Juan Somavia, the ILO's director-general, told African ministers that it was necessary to boost the growth of African economies in order to produce the required jobs.
"We need to concentrate on (building) the local economies. We need to concentrate on development and enterprise," he said, adding that Africa must improve productivity to create jobs.
African ministers are in Durban preparing for a summit starting on Monday to wind down the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and launch the African Union (AU).
Somavia said 90% of Africa's population lacked adequate social protection, and African women were concentrated in the most vulnerable forms of employment in the informal economy. He gave no further details.
Somavia added that the majority of African child labourers were also "trapped" in the informal economy.
"I urge Africa to put employment as an objective of its macro-conomic policies. Make the delivery of a steadily increasing number of decent jobs one of the key indicators of the future success of the African Union," he added.
Somavia also urged Africans to campaign for a fair, rules-based international system where its values of respect, fraternity, human solidarity and dialogue could flourish.
"The rules of the game (in the world) are not fair. Competition is necessary, but not through a system that favours the strong and weakens the weak," said Somavia, adding that developing countries felt that global financial, trading and decision-making structures favoured the industrialised nations.