Tracking International Labour Organization: France Candidate
Category:
By: Maureen Barasa,
Muriel Pénicaud, is the nominee of France for the position of Secretary General of the International Labour Organization (ILO). She was born in March 1955 and has two children, holds a degree in History and Education from University of Paris X and a postgraduate degree in Clinical Psychology of the INSEAD Business School of Advanced Management Program for Executives.
Based on Ms. Pénicaud’s Curriculum Vitae posted on ILO Website, she has served in various capacities, these include:
- She currently serves as the Permanent Representative of France to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development since September 2020
- She was appointed French Minister of Labour from May 2017 to July 2020 and spearheaded structural reforms that contributed to a decrease in inequality and unemployment in France
- Served as the French Ambassador for International Investment and CEO of Business France from 2014-2017
- She was the Executive Vice-President, Human Resources at Danone from 2008 to 2014.
- Held the various positions at Dassault Systèmes between 2002 and 2008, these were: The Executive Vice-President, in charge of Organization, Human Resources and Sustainable Development, and an Executive Committee member
- Chaired the tripartite board of the National Institute for Labour, Employment and Vocational Training (INTEFP), the school for labour inspectors in France from 2006 to 2009
- From 1985-1993 she held a number of senior positions at the French Labour Ministry and became an adviser to the Minister between 1991 to 1993
Ms. Pénicaud’s background confirms that she is an expert on Labour issues having worked as the Minister of Labour and at also chaired the tripartite board of the National Institute for Labour in her home country. Also, while serving as the Minister of Labour for France, she oversaw the Labour Code reform known as “Strengthening Social Dialogue” (2017) and the law entitled “The Freedom to Choose One’s Future Occupation” (2018). She is also particularly attentive to the rights of the most vulnerable and their access to social protection.
She has supported economic inclusion initiatives and launched large-scale training programmes for the unemployed and the young on the one hand and also developed a large-scale partial employment scheme during the COVID-19 crisis to safeguard jobs and skills vulnerable working people. During her career, she has gained solid expertise in the world of work and tripartism at all levels and all around the world as well as her desire to ensure respect for fundamental principles and rights at work has always been central to her efforts for justice and social progress. Her action has focused on equal opportunities, personal empowerment, skills development, health and safety at work, and enhanced social dialogue. Ms. Pénicaud’s experience is consistent with respect for ILO’s international labour standards of developing policies and devising programmes and promoting decent work for all women and men, this makes her an outstanding candidate for Director-General of the International Labour Organization.
In Ms. Pénicaud’s Vision Statement, her vision is to achieve an ambitious ILO that protects individuals and empowers everyone, an ILO that creates the conditions for a new social contract to reconcile economic development, environmental protection and social justice both at the short term level and long term level. She promises to deliver the following should she be chosen as the director general of the ILO:
To begin with, she proposes that the ILO and its members need to constantly propose tangible, human-centered solutions to provide decent working conditions for all and build a fairer, more sustainable world of work for future generations by scaling up and increasing efforts to generate momentum for solidarity and social progress to everyone and everywhere. With her experience, she hopes to forge her deep commitment to dialogue and social justice as she achieves her vision.
Other than promoting tripartism, some other major goals she makes a commitment to if elected Secretary General include: –
- Muriel makes a commitment to serve the masses and rapidly bring about universal access to social protection and commits to fight for gender equality and against violence and harassment.
- She hopes to ensure that the ILO’s governance and management are transparent and inclusive and that they reflect today’s realities and specific needs of constituents, both social partners and governments, regardless of their level of economic development.
- She commits to support social dialogue in countries to help identify national priorities and tools to build back better after the crisis with the help of regional and country offices.
- She commits to developing strategic research, data collection, comparative analysis and partnerships to make the ILO the global benchmark for labour issues and build capacity of analysis of local offices to develop solutions for our members.
Given her commitment to universal access to social protection and commitment to fight for gender equality, this boosts her role in future if elected Secretary General. In addition to this, France has strong labour rights and given her background as French Labour Minister from 2017 to 2020, Muriel is pro-labour rights and she would advocate for both the rights of the employers and the employees. France is a welfare intensive society whose labour markets are largely formal while on the other hand Africa’s share of informal employment is relatively high, this is where she should provide clarity in her vision statement on how she would confront the duality of labour markets in Africa.
With her experience she will be able to represent and promote ILO positions and its tripartite constituents. Her experience also reveals that she bears a strong orientation towards protecting labour rights in a manner that is consistent with the welfare traditions of the French Republic. It is an interesting contrast to the expectations for labour conditions in Sub-Saharan and south Asian countries where the predominant forms of work are available in the informal work sectors.
The Government of the French Republic places its support for Ms. Muriel and nominated her for the position of Secretary General. So far, all previous holders of the position have been males, this would only make it right if elected the next Secretary General is female. France’s candidate, Ms. Muriel Pénicaud’s hopes to become the first female Secretary General of the International Labour Organization if elected to office.
Photo credit: Stringfixer
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Tracking International Labour Organization: France Candidate
| Post date: Tue, Mar 15, 2022 |
| Category: |
| By: Maureen Barasa, |
Muriel Pénicaud, is the nominee of France for the position of Secretary General of the International Labour Organization (ILO). She was born in March 1955 and has two children, holds a degree in History and Education from University of Paris X and a postgraduate degree in Clinical Psychology of the INSEAD Business School of Advanced Management Program for Executives.
Based on Ms. Pénicaud’s Curriculum Vitae posted on ILO Website, she has served in various capacities, these include:
- She currently serves as the Permanent Representative of France to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development since September 2020
- She was appointed French Minister of Labour from May 2017 to July 2020 and spearheaded structural reforms that contributed to a decrease in inequality and unemployment in France
- Served as the French Ambassador for International Investment and CEO of Business France from 2014-2017
- She was the Executive Vice-President, Human Resources at Danone from 2008 to 2014.
- Held the various positions at Dassault Systèmes between 2002 and 2008, these were: The Executive Vice-President, in charge of Organization, Human Resources and Sustainable Development, and an Executive Committee member
- Chaired the tripartite board of the National Institute for Labour, Employment and Vocational Training (INTEFP), the school for labour inspectors in France from 2006 to 2009
- From 1985-1993 she held a number of senior positions at the French Labour Ministry and became an adviser to the Minister between 1991 to 1993
Ms. Pénicaud’s background confirms that she is an expert on Labour issues having worked as the Minister of Labour and at also chaired the tripartite board of the National Institute for Labour in her home country. Also, while serving as the Minister of Labour for France, she oversaw the Labour Code reform known as “Strengthening Social Dialogue” (2017) and the law entitled “The Freedom to Choose One’s Future Occupation” (2018). She is also particularly attentive to the rights of the most vulnerable and their access to social protection.
She has supported economic inclusion initiatives and launched large-scale training programmes for the unemployed and the young on the one hand and also developed a large-scale partial employment scheme during the COVID-19 crisis to safeguard jobs and skills vulnerable working people. During her career, she has gained solid expertise in the world of work and tripartism at all levels and all around the world as well as her desire to ensure respect for fundamental principles and rights at work has always been central to her efforts for justice and social progress. Her action has focused on equal opportunities, personal empowerment, skills development, health and safety at work, and enhanced social dialogue. Ms. Pénicaud’s experience is consistent with respect for ILO’s international labour standards of developing policies and devising programmes and promoting decent work for all women and men, this makes her an outstanding candidate for Director-General of the International Labour Organization.
In Ms. Pénicaud’s Vision Statement, her vision is to achieve an ambitious ILO that protects individuals and empowers everyone, an ILO that creates the conditions for a new social contract to reconcile economic development, environmental protection and social justice both at the short term level and long term level. She promises to deliver the following should she be chosen as the director general of the ILO:
To begin with, she proposes that the ILO and its members need to constantly propose tangible, human-centered solutions to provide decent working conditions for all and build a fairer, more sustainable world of work for future generations by scaling up and increasing efforts to generate momentum for solidarity and social progress to everyone and everywhere. With her experience, she hopes to forge her deep commitment to dialogue and social justice as she achieves her vision.
Other than promoting tripartism, some other major goals she makes a commitment to if elected Secretary General include: –
- Muriel makes a commitment to serve the masses and rapidly bring about universal access to social protection and commits to fight for gender equality and against violence and harassment.
- She hopes to ensure that the ILO’s governance and management are transparent and inclusive and that they reflect today’s realities and specific needs of constituents, both social partners and governments, regardless of their level of economic development.
- She commits to support social dialogue in countries to help identify national priorities and tools to build back better after the crisis with the help of regional and country offices.
- She commits to developing strategic research, data collection, comparative analysis and partnerships to make the ILO the global benchmark for labour issues and build capacity of analysis of local offices to develop solutions for our members.
Given her commitment to universal access to social protection and commitment to fight for gender equality, this boosts her role in future if elected Secretary General. In addition to this, France has strong labour rights and given her background as French Labour Minister from 2017 to 2020, Muriel is pro-labour rights and she would advocate for both the rights of the employers and the employees. France is a welfare intensive society whose labour markets are largely formal while on the other hand Africa’s share of informal employment is relatively high, this is where she should provide clarity in her vision statement on how she would confront the duality of labour markets in Africa.
With her experience she will be able to represent and promote ILO positions and its tripartite constituents. Her experience also reveals that she bears a strong orientation towards protecting labour rights in a manner that is consistent with the welfare traditions of the French Republic. It is an interesting contrast to the expectations for labour conditions in Sub-Saharan and south Asian countries where the predominant forms of work are available in the informal work sectors.
The Government of the French Republic places its support for Ms. Muriel and nominated her for the position of Secretary General. So far, all previous holders of the position have been males, this would only make it right if elected the next Secretary General is female. France’s candidate, Ms. Muriel Pénicaud’s hopes to become the first female Secretary General of the International Labour Organization if elected to office.
Photo credit: Stringfixer
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Introduction The matatu metaphor can be used to analytically frame Kenya’s budget as a system that is subject to binding constraints, evolving expectations, and continuous adjustment to shocks. Like the matatu sector, fiscal policy reflects a balancing act between efficiency and quick action seeking to respond to public service delivery while constrained by competing sector […]
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Introduction Imagine paying the same fare to travel at 6 a.m. as you would at 6 p.m., even though the matatu is half-empty in the morning and packed in the evening. At 6 a.m., there may be more seats available than passengers willing to pay for them. By 6 p.m., the situation is reversed. Hundreds […]
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Absurd hypotheticals are useful precisely because they stress-test a system until its constraints become visible. This note asks what would break first if SpaceX, now a public company following its record-breaking Nasdaq debut in June 2026, with a post-IPO market value of approximately US$ 2.5 trillion, sought a secondary cross-listing on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. […]
The Arithmetic of Ambition: What Kenya’s First-World Dream Really Requires?
Kenya’s proposed post-2030 Vision commits the country to high-income status “within a generation.” One positive issue that should be emulated is that the document seeks to solve the most important policy decision and the foundational problem in economics, which is to expand output and labour. Skeptics ask the most important question, why would this plan […]
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According to the Annual Debt Report 2024/25, as shown in Chart 1 below, Kenya today is such that for every one hundred shillings the Kenyan government raises in tax revenue, approximately ksh71 goes directly into servicing existing debt before a single hospital is staffed, a classroom is built, or a kilometre of road is constructed. […]