ISLAMABAD: Employers Federation of Pakistan (EFP) has been appointed as National Focal point for promoting the ILO MNE declaration in Pakistan.
This was decided at a meeting of tripartite constituent held at ILO Country Office Islamabad, which was attended by Ms. Ingrid Christensen, Country Director ILO, Zahoor Awan, General Secretary PWF, Usman Raja, MOPHRD, Saghir Bukhari, Senior Programme Officer ILO, Zaki Ahmed Khan, Vice president EFP and Fasihul Karim Siddiqi, Advisor EFP.
Fasihul Karim Siddiqi, advisor EFP briefed about the activities during the three phases of the MNED Project since 2015 and stressed the need to appoint National Focal Point to promote MNE Declaration in Pakistan.
General Secretary Pakistan Workers Federation Zahoor Awan proposed EFP’s name for the National Focal Point. It was also proposed that this appointment will be for a period of three years after which the Focal Point will be rotated among workers and the government.
The meeting also adopted the Terms of Reference (TORS) according to which the activities of National Focal Point will include raising awareness of principles of the MNE Declaration amongst government ministries and agencies, multinational enterprises and employers’ and workers’ organizations; Organization of capacity-building events; Development on-line information and dialogue platforms in local languages where possible and Promotion of the ILO Helpdesk for Business and the Company-Union Dialogue.
Senior Program Officer ILO, Saghir Bukhari, emphasized upon the need to connect the dots among variety of players in the industry so that they can benefit from the application on MNED Principles to improve their business sustainability.
Usman Raja of MOPHRD in his remarks agreed with the view that the decision to appoint the Employers Federation of Pakistan as the National Focal Point is practical and pragmatic.
Ingrid Christensen, Country Director ILO expressed the hope that the tripartite partners will act in close collaboration and partnership to engage multinational and national enterprises, foreign buyers and other stakeholders to promote the Principles of MNED in the larger interest of long-term business sustainability in Pakistan.
