Employers Cement Relationship With World Bank

L-R: IOE President Abraham Katz, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and IOE Secretary General Antonio Peñalosa.
L-R: IOE President Abraham Katz, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and IOE Secretary General Antonio Peñalosa.

Top representatives of global employers met with World Bank President Robert Zoellick and other bank officials on February 15 in Washington, D.C. to voice support for the bank’s annual “Doing Business” reports, which assess and rank countries based on how easy they make it to run a business, and to explore areas for future cooperation.

The delegation from the International Organization of Employers (IOE), part of USCIB’s global network and the voice of business in the International Labor Organization, was led  by IOE President Abraham Katz, who also serves as president emeritus of USCIB.  It included Antonio Peñalosa, secretary general of the IOE, Ashraf Tabani, president of the Employers’ Federation of Pakistan, and Ronnie Goldberg, executive vice president of USCIB, among others.

The meeting aimed at outlining the IOE’s views on – and support for – the Doing Business report, discussing how the World Bank should integrate and present employment and labor issues in future reports, and exploring areas for immediate as well as future cooperation between the IOE and the World Bank.  Joining Mr. Zoellick from the World Bank’s side were Michael Klein, vice president for financial and private sector development, and Simeon Djankov, who leads the team developing the Doing Business reports, along with several team members.

Mr. Katz expressed the IOE’s strong support for the Doing Business reports and highlighted their importance as a tool for labor market reforms and structural adjustment. He stressed the interest of national employers’ organizations in the report as a means of promoting reform in their own countries.  IOE delegation members also provided detailed comments on the relationship between the report’s labor indicators and pertinent ILO conventions.

On future areas of cooperation between the IOE and the World Bank, consideration was given to increasing IFC work with national employers’ organizations in the collection of data for yearly Doing Business reports.  Building on the success of last September’s launch of the 2008 report 2007 at a USCIB forum in New York, participants discussed organizing regional launches with IOE members in major regional hubs.

Areas identified for possible for future collaboration included vocational training and skills development, occupational safety and health, the informal economy, sustainable enterprise, youth employment, SME development, productivity and women’s entrepreneurship.  Participants also discussed holding annual top-level meetings between the IOE and the World Bank.

Staff contact: Ariel Meyerstein

IOE website

More on USCIB’s Labor and Employment Committee

 

Staff Contact:   Ewa Staworzynska

Director, Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs
Tel: 212.703.5056

Ewa Staworzynska is USCIB’s Director of Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs. Staworzynska brings to USCIB her extensive policy experience from both public and private sectors. Prior to joining USCIB, she led DoorDash’s policy efforts in international markets and was in charge of diplomatic relations. Before her position at DoorDash, Staworzynska was an officer at the International Labor Organization (ILO), where she worked multilaterally to advance support for decent work and related policies at UN headquarters. Staworzynska began her career in New York working for a real estate start-up. Staworzynska will be based in USCIB’s New York office and will work with Jose Arroyo, USCIB policy associate on corporate responsibility and labor affairs, on a wide range of issues, including human rights and industrial policy, responsible business conduct, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She was born and raised in Norway and has a B.A. in Economics and M.A. in International Relations, with a specialty in International Business, from New York University.
Read More

Related Content