Linking safety and health at work to sustainable economic development Linking safety and health at work to sustainable economic development: from theory and platitudes to conviction and action Executive summary Development Objective/Expected Impact The overall objective to which the project will contribute is the improvement of safety and health conditions at work. This is in accordance with the strategic objectives of the P&B to 2015, namely that workers and enterprises benefit from improved safety and health conditions at work. In order to improve safety and health conditions at work and reduce occupational accidents and diseases two areas are required – commitment and implementation. The project therefore has two immediate objectives/outcomes, one aimed at national-level action, the other at workplace-level action. Immediate Objective/Project Outcome Immediate objective 1: Governments and social partners are better equipped to strengthen national commitment for improving OSH By the end of the project, practical tools on OSH will be available for governments and the social partners to develop and adopt, or at least consider developing, policies and strategies to improve OSH. The outputs will be developed in a way to provide the governments and social partners with the know-how and assistance to improve OSH in a manner adapted to their needs. The different research and guidelines will also be used as advocacy tools to raise the OSH profile in these countries and promote informed action. Therefore, in the medium- and long-term, the global tools developed through this project will help pave the way for governments and social partners to be able to implement all or some of the following: • Adoption of a national policy, OSH profile or action plan targeted at improving OSH in line with the provisions of ILO Conventions; • Establishment or strengthening of tripartite mechanisms for consultation on OSH at national level; • Mainstreaming of gender considerations into OSH policies and strategies at both national and workplace level, as well as in data collection and analysis concerning occupational accidents and diseases; • Establishment or improvement of a system of recording and notification of occupational accidents and diseases, including a national-level register and analyses, with sex-disaggregated data; • Consideration to establishing or improving occupational accident and disease insurance schemes; • Possible allocation of more resources to national action plans to improve implementation of OSH measures. Immediate objective 2: Workplaces are better equipped with effective tools to strengthen bipartite dialogue and OSH By the end of the project, training packages and guidelines on how best to foster a climate change towards an organizational safety culture, will be available for employers and workers and their organisations. The aim of developing such tools is that they will be used eventually to strengthen employer commitment to OSH and promote worker participation in OSH at the workplace, leading to safer and healthier workplaces. The tools will be developed in a way that their proper use will help: • employer and worker organizations establish locally-based OSH information and training structures; • employers and workers to explore new or improved mechanisms for bipartite collaboration at the workplace; • enterprises to develop OSH policies based on risk management, while taking into consideration the needs of vulnerable workers such as women and older workers; • enterprises, including in the informal economy, to carry out risk assessments and implement preventive measures.