GENEVA, Switzerland, (ILO News) – Public dialogues with candidates for the post of director-general of the International Labour Organization (ILO) will be held on Thursday 20 and Friday January 21, 2022.
The dialogues with the five candidates will be broadcast live via the ILO website in seven languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian and Spanish. Recordings will be placed on the website at the end of the final session.
Each dialogue will consist of a brief presentation by the candidate of their vision followed by 16 questions from the ILO’s constituents. The Employers’ and Workers’ groups will each ask four questions and the Government group will ask eight.
The dialogues will be conducted by the chairperson of the ILO’s Governing Body, H.E. Anna Jardfelt, Permanent Representative of Sweden to the United Nations Office at Geneva.
The five candidates for the post, in order of their presentations, are Gilbert Houngbo of Togo, Kang Kyung-wha of the Republic of Korea, Mthunzi Mdwaba of South Africa, Greg Vines of Australia and Muriel Pénicaud of France.
The first three presentations will take place between 12:00 and 16:20 on Thursday 20th. The final two are between 12:30 and 15:20 on Friday January 21.
The broadcast and additional information related to the dialogues, including the candidates’ vision and CVs will be available on the ILO website: Public dialogues with candidates for the position of ILO Director-General .
Following the dialogues, the next stage in the election process will be candidate hearings conducted in private by the ILO’s Governing Body at the start of its March 2022 Session on March 14, 2022. The election ballot will take place on March 25, and the result made public. The new director-general’s term will begin on October 1, 2022.
The current director-general, Guy Ryder, from the United Kingdom, has held office since 2012.