Building a better future and keeping the promises of the 2030 Agenda

The ILO and the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions

In addition to claiming more than 6.3 million lives, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented loss of jobs and livelihoods. This has exacerbated income insecurity around the world, particularly for the more than half of the global population without any access to social protection, including the 2 billion workers in the informal economy. The pandemic has contributed to increasing the financing gaps for social protection by at least 30 per cent, as countries have sought to mitigate the health and economic effects of the crisis, while revenues were falling due to lower growth and trade. Constrained by higher debt burdens, countries now face a difficult trade-off between increasing much-needed public investments to overcome the crisis, achieve a human-centred recovery and facilitate the structural transformations and just transitions that are necessary to achieve the SDGs and beyond, and, on the other hand, containing debt vulnerabilities.

A Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection is needed to channel national and international, public and private investments into social protection for the four billion people who fall outside any existing coverage and to create at least 400 million decent jobs, above all in the green and care economies."

ILO Director-General Guy Ryder
In September 2021, the United Nations Secretary-General launched the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions, with the ambition of bringing together member States, international financial institutions, social partners, civil society and the private sector to help countries create 400 million decent jobs, including in the green, digital and care economies, and to extend social protection coverage to the 4 billion people currently excluded. At the initial stage, the Global Accelerator will be implemented in a selected number of pathfinder countries that have considerable potential and are committed to amplifying investments in jobs and social protection. Based on a solid human rights foundation, including a strong reference to international labour standards, and the systematic promotion of social dialogue and participation, the Global Accelerator proposes a coherent framework for action bringing together relevant policy solutions and the necessary investments through enhanced multilateral cooperation.

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Learn more about the Implementation Strategy of the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions by selecting the relevant link under "Key resources".