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Conference Theme & Topics

Theme & Topics for
20th ILO Regional Conference 2025

Theme: Resilient communities and Healthy Environment: the EIIP approach

The main theme of the 20th Regional Conference for the practitioners of Employment Intensive Approach is “Resilient Communities and Healthy Environment: the EIIP approach”. This theme is about advancing public discourse to help practitioners to explore innovative solutions for employment creation, inclusive growth, environmental stewardship, as well as ensuring social safeguards and developing resilient infrastructure. The selection of the theme is premised on the belief that by uniting to address these critical issues, we can forge a path towards social justice and ensure a more sustainable and prosperous future for all individuals and communities

Sub-themes

The Conference will be conducted under four sub-themes as follows:

Subtheme 1

Investing in sustainability in a context of fragility

  • Creating and protecting jobs through investing in resilient infrastructure and creation of sustainable livelihoods.
  • Implications from infrastructure development of the shifting of financing from development to humanitarian -conflicts / disasters response: advocacy for Financing PW programmes in fragile context
  • Inclusion of decent work dimensions in crisis works.
  • Increase resilience through disaster prevention and preparedness (climate resilient approaches)
  • Capacity Building of institutions and enterprises for reconstruction, resilience and preparedness.
  • Improving livelihoods support through investments in reconstruction and recovery
  • Provision of transformative infrastructure to espouse social inclusion1 and community empowerment

Subtheme 2

Striking the balance between the use of labour, technology and Sustainability to drive decent jobs

  • Increased use of employment-intensive-technologies and approaches in the delivery of resilient infrastructure and public works
  • Reducing environmental impacts of infrastructure works though use of appropriate and pro- employment technologies.
  • Quality orientation of employment intensive infrastructure works: Quality management of public investment programmes: infrastructure.
  • Use of local-resources-based approach in infrastructure development to maximize social and environmental outcomes: Increasing local content law
  • Climate proofing of roads: control and prevention of flooding/ erosion, improve groundwater recharge, reduce impacts on wildlife and biodiversity, while meeting the needs and aspirations of local communities.
  • Digital skills and public works
  • Capacity building of local training institutions and skills training- experiences, challenges and successes from the construction sector: increasing employability
  • Building local construction industry: current trends

Subtheme 3

Creating more resilient urban infrastructure and communities

  • Integrating green and grey infrastructure in the urban context and implications for local jobs.
  • A case of combining green, grey and employment intensive infrastructure
  • Options and experiences in using Green Works in informal settlement upgrading.
  • Job creation potential of developing green urban public spaces: including parks, parking lots, sidewalks, public transport facilities, waterways, schools and community facilities.
  • Reducing carbon footprint of urban settlement: green design, use of renewable energy, waste management, improve urban planning, retrofitting existing public/private buildings with renewable energy, etc.
  • Human-centered climate action and Nature based solutions

Subtheme 4

Maximizing the social impact of infrastructure development

  • Right-based approach in PW delivery
  • Occupational Safety and Heath in rural areas: best practices, priorities and obstacles
  • Gender empowerment and social inclusion in construction: Where are we now? And where are we going? Can we go there faster?
  • Promotion of inclusive planning and decision-to ensure social and environmental safeguards.
  • Challenges and experiences with measuring social impacts.
  • Conducive policy framework: national employment policy, inclusive procurement policy as well as skills and enterprise development policies.
  • Youth empowerment through inclusion
  • Empowering ILO constituent partners to enable them to support EIIP.