ILO collaborates with ECOP to conduct learning session-cum-consultation on OFW reintegration
ECOP Chapters and various private sector groups attended the “Consultation and Learning Session with Employers and Private Sector on Gender-Responsive and Sustainable Reintegration: Operationalizing the OFW Reintegration Advisor and Referral Pathways and Mapping the Roles, Programmes and Services of the Private Sector” through the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Safe and Fair and BRIDGE Programmes last 02 February 2023 at the Marco Polo Ortigas Manila.
It is recognized that the private sector leads in facilitating employment generation and skills development in the country. With the return of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the country, opportunities such as employment and entrepreneurship are among the priority reintegration pathways that would sustain and support their families. Thus, the consultation explored possible ways to operationalize the “OFW Reintegration Advisor and Referral Pathways” and link the reintegration-related programmes or services for OFWS/families to ECOP through its members.
Present in the consultation were representatives from the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines, Philippine Association of Legitimate Service Contractors, Philippine Hotel Owners Association, Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc., other private corporations, as well as ECOP Chapters in Batangas, Naga, North Luzon, Pampanga, Quezon, South Luzon and Zamboanga Peninsula.
The ILO’s “Safe and Fair: Realizing Women migrant Workers’ Rights and Opportunities in the ASEAN Region” (Safe and Fair Programme) is implemented through a partnership with the UN Women and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It is implemented at the national and local levels and focuses on women OFWs and their families, at all stages of labour migration (pre-migration, transit, onsite, return/reintegration). Meanwhile, the “Bridging Recruitment to Reintegration in Migration Governance: Philippines (BRIDGE)” is a joint Programme which aims to help ensure that government initiatives for fair and ethical recruitment and reintegration are evidence-based, gender-responsive and coordinated, and seeks to translate evidence into policy and practices on recruitment and reintegration