ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations
ILO home > About the ILO > How the ILO works > Departments and offices > INTEGRATION home > Themes > Mainstreaming decent work
Mainstreaming decent work
Full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people, is the most effective route out of poverty. The global financial and economic crisis has further emphasized the need to fully integrate ILO’s decent work approach in a broader economic and social strategy to stave off the slowdown, stimulate recovery and shape a fair globalization. The Policy Integration Department collaborates with other ILO departments in assisting constituents to incorporate decent work in national economic, social and environmental policies and programmes.
The UN Chief Executives Board for Coordination, a body that brings together heads of UN agencies and Bretton Woods institutions, has endorsed the Toolkit for Mainstreaming Employment and Decent Work as an instrument to promote decent work. The Toolkit, developed with support from the European Commission within the Decent Work Campaign, is a framework to achieve policy coherence and cooperation by assisting UN agencies, as well as governments and social partners, to integrate and improve decent work outcomes in their own policies and programmes.
Building partnerships and promoting the Decent Work Agenda in the programmes and activities of other UN and multilateral agencies is also a key strategy to improve decent work outcomes at the national level. Through awareness raising initiatives, research, policy dialogue, technical support and capacity building, the Policy Integration Department contributes to the development of tools, materials and know-how for constituents, policy makers and other multilateral agencies to understand and mainstream key decent work issues.
Decent Work and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) go hand in hand. The ILO’s Decent Work Agenda offers an integrated approach which can contribute to accelerating progress towards the achievement of all the MDGs.
CEB Toolkit
-
The Toolkit for Mainstreaming Employment and Decent Work was developed to assist UN agencies, as well as governments and social partners, respond to the international mandate of promoting decent work and help them integrate and improve decent work outcomes in their own policies and programmes.At the 2005 World Summit of the United Nations General Assembly, heads of States and governments of more than 150 countries recognized decent work as an international development goal:“We strongly support fair globalization and resolve to make the goals of full and productive employment and decent work for all, including for women and young people, a central objective of our relevant national and international policies as well as our national development strategies, including poverty reduction strategies, as part of our efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. These measures should also encompass the elimination of the worst forms of child labour, as defined in International Labour Organization Convention No. 182, and forced labour. We also resolve to ensure full respect for the fundamental principles and rights at work.” (World Summit Outcome Document, paragraph 47)This commitment was reaffirmed in 2006 when the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted a ministerial declaration recognizing decent work as essential for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a fair globalization and poverty reduction. The declaration called on the UN system to support countries in their efforts to include the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda in their development policies.
Application
-
Two self-assessment checklists set out questions that every organization can ask itself to assess and refine its policies, strategies and programmes in order to reach its objectives by drawing on the values of decent work. The first checklist is for the use of multilateral organizations at the global level; the second is for stakeholder use at the country level. Both are based on the four pillars of the Decent Work Agenda – rights, employment, protection, and dialogue. These are mutually supportive and inseparable, and this is reflected in the checklist.
-
An interactive platform has been developed for knowledge management and sharing. It comprises practical and knowledge-based tools. It also includes good practices from different countries and regions. Users can provide feedback, identify knowledge gaps, set up discussion fora for collaboration and post their own tools.
-
The ILO has provided a range of training activities as part of the Toolkit implementation to strengthen knowledge of the Decent Work Agenda, drawing on the technical expertise from various departments and staff in the field.
-
The Toolkit has been adapted to be used at country level to assist UN Country Teams, national constituents and stakeholders, and other development partners to mainstream employment and decent work in national development frameworks. A checklist for use specifically at country-level was developed.
Decent Work and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
-
Decent work is widely recognized as an international development goal. In 2007, a new target was added to MDG 1, thus confirming that full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people, is one of the most effective routes out of poverty.With only a few years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the MDGs, enhanced commitment, policies, resources and efforts are needed if the goals are to be met. The MDGs are indivisible and complementary and focus toward their achievements should not shift from one to the other.The Decent Work Agenda offers an integrated approach which can contribute to accelerating progress towards the achievement of all the MDGs. This was highlighted by the Secretary General in his report to the General Assembly in February 2010 on achieving the MDGs and in the outcome document for the MDG Summit that took place in September 2010.
