New director for Caribbean ILO
Ms Claudia Coenjaerts, a Belgian national, has been appointed as Director of the ILO [International Labour Organization]
Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean, effective 1 August 2015.
Ms Coenjaerts joined the ILO in 1995 and has worked extensively in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. Prior to taking up her assignment as Director of the ILO Office based in Port-of-Spain, Ms Coenjaerts took an 18-month sabbatical from the ILO to act as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Labor Association in Washington, D.C.
Within the ILO, Ms Coenjaerts previously held the post of Deputy Regional Director for Africa, based in Addis Ababa, since early 2012. She has also held the roles of Director, ILO Country Office, Bangladesh; Director, ILO Country Office for Sri Lanka and the Maldives; Head of the Management Support Unit for the Employment Sector, ILO Geneva; Lead Coordinator, ILO Liberia Program; Global Coordinator, ILO Youth Employment Program, ILO Geneva; Senior Specialist for Socio-Economic Reintegration Crisis Response and Reconstruction Program, ILO Geneva; Regional Specialist for Child Labour, ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific; Chief Technical Advisor for sub-regional project on child labour and women workers, Thailand; and Gender Associate Expert and Consultant, Thailand and Cambodia.
With her depth of experience in the ILO field offices, Ms Coenjaerts has acquired a broad understanding of ILO development cooperation activities, as well as expertise in the areas of gender equality at work; child labour; international labour standards; workers’ rights; multi stakeholder initiatives; employment creation; youth employment; job creation in fragile states; social and labour compliance in supply chains in apparel and footwear; electronics and agriculture.
Ms. Coenjaerts holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in Sociology from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.
International Labour Organization (ILO)
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is the United Nations agency for the world of work. It sets international labour standards, promotes rights at work, and encourages decent employment opportunities, the enhancement of social protection and the strengthening of dialogue on work-related issues. The ILO has a unique structure, bringing together governments, employers’ and workers’ representatives.
The ILO Office for the Caribbean was established in 1969 and is based in Trinidad and Tobago. It serves 13 member States and 9 non-metropolitan territories of the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean as follows:
Member States: Antigua and Barbuda; Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago
Non-metropolitan territories: Anguilla, Aruba, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Montserrat, Sint Maarten, Turks and Caicos Islands.
