ILO Governing Body Session
Makhtar Diop Remarks
Friday, March 17, 2023
Director General, Excellencies, colleagues, ladies, and gentlemen, I am thrilled to be here today to address the Governing Body of ILO.
This is a momentous occasion. It is the first time that the head of IFC is addressing the ILO Governing Body. And I am excited for the tremendous opportunity for our organizations to make a greater impact together. I would like to express my gratitude to Gilbert Houngbo, who extended this invitation during his recent visit to Washington — an invitation I accepted without hesitation.
So, what makes me so enthusiastic about addressing you all today? We are at a critical moment for international development. Now is the time to recognize and collectively address the complexity and magnitude of the multiple crises the world is facing. Now is the time for more collaboration amid continued polarization. Now is the time to invest in partnerships that can achieve more than any one institution could alone.
IFC and ILO have a joint agenda to which we contribute in different and complementary ways. Our role at IFC is to finance private companies in emerging markets, for they are the key engine for job creation. However, those jobs will only have a meaningful impact on people’s lives if they are quality jobs. ILO, of course, stands at the center of global efforts to promote worker's rights, encourage employment opportunities, and enhance social protection on work-related issues. Both of our roles are, therefore, critical, and they amplify one another.
I realize that many of you may not be as familiar with IFC. IFC was created in 1956, almost 70 years ago, and today we work in more than 100 countries to create markets and opportunities by providing the necessary investment and advisory services to the private sector. Our role is to connect people with good jobs and essential services, and we are doing this with a renewed sense of urgency. In fiscal year 2022, we committed a record $32.8 billion to private companies in developing countries.
You may be aware that, as part of our investment process, we require all clients to comply with the IFC Sustainability Framework, which promotes sound environmental and social practices. As a matter of fact, IFC’s Performance Standards — which are part of our Sustainability Framework — are recognized as a benchmark for environmental and social risk management in the private sector. And I am proud to say that in 2006, IFC was the first Development Finance Institution (DFI) to include a client performance standard on labor conditions for workers (now referred by all as PS2), guided by the ILO core labor standards — and with support and advice from many stakeholders in the room today. Other DFIs followed suit, and so did many private banks, including through the creation of the Equator Principles, which were adopted by 138 financial institutions in 38 countries around the world and are based on IFC’s Performance Standards. This is to say that we at IFC have always aspired to lead by collaborating with clients committed to improving their sustainability performance.
So, while IFC aspires to lead, one of the key questions is how to get other stakeholders, from investors to governments, to embrace and follow the same standards. I mentioned that we are investing in over 100 countries. Many of these countries are fragile environments with varying degrees of capacity – both in the public sector and in the private sector. We know through our direct experience that the road to sustainable development is not easy. That driving change requires time, tenacity, and patience. Our clients need our support. They need E&S expertise which is frequently difficult to find in our markets. They also require functioning regulatory frameworks which level the playing field. This is hard work.
In situations like these, one option that always exists is to simply not invest because the risks are too high. This is not the option we choose. We choose to engage because we believe that through our engagement, we can help drive change. Our clients are committed from the beginning, but our standards are high, and they take time to implement. Our standards are progressive in nature, so we take our clients on a journey. It’s part of our value-add, beyond financing. Can we do better with our clients? Certainly. However, no matter how much we scale our business, we are never going to be the only, or dominant investor in all sectors. Thus, it is essential that others embrace the same standards and the approach of accompanying companies on a journey of continuous improvement.
This is where we need your partnership and your focus. Our common mandate requires us to work with stakeholders as part of a complex ecosystem that includes governments, unions, employers, civil society organizations, private companies, and financiers. It is very clear that change is easier when the overall ecosystem is also maturing in parallel. Hence the primary reason for me to be here today.
Between IFC and ILO, our joint strength lies in our respective differences. We each have clear mandates, expertise, and programs, with distinct capabilities that deliver for our client countries and companies. And we share the same convictions: a strong belief in the importance of quality jobs, strong social and environmental standards, and access to opportunity. A conviction that better work means better impact. In fact, as you well know, research is clearly showing that better treatment of workers results in higher productivity. There are no tradeoffs for the agenda of quality jobs.
When we come together, we are unquestionably stronger than our individual parts. I am proud to say that our partnership with ILO in the Better Work program is probably one of the longest running, if not the only such collaboration between two international organizations. We came together serendipitously because our local teams on the ground in Asia, back in 2007, saw that our relative expertise, when put together, could advance development in the garment sector by improving manufacturing competitiveness through addressing the quality of jobs. Since then, cooperation on Better Work has helped unite diverse groups from the public and private sectors — governments, global brands, factory owners, unions, and workers. Over the past sixteen years, IFC and ILO have expanded our collaboration to 12 countries, 47 brands, and 2000 factories, improving working conditions for more than 5 million workers. Our partnership was the first of its kind, and it is still going strong today – because it makes imminent sense for all stakeholders.
So — we have succeeded together before. As we look to the future, we will need more of the kind of outside-the-box thinking that characterizes our partnership with ILO. As I mentioned earlier, the world is facing multifaceted crises at the same time, and fragmentation is on the rise. In moments like this, strengthening trusted partnerships is one of the most valuable investments we can make. I know ILO shares this desire, one that is reflected in your own Development Cooperation Strategy. Both Director-General Houngbo and I believe there is tremendous potential to partner together in several key areas. Let me outline a few of them:
First, we can take what we've learned through Better Work to other countries and industries. We are operating in countries where national labor laws are weak, and the private sector is often ill-equipped to empower workers. We work in places where instability and low institutional capacity present inherent risks to doing business. It’s not an easy journey, but it is a journey worth taking. The future demands that we be bold enough to venture into the world’s most difficult places and bring others with us. In fact, as part of our commitment to our shareholders, we will further expand our business in the most difficult markets by 2030 — Because these are the places where private investments matter most.
Second, there is so much our organizations can learn from each other — but we need to strengthen the channels and the relationships that will support it. To this end, we are planning for a Staff Exchange Program between ILO and IFC to share technical expertise across our institutions.
Third, we want to keep looking for ways to help our investment staff address the “S” in ESG, social issues that shape the global labor ecosystems We have a large team of E&S specialists, 130 of them actually, all over the world, but importantly — and with help from ILO — we are also launching a new training program for our investment officers to ensure that, as they appraise companies, they can better understand freedom of association, social dialogue, labor auditing, and health and safety issues.
These are our immediate priorities. I'm eager to hear your thoughts on them, as well as other potential ways that our organizations could collaborate.
And I believe that we can go further. Together with ILO's unique standard-setting role and tripartite nature, we envision an enhanced partnership that allows us to promote quality private sector jobs in places that need it most while also promoting social inclusion. Indeed, we must ensure that our development efforts reach all segments of the population — particularly women, youth, and people with disabilities.
Promoting gender equality in the workplace and addressing gender-based violence at work is of particular concern for us. ILO has shown important leadership on this issue with its 2019 convention on violence and harassment in the workplace. We are eager to make further progress on this issue together. I have just established IFC’s first Directorship for Gender and Inclusion as a strong signal of our commitment to this agenda.
We also believe there is more work we can do together to support the creation of quality green jobs of the future and help “green” small businesses. IFC is firmly committed to supporting a just transition to a resource-efficient economy, and we are on track for all our direct investments to be aligned with the Paris Agreement by 2025. This transition has incredible economic potential — fueling growth and creating jobs throughout emerging economies. But it can't come at the expense of workers and safe labor conditions.
Last but definitely not least, we must scale up our joint efforts to improve workers' conditions in supply chains. Today, with the new regulations and increasing public commitments by companies, decarbonization and good E&S practices are no longer optional – they are the ticket to play in the global value chains. We have some tools to help this transformation and need to work on others. For example, going back to the garment sector, IFC has been running the Global Trade Supplier Finance program (GTSF) with a number of global brands that source from Better Work companies in emerging markets. We have introduced sustainability-linked pricing with companies such as Levi’s, Nike, and Puma, which gives improved financing rates to their suppliers who perform better on environmental and labor aspects of their operations. This enables us to create a financial incentive to encourage change, which Better Work supports on the ground. This is a great example of a win-win-win.
I look forward to discussing how we can work together to come up with new solutions. For example, ILO already has a successful program working with private and public sector actors to address child labor in African agriculture supply chains. As agricultural supply chains are at the forefront of climate mitigation and adaptation, we can draw lessons from this experience that can be adapted to their needs.
Let me close with a final thought. There will never be a silver bullet when it comes to creating deep development impact. It is hard work that must be done. We know from ILO’s and IFC’s long history, that it takes time and that we should capture opportunities for acceleration, especially during crises such as today. But partnerships are unquestionably the strongest tool we have. In a complex and uncertain world, I am proud to call ILO one of IFC's most valued partners — and I know the best is yet to come for our two organizations. By leveraging our unique and complementary advantages, I know we will accomplish more together than we ever could alone. And critically bring along others.
Thank you again for the invitation to join you today, and I look forward to our work together.