The head of the International Labour Organisation's Pacific arm says a meeting in Vanuatu has backed the need for increased access to what's called decent work.
Trevor Riordan says the term applies to work that's freely chosen, productive, free from harrassment and fairly paid.
Ministers from Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu are attending the Port Vila meeting, which began yesterday.
Mr Riordan says he's hoping for a high level of political commitment from them to the plan's four priority areas - international labour standards, employment, social protection and institutional strength - as the meeting wraps up today.
"What we're hoping for is that the ministers that are here, they will say that they understand the issues, that jobs and decent work are absolutely at the heart of their national agenda and that they will commit themselves within government to allocate resources to the decent work country programme."
