Ghanese, Nepalese and Peruvian social partners visit DECP

A strong belief that social dialogue is for the benefit of both workers and employers and for society as a whole. That is what social partners from Ghana, Nepal en Peru have in common. In order to learn from the Dutch experiences with social dialogue, they visited DECP on Wednesday 9 October 2019. Together with Mondiaal FNV, DECP had organised two high-level meetings.

The first meeting took place with Harry van de Kraats, Director Social Affairs at the Dutch employers’ associations VNO-NCW and MKB Nederland and director of AWVN, the general employers’ organisation focussing on industrial relations. Harry van de Kraats shared his experiences with the Dutch polder model and discussed several issues, varying from empowering employers’ organisations to working together with trade unions on the future of work.

After this interesting discussion, the Ghanese, Nepalese and Peruvian delegations met with Steven Collet, director of the department for sustainable economic development (DDE) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Steven Collet discussed the challenging environment we are in today, with changing forms of labour, increasing inequality and international migration streams. He underlined the importance of the role of civil society, including employers’ organisations and trade unions who are able to make changes for the better as a result of constructive social dialogue.

The employers and trade unions from Ghana, Nepal and Peru on their turn discussed the progress they have made so far with social dialogue and their future plans.

The general conclusion from both meetings was that employers and employees need eachother in a rapidly changing world of work. Investing in social dialogue with the help of Dutch programmes like DECP and Trade Union Cofinancing is the way forward to address this challenge.