The di­rec­tor of the ILO De­cent Work Team and Of­fice for the Caribbean Dr Gio­van­no di Co­la and his wife Sylvie bid farewell to col­leagues and friends last Fri­day at a cock­tail re­cep­tion at the Per­se­ver­ance Road, Mo­ka Res­i­dence of the Aus­tralian High Com­mis­sion­er.

Dr Gio­van­ni di Co­la, a na­tion­al of Italy, was ap­point­ed di­rec­tor of the ILO Of­fice and De­cent Work Team (DWT) for the Caribbean on 1 May 2013. Pri­or to his ap­point­ment he was deputy di­rec­tor from Sep­tem­ber 1, 2009, and of­fi­cer-in-charge from 2012. He was co-or­di­na­tor of the ILO-Uni­ver­si­tas pro­gramme at the De­part­ment of De­vel­op­ment Co­op­er­a­tion and Part­ner­ships at the ILO head­quar­ters. In that ca­pac­i­ty he pro­mot­ed de­cent work through train­ing, in­no­va­tion and knowl­edge-shar­ing among ILO tri­par­tite con­stituents, UN agen­cies, lo­cal and na­tion­al stake­hold­ers and net­works of uni­ver­si­ties in Cen­tral Amer­i­ca and Cu­ba, South­ern and North­ern Africa and the Balka­ns.

Dr di Co­la will be re­turn­ing to the ILO's of­fice in Gene­va, Switzer­land at the end of March.

Mem­bers of the diplo­mat­ic and con­sular corps were among guests at the farewell re­cep­tion.