Workshop on 

Good Health and Decent Work for Sustainable Development: Reshaping Infectious Disease Control and the Future of Work

The event was organized in partnership with KNTA STOP-TB Partnership KOREA, whose main mandate is to engage in eradicating tuberculosis, an infectious disease that represents severance and poverty. This capacity development workshop provided the participants with an opportunity to have a closer look at challenges and opportunities in the two main contexts: good health and well-being, and labor market policy/recovery for ensuring decent work. A series of expert lectures and a panel discussion session allowed the participants to rethink infectious disease control and the changing world of work in the pandemic context and beyond.  

The special panel discussion on the first day of the workshop touched upon some different issues in the context of COVID-19 and the future of work: right to health from the perspective of migrant workers, pandemic-induced employment changes and digital labor platforms, and the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on labor market. All panelists agreed on the need for bold, proactive, coherent, integrated and coordinated efforts to build sustainable future, along with a whole-of-society approach and tailored policy interventions. 

The final workshop session took stock of how to control infectious diseases, mainly focusing on tuberculosis(TB). The medical experts in the infectious disease area introduced the cases in Korea such as both treatment and management of tuberculosis, a TB double reading program put in place, and medical check-up process for foreign employees in Korea.