Making a Greater Impact with Opinion-Makers in the U.S.

Although the International Labor Organization (ILO) enjoys a high level of name recognition, understanding of its mission, activities and relevance is low amongst American audiences and opinion-formers. The aim of this project is to formulate new ways by which the ILO can influence opinion-formers, build greater support with key audiences on labor-related issues and advance its Decent Work Agenda (DWA) campaign in the United States. The study’s approach is both quantitative and qualitative. The team completed a quantitative review of the ILO’s presence in most major U.S. media outlets and found its occurrence to be minimal. The team then conducted qualitative interviews with opinion-formers in the sectors comprising the ILO’s tripartite structure, namely business, government, and labor, as well as the media. Finally, the team examined media relations challenges and successes of comparable international organizations like the World Bank and the United Nations Global Compact. Overall, our research demonstrates that the ILO will need to significantly increase its outreach to opinion-formers in order to raise awareness and combat widespread misconceptions about what it does and why.

In order to address these challenges, the report presents two sets of recommendations to bolster the DWA and ILO’s media presence in the U.S. The first focuses on strengthening the relationship between the media and the U.S. offices of the ILO. The second highlights several creative partnerships that the New York office of the ILO may develop with tripartite stakeholders in order to generate sustainable media attention and encourage engagement between the ILO and its constituents.