On March 8^th, the Government of Mexico chaired the second annual meeting of the Advisory Committee of the ILO Fair Recruitment Initiative. This year, Committee membership was expanded to include representatives of the government of the Philippines and the EU, who participated alongside representatives of the governments of Bangladesh, Kenya, Mexico, Qatar, and Tunisia, as well as the IOE, ITUC and SDC. The US Department of Labour joined in an observer capacity.  Participants reaffirmed their commitment to pushing the FRI agenda forward at national, regional and global levels, and identified key actions to accelerate and amplify its impact.

Members of the tripartite Advisory Committee, currently under the joint chairpersonship of the governments of Italy and Mexico for the 2022-2023 biennium, reaffirmed the importance of strategic workstreams of the Fair Recruitment Initiative (FRI), including on strengthening labour inspection, improving access to justice, promoting private sector engagement and empowering workers through greater transparency in recruitment. They called for a need to scale up work in these areas, as well as in supporting countries to develop a national roadmap on fair recruitment and mainstreaming gender issues into fair recruitment work.  

In their role of advisor to the FRI, Members reviewed progress on the FRI workplan and shared their experiences in implementing and promoting fair recruitment practices on the ground. Common areas of work across countries over the past year included integrating fair recruitment issues into bilateral labour agreements, reinforcing regulations on recruitment, strengthening collaboration with the private sector, and the digitalization of recruitment procedures.  The Government of Mexico announced its intention to host the 2023 edition of the ITC-ILO Fair Recruitment annual course,

Representatives of the IOE and ITUC, vice-chairs of the Advisory Committee, also shared recent and ongoing work to support fair recruitment. The IOE announced the forthcoming launches of Employers’ guides on fostering labour migration governance in Latin America and in the Caribbean. The ITUC continues to expand the implementation of the Migrant Recruitment Advisor in additional countries in Central America, Africa and Asia. ITUC also proposed to co-host a global tripartite event on Advancing Fair Recruitment to ensure Decent Work.

The Advisory Committee will meet again next year to review progress, provide advice on priorities and areas for action, as well as corrective measures to achieve targets in implementing the Fair Recruitment Initiative.