- 48 -
Working Group 2, Building Capacity of Labor Ministries will work on developing
the ability of these entities to respond to challenges of employment and labor in
present and future contexts, in horizontal and harmonious cooperation with other
entities in the social, health, education, trade, economic and other areas.
In this sense, we commit ourselves to make efforts to consult with the social actors,
via COSATE and CEATAL, regarding the social and labor dimensions of regional
and subregional integration and free trade processes in the Hemisphere, and to work
with them towards achieving decent work based on the principles of social justice,
freedom, equality, security and human dignity.
C.
To instruct the Working Groups to offer effective contributions toward decent work
and the well being of the citizens of the Hemisphere. To that end, the Working Groups will deepen
the work of their predecessors and will improve the systems to follow-up and evaluate the results of
the previous Plans of Action to the extent that they help create decent work, promote productive
employment and improve health, education, social welfare, well-being, and living conditions for the
population.
D.
To encourage countries of the hemisphere to intensify cooperation and to share
knowledge, experiences, and achievements in the area of employment and labor, so that they may
overcome the obstacles to development that can accompany the social, economic, and institutional
asymmetries between our countries and regions. The deepening of hemispheric cooperation must
involve the social and labor forums constituted in the various trade liberalization and integration
experiences in the Americas, as well as the regional and international organizations that exercise a
critical role in the promotion of employment and in the betterment of working conditions, particularly
the Organization of American States (OAS), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the InterAmerican Commission of Women (CIM), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the Corporación Andina de
Fomento (CAF), the Central American Bank of Economic Integration (CABEI), and the World Bank.
E.
To organize the Fourteenth Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labor of the
OAS in Mexico in 2005.