The campaign is being built around 12 different "decent work" themes and will be looked through a gender lens to illustrate how various issues affect men and women in different ways, particularly in accessing their rights relating to employment, social protection and social dialogue, the ILO said in a release.
"Mainstreaming gender equality is central to the ILO's Decent Work Agenda," the release quoted ILO Director-General Juan Somavia as saying.
Although progress is being made, gender equality is still lagging behind in the rapidly changing world of work. By increasing overall awareness and understanding of gender equality benefit from development efforts, the goal can be achieved, he said. The ILO will also actively reach out to constituents and other international partners and provide information on different themes to mainstream gender equality.
The annual conference of ILO which began on May 28 in Geneva has discussed on rural poverty reduction, labour rights and the worsening world food crisis.
Besides, ways to promote rural employment to reduce poverty, fundamental both to the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals and the ILO's Decent Work agenda were also discussed.
The awareness-raising campaign will be effective for one year and will lead into a general discussion on gender equality at the International Labour Conference in June 2009.
