. Welcome and opening

The chairperson opened the commission and welcomed all present.
He indicated the theme of the Commission and introduced Speakers and the Respondents.

2. Summary of issues raised by Tayo Fashoyin

2.1. The Commission met in May to prepare for a national and regional dialogue. The dialogues started in August and have been held in Tanzania, Senegal, Uganda and South Africa. The last dialogue will be in Egypt towards end November 2002.

2.2. In February 2003 there will be a continental dialogue that will bring participants from all parts of Africa to discuss the regional continental context.

2.3. The purpose is to give an opportunity to key actors including Government, Business, Labour, Community, International and Regional organisations to interact and share ideas on how globalisation can be inclusive and beneficial to nations.

3. Summary of issues raised by Bill (Lord) Brett

3.1. The commission consists of twenty five commissioners that include Labour, Business, economists, former Presidents and Presidents.

3.2. The Commission has to submit a report by 2003. The report will be submitted to the United Nations and possibly get a recommendation from the G8 group of countries.

3.3. The key issue in the dialogue is the view of globalisation by stakeholders.

3.4. The commission was created by the ILO but it is independent from the ILO and has had meetings with head of WTO, head of World Bank, head of IMF.

3.5. The present system of globalisation is not sustainable unless it is seen to be delivering for people.

4. Summary of issues raised by Zwelinzima Vavi

4.1. The function of the commission is to debate the challenge of globalisation in terms of the human factor.

4.2. Globalisation takes place in a particular context: Increasing levels of income inequality within nations and between nations; continued destruction of quality employment and replacement by indecent jobs; the need for poverty alleviation and distribution of wealth.

4.3. The commission enables constituencies to interact directly with commissioners to enable them to consolidate ideas of ordinary people in the report. They will provide a practical solution to problems people are facing around globalisation.

4.4. Globalisation covers all aspects of society. The free market is the dominant factor politically and economically. We need minimum standards and basic protection. Workers are vulnerable and need protection and the environment needs protection. Globalisation should create a floor of protection for human kind.

5. Response by Vic van Vuuren

5.1. The Business constituency has subscribed to the principle as part of the debate at the International Organisation of Employers (IOE).

5.2. Themes debated at the IOE are as follows:

5.2.1. Values and goals in the context of globalisation should not be inconsistent with culture, religion and history. The market economy should be accepted as a principle.

5.2.2. Good Governance is an essential requirement for successful integration with the global economy and for an equitable sharing of its benefits. The good governance deficit significantly contributes to the absence of appropriate policies, institutions, actions and investment. Many of the countries excluded from the globalisation process are those who are poorly governed.

5.2.3 Enterprise Development - A key to benefiting from globalisation is enterprise creation because it helps excluded countries to gain entry into international markets and to be suppliers to international production networks. It helps countries to develop comparative advantages in more value- dded activities. Aspects to be included are the rule of law and a legal system which secures contract enforcement, credit institutions equal access to market and market information, productive physical and public investment and efficient and corrupt-free bureaucracy.

5.2.4. The legal and policy environment should be conducive to business start-ups, enterprise development and growth, education and skills development for enterprise, growth and job creation.

5.2.5. Employment Policy - inclusive globalisation at a national level requires an employment policy and the components should include the following:

1. the requisite macro-economic environment
2. Productive Public Expenditure
3. Conditions to attract foreign direct investment
4. SMMEs and Entrepreneurship Development Policies and Programmes
5. Youth Employment Policies and Strategies
6. Technological Development Policies and Strategies

5.3.6. International Policies there should be a balance between national policies and participation in the global arena. Policy advice sometimes compels a country to liberalise at a pace faster than its capacity.

5.3.7. Global Governance - the system should be facilitative and not restrictive otherwise it defeats the objects of inclusive globalisation. The system should be underpinned by a programme of international assistance to enable non-globalised countries to adjust to trade investment liberalisation, to strengthen domestic institutions to absorb capital flows, to develop technological capacity, to develop reform and strengthen relevant institutions.

6. Response by Ebrahim Patel

6.1. The commission report should be based on national experience. The commission should look at finding ways of promoting global collective bargaining.

6.2. Collective bargaining has played a crucial role within national economies. It has played a macro-economic role of ensuring a fairly equitable distribution of resources generated by economic growth. It has played a role in helping to manage micro economic reform and many collective agreements dealing with workplace change etc, ensuring that the workplace is a safe and healthy platform of growth.

6.3. We should seek to build a global consensus on the following:

• Preferential access as a principle for countries that observe fair labour standards should be entrenched in the global system;
• To empower the ILO machinery and give it the right to determine when there is serious violation and to kick in with the instruments that exist elsewhere in the global governance system; and
• Reform of Global Institutions - both the financial institutions and the WTO.

6.4. Regional Economic formations should have social charters entrenched in their founding documents. These should be based on international standards and they should be legally enforceable.

6.5. Systematic and Equitable sharing of resources - We should ensure environmentally friendly economic development.

6.6. There should be an appropriate global regulative framework on capital and finance flows. There should be an enforceable arrangement to ensure that investor action does not undermine social development goals.

7. Themes raised in the discussion

7.1. The issue of investing pension fund money as a lever for fair labour standards was discussed.

7.2. The issues of mentoring, women's role in the economy and bringing youth into the economic mainstream were discussed.

7.3. The issue of regional and global collective bargaining was further discussed, as labour and business have divergent views on this issue.

7.4. The role of the state in developing countries in regulating foreign investment was further discussed.