ILO Reform: Questions and answers

The reform aims to strengthen our capacity to deliver on the ILO’s core mandate of promoting decent work for social justice. It seeks to make the ILO more agile and resilient, with improved operational efficiency, a balanced strategic focus and effective delivery of services, and reinforced technical capacity in the regions.

In a period of profound transformation in the world of work, heightened expectations of multilateral institutions and tightening resource conditions, the reform presents a forward-looking response to global change, while reaffirming the enduring relevance of the ILO’s founding purpose, values and comparative advantages.

The ILO reform was initiated by the Director-General in 2025. The ILO Governing Body in November 2025 supported the strategic vision of the reform, and asked for its further development and proposals for reprioritization. These have been discussed by the Governing Body in March 2026.

The ILO – like the rest of the UN system – is operating in an evolving global context marked by increasing demands on multilateral institutions, resource constraints and growing expectations for demonstrated impact by constituents and donors.

The ILO must evolve to this changing context to continue to remain a trusted and effective actor in advancing its mandate and priorities. This requires reaffirming the Organization’s unique tripartite character and normative role, modernizing its operations and outputs to remain responsive, results-oriented, and financially sustainable, while ensuring the capabilities and well-being of its staff.

The reform encompasses everything we do and how we do it. It seeks to make the ILO more streamlined and resilient, through improved operational efficiency, a balanced strategic focus and effective delivery of information and services.

The reform reaffirms the ILO’s core strengths: standard setting and supervision, tripartism and social dialogue, high-quality policy advice and institutional capacity building across the four pillars of the Decent Work Agenda.

The reform will reprioritize the ILO programme and focus its activities on its core mandate. The organizational structure will be realigned accordingly and technical capacity in the regions will be reinforced. The reform will also seek closer strategic alignment and coordination between headquarters and the field structure.

The reform is organized around three pillars:

• Reprioritization and reorganization of the Office;
• Reinforcement of field capacity, and stronger strategic alignment and synergies between headquarters and the field;
• Strengthened strategic planning, support services and office infrastructure.

A number of task teams have been appointed by the ILO Director-General to develop proposals for specific areas of the reform, for future consideration by the ILO Director-General.

The reform is driven by a strategic vision to ensure the future impact and resilience of the Organization. It also recognizes that in a context of reduced resources, the ILO must sharpen its focus on its core mandate and strengthen both efficiency and effectiveness.

Recognizing the risk of a shortfall in resources and a challenging economic environment, the reform includes measures to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. In the current biennium, the ILO will adjust the implementation of its Programme & Budget in accordance with its financial possibilities.

Over the coming two biennia, the reform proposes a phased reduction of regular budget allocations amounting to savings of 12.5 per cent of the budget approved for 2026-27. This will include a gradual reduction of around 120 staff positions through a combination of agreed terminations and the non-replacement of some retirements.

The Office will also introduce additional cost efficiencies in its global administration and service delivery. These proposals are presented in the GB.356/INS/7 paper discussed by the Governing Body in March 2026.

A situation in which the ILO experiences a significant shortfall in budgeted income would place the Organization in a markedly different situation from the reform scenario outlined in document GB.356/INS/7. Considering this risk, in line with its prudent resource management, the Office is preparing contingency plans.

Governing Body document GB.356/PFA/4 presents the financial implications of the ILO reform on the regular budget approved for 2026–27 and outlines the impact of additional temporary measures that would need to be implemented in the event of an income shortfall of up to 20 per cent in assessed contributions for the biennium.

Should such a shortfall materialize, decisions on specific measures would have to be taken by the Director-General following a thorough assessment of the financial situation. The response to a budget shortfall would necessarily involve significant cost-saving measures, including a freeze on recruitments, an additional reduction of non-staff costs, and the possible abolition of up to 350 posts as of January 2027, in addition to the estimated 60 positions to be abolished in 2026 as part of the reform process. The decision to move to this scenario would need to be taken in the third quarter of 2026 at the latest.

In a context of reduced resources, the reform will pursue a coherent and robust operating model that is grounded in a clear division of responsibilities between headquarters and the field, supporting a shared vision and agenda.

A task team is examining options for a Global Service Centre and will make recommendations for the consolidation, standardization and modernization of transactional, operational and support functions across the Office.

The task team will make recommendations on administrative and operational areas, including procurement, finance, IT, logistics, programming support functions, development cooperation quality appraisals and administrative support for development cooperation projects, in line with UN system practices.

The reform also advances a vision of the ILO as a truly global organization – one that is firmly grounded in a deep understanding of regional and national realities.

A task team has been appointed to analyse and make proposals for how the reform will strengthen technical capacity in the regions, including through the redeployment of technical specialist positions from headquarters to the field, and enhance responsiveness to the needs of Member States and social partners.

In the context of the UN80 process, the ILO is also discussing how it can contribute to a rationalization of the UN country-level delivery model.

As a UN specialized agency, the ILO is actively contributing to the UN80 process. As part of broader transformations in the multilateral system, including the UN80 initiative, the reform positions the ILO as a constructive and distinctive contributor to a more coherent, effective and integrated UN architecture. It seeks to strengthen the Organization’s leadership role in shaping global responses to the challenges facing the world of work.

The ILO's UN80 engagement provides opportunities to leverage partnerships, improve system-wide coordination and amplify impact. The Office will continue to engage proactively in UN80-related initiatives, making practical use of emerging mechanisms where appropriate, and ensuring that such engagement supports the delivery of results for constituents in full respect of the ILO’s governance framework and strategic direction.

The ILO’s work will continue to be guided by its tripartite structure, where representatives of governments, employers and workers organizations have equal voice in its deliberations.

This structure ensures that the views of the social partners are reflected in the ILO standards, policies and programmes. Accordingly, the proposed reform focuses on strengthening:

• the relevance, effectiveness, impact and authoritativeness of the ILO’s normative and non-normative activities at headquarters and in the field;
• the capacity of employers’ and workers’ organizations to shape workplace transformations towards decent work;
• work-related institutions and systems to translate and adapt shared commitments to national and local realities.

The Office will maintain the policy and enabling outcomes of the Programme and Budget for 2026–27 adopted by the International Labour Conference as the priorities for the biennium. These outcomes are clearly linked to the four priority areas of the ILO’s Strategic Plan for 2026–29.

However, following a reprioritization exercise carried out by the Office at the request of the Governing Body, some areas of work will be consolidated, adjusted or discontinued, while development cooperation projects will be more closely aligned with the ILO’s mandate and strategic priorities. The proposed areas for reprioritization are detailed in the GB.356/INS/7 paper. The potential impact of these measures on ILO staff will be part of the social dialogue with the Staff Union.

The reform provides an opportunity to further consolidate the ILO’s excellence in standard setting and supervision, while also strengthening its capacity for policy advice and institutional capacity building across the four pillars of the Decent Work Agenda – employment, rights at work, social protection, and social dialogue – with particular attention to the effective realization of the fundamental principles and rights at work. Normative leadership and high-quality technical support are mutually reinforcing and together form the core of the ILO’s added value.

The ILO will refocus its efforts on its core strengths: upstream policy support and institutional capacity building.

The reform will strengthen strategic, timely and robust research and statistical work to reinforce the ILO’s evidence base and policy influence, while consolidating the Organization’s role as a global centre of excellence on the world of work.

The ILO is refocusing its efforts on its core strengths: upstream policy support and institutional capacity building. The ILO will no longer engage in direct humanitarian service delivery, and our involvement in just transition will be specifically limited to addressing impacts on workers and enterprises rather than extending into environmental management or adaptation-focused delivery.

The ILO will refocus the Employment-Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) toward upstream policy and institutional frameworks. This will mean limiting micro-level project implementation to only the most critical contexts, as other UN entities are better positioned to deliver large-scale infrastructure. In these instances, the ILO will continue to collaborate with partners to ensure that decent work principles are respected and to demonstrate how high-level policy advice translates into tangible results on the ground.

The ILO will streamline and reorganize its headquarters structure including its senior management team, and will merge some policy departments. The new organizational structure is expected to be fully implemented by the end of 2026.

The ILO is also reviewing the deployment of some technical specialist positions with a view to strengthening its field capacity. This will be subject to consultation/negotiation with the ILO Staff Union. The process for the appointment of the Deputy Director-General is ongoing, in accordance with established ILO governance procedures.

Pending the confirmation of the Deputy Director-General, policy department directors will report to the Director-General's Office. Further information will be shared with staff once the process has been concluded.

The Office will undertake a review of the four priority action programmes by June 2026. The results of this review will be integrated into the ongoing reprioritization of the programme of work.

The ILO’s headquarters in Geneva will remain the strategic and political centre of the Organization, which will continue to work closely with host authorities, and ensure synergies with the other organizations and permanent missions of Member States located in the Geneva area.

While core capacity will be maintained in Geneva, a phased relocation of positions is proposed by the reform. Several options are being considered:

• the relocation of selected technical specialist positions from headquarters to strengthen regional capacity;
• the relocation of certain project staff from headquarters to the regions;
• the relocation of the Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, and the Regional Office for Arab States, to alternative locations;
• the consolidation of support services in a global service centre.

These relocation options and their consequences on the conditions of employment of staff are subject to consultation/negotiation with the Staff Union.

The Office has decided to put on hold the relocation of specific teams or units of headquarters departments previously mentioned at the Governing Body session in November 2025. It will be reassessed considering the first results achieved through the reform, the evolving financial situation and further guidance of the Governing Body.

The Director-General has appointed a task team to analyse and make recommendations for the establishment of a Global Service Centre with the purpose of streamlining the delivery of transactional, administrative and support services in a coherent global services model.

The task team will review the related activities performed by the service departments and units, the management support units at ILO's Headquarters as well as in regions and external offices, to identify the possibilities for relocation and centralization of administrative and support functions. The assessment will be based both on the identification of processes that are already centralized and the assessment of additional processes with strong potential for centralization. It will also be aligned with the UN80 discussions, including the work package on unified services and other efficiencies.

The scope of the Global Service Centre would potentially cover areas such as HR, procurement, finance, IT, logistics, programming support functions, DC quality appraisals and administrative support for development cooperation projects.

Proposals related to conditions of employment of staff will be subject to consultation/negotiation with the ILO Staff Union.

The Director-General has committed to ensuring continuous and structured consultation with staff as a core principle of the reform, through an online ideas platform, multiple consultations, meetings and Town Halls, and through dialogue with the Staff Union representatives. A diverse range of staff is also involved in the task teams for the reform.

The reform recognizes the central role of staff in delivering the ILO mandate and the importance of enhancing organizational agility and resilience, fostering innovation, and promoting a culture of collaboration and continuous learning.

The Office is fully committed to upholding its duty of care. All matters that may affect the terms and conditions of employment of staff are subject to ongoing social dialogue and negotiations with the Staff Union.