South-South Expert Knowledge Sharing Forum: The Philippines – July 2018
Hosted by ILO Country Office (CO) for the Philippines, the South-South Expert Knowledge Sharing Forum will take place in mid-July 2018 with the aim to help the country achieve decent work through enterprise formalisation, by facilitating the exchanges of country-specific lessons learnt from policy implementation and thus, generating implications for better policy replication in the Global South.
In line with the ILO’s Outcome 6 – Formalising of the informal economy (as defined in the Programme and Budget for 2018-2019) [1], and in support to the Recommendation 204 concerning the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy Recommendation (R204), the South-South Expert Knowledge Forum will be a crucial complementarity to ILO’s existing efforts in promoting Enterprise Formalisation such as the launch of the Academy on formalisation of the informal economy at the international training centre in Turin, and the informal economy diagnostics studies, which have been conducted in over twenty countries.
Specifically, the Forum will gather national experts from Global South to discuss their countries’ lessons and experiences, along with the most updated policy innovation in Enterprise Formalisation, especially on these following thematic issues: a) business entry reforms; b) simplified tax and contributions assessment and payment regimes; c) access to public procurement; d) access to inclusive financial services; e) access to entrepreneurship training, skills development and tailored business development services; and f) access to social security coverage [2]. The discussion will be even more timely and relevant with countries that are undertaking major policy changes such as the Philippines with the Informal Economy Bill or India with Tax Reform Initiatives. Furthermore, the event will be leading to the generation of new ILO’s knowledge products on Enterprises Formalisation, based on experts’ commissioned papers and discussions during the forum. The knowledge products will be presented to development partners and stakeholders in the form of technical briefs, case studies and training materials, and are expected to be finalised and disseminated in early 2019.
This Forum is supported by the South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) Facility from the Partnership and Field Support Department (PARDEV) of the ILO and ITC Turin, ILO Manila Office and the Enterprises Departnment. SSTC is a partnership among equals which involves a learning process or exchange of expertise derived from effective initiatives for development that have been implemented in southern countries. Triangular Cooperation specifically refers to South–South cooperation supported by a Northern partner. SSTC is recognised worldwide as a significant modality of development cooperation and an important means for the ILO and its constituents to deliver successful Decent Work Country Programmes.
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[1] Detail to be found: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_mas/—program/documents/genericdocument/wcms_582294.pdf
[2] Article 25 of R204