Partners
International Labour Office
The Joint Committee is an expression of the determination of the ILO and WHO to cooperate in mobilizing the international community at all levels to achieve safe and healthy workplaces. The committee members, guiding WHO and ILO collaboration in this field, emphasized that by working together in a coordinated and complementary fashion, the ILO and the WHO could contribute to making healthy workplaces a reality. In the last 12 sessions, the Committee had covered a variety of topics including education and training in occupational health, safety and ergonomics, scope and organization of occupational health, reporting of occupational diseases and occupational exposure assessment and establishment of permissible limits. The Thirteenth Session emphasised the integrated (or strategic) approach, and occupational safety and health management systems, reflecting the need to promote safety and health as an essential function of good management. These also reflected changes in member States, particularly the industrialized countries, from the prescriptive style of occupational safety and health legislation towards the more goal-setting standards and voluntary initiatives.
The Committee recommended that WHO and ILO collaboration should focus on the following key areas:
- Guidance and support for national OSH programmes
- Enhancing regional collaboration and coordination
- Coordination and enhancement of information and educational programmes and materials
- Awareness-raising activities and instruments.