Four years later: Advances and Challenges in Africa

Second Regional Trade Union African Conference on Labour and Environment – Nairobi, April 7-8, 2010.
The Second Conference we held four years after the first Conference in Johannesburg in 2006 as part of the joint UNEP-Sustainlabour Project on Labour and Environment, and hosted 45 trade union delegate participants from 19 different countries. Statements such as “…we Africans produce what we don’t eat and eat what we don’t produce” made in the first sessions of the Conference characterize the current reality in many African countries as well as the social and environmental challenges. The effects of the financial and economic crisis in Africa; informal work trends; the potential for the creation of green jobs in the continent; climate change and its effects in productive sectors – in particular agriculture; pesticides and chemical risk were some of the topics covered. This event provided a space for information-sharing on the initiatives carried out over the past four years and for analyzing the challenges for the labour movement in terms of advancing the agenda toward a socially fair and environmentally sustainable model with decent work. In addition it also served as a platform for defining steps toward strengthening trade unions´ work related to the environment at the national and regional level.