It was a parachute drop that turned into an explosion in midair. The former Prime Minister of Togo, Gilbert Houngbo, was elected this Friday to the general management of the International Labor Organization (ILO) with 30 votes against 23 for the former Minister of Labor of Emmanuel Macron. He will take office at the beginning of October, succeeding former British trade unionist Guy Ryder, in office for 10 years and who has reached the two-term limit.
Five candidates were in the running for this election. The main opponent of Gilbert Houngbo was therefore the French supported by Paris and the European bloc. A “inappropriate government proposal” did we write in Release. But the Minister of Labor from May 2017 to July 2020, who initiated the major social and contested reforms of Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term, such as those of the Labor Code or unemployment insurance, failed.
The decisions taken by Pénicaud seemed to contradict the mission given to the organization: “The ILO is dedicated to promoting social justice, human rights and internationally recognized labor rights, pursuing its founding mission: to work for the social justice that is essential for lasting and universal peace.” The announcement of his candidacy had also been strongly criticized by the unions. A few minutes only after the announcement of its defeat, the CGT Ministry of Labor has moreover tweeted: “Mr. Penicaud is largely beaten and it does not take the head of the ILO! This is good news for the workers whose rights she has trampled on and for the labor inspectors whom she has sought to muzzle!”
“Bringing new momentum to the ILO”
The winner, Gilbert Houngbo, becomes the first African to be elected head of the ILO. Born in a rural prefecture in Togo, he has spent most of his career in international organizations, where he is seen as a seasoned senior civil servant. Houngbo, 61, currently chairs the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome. But he knows the ILO very well, where he held the position of Deputy Director (2013-2017) in charge of field operations. Former Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Director of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), he was also a member of the strategic team and administrative and financial director of the organization.
In his candidacy, he stressed that his vision for the ILO is inspired by the preamble of the organization’s Constitution: “Whereas a universal and lasting peace can only be founded on the basis of social justice”. “The progress made in recent decades in social justice must be preserved and protected, and global solutions to new challenges and opportunities must be centered on human, environmental, economic and societal values. In short, a new global social contract is needed,” he had written. “If elected, I intend to breathe new life into the ILO, reposition it at the heart of the global social architecture and mitigate the risk of its stature eroding. For this, I propose an ambitious global program of social justice”, he added.
The ILO never led by a woman
The next head of the ILO will have the heavy task of adapting the standards of this century-old organization to a labor market in full mutation under the effect of new technologies. Especially since the Covid-19 pandemic has given a boost to teleworking technologies which make it possible to abolish geographical barriers and work as a team remotely.
Born in the aftermath of the Great War in 1919, the ILO has so far never been led by a woman, nor by a representative from Africa or Asia. The five candidates had to convince the representatives of the governments, but also those of the employers and the trade unions, the 187 Member States of the ILO being represented by the three branches. But only the 56 full members of the Governing Body, namely 28 government members, 14 employer members and 14 worker members, were able to vote. With a permanent seat, Russia was able to participate in the vote, despite the ILO’s decision this week to “temporarily suspend” its cooperation with Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine.