Investments, sectoral strategies, and transitions team

Sectoral policies focus on developing a specific sector further, increasing its size, improving its productiveness and its competitiveness, but also with a significant potential to increase its employment intensity. By providing targeted support and incentives to these sectors, governments can, inter alia, stimulate inclusive employment growth, increase the labour force participation rate of targeted groups, such as the vulnerable and the poorest, women, youth, and people with disabilities in workplaces, or encourage the transition to the formality of informal workers.

Sector-specific strategies and new investments are needed to create a new development path which is not just more productive, but also sustainable and inclusive according to the Agenda 2030. Sustainable solutions that create decent jobs and address the root causes of economic, social, and environmental inequalities are needed. Structural transformation can be achieved through evidence-based analysis of the impact of trade and investments on employment, productivity and the environment. Identifying promising sectors, together with country-level assistance to those most in need contribute to this discourse. Employment-intensive investments can offer an entry point for building national capacity and resilience to move forward through the linkage between infrastructure development and employment creation with the use of local labour and resources.

The sectoral analysis also means looking into sub-sectors or product groups and their related global or regional supply chains. It also includes an evaluation of technology choices and their impact on employment, meaning its multiplier effect on different types of workers, at a local or national level, its effect on national capability development, and on the quality of employment (incl. formal, informal). Another related issue is how to mainstream employment in trade and related investment policies. It touches upon questions of supply chains (global, regional) and regional integration and how they can contribute not only to economic, but also social up-grading.

Informal employment is one of the most challenging features of labour markets today. Formalization of the economy is a complex and long-term process that often requires combining interventions on laws and regulations (e.g. e-formality) aiming to promote access to the formal labour market, reduce decent work deficits and foster productivity. This requires a comprehensive policy mix of improved regulatory framework with implementation mechanism, but also a development approach focusing on new formal jobs creation and skills and enterprise development.

The Investments, Sectoral Strategies and Transitions team is promoting the creation of decent employment to address particularly the transition to formal employment, but also un(under)employment by:

• Promoting the inclusion of employment considerations into trade, investment, industrial and general sectoral policies
• Measuring the employment impact, (quantity and quality), and employment potentials of investments, sectoral (incl. industrial, trade) and employment policies and interventions to improve future policy design and investment decisions
  Supporting economic diversification, complexification and structural change for enhancing employment and productivity growth to maximize the employment impact of sectoral (incl. industrial and trade) policies by identifying promising sectors that foster the links between international trade and employment
• Promoting an integrated policy framework that facilitates various transitions: from the informal to the formal economy, the digital economy or the demographic change leading to a rise in the care economy.

These areas of work are carried out through:

• technical assistance and policy advice
• research and knowledge development
• capacity building and awareness-raising of the constituents, but also the larger public.

The work of the team is guided by relevant ILO’s Conventions and Recommendations:

the Employment Policy Convention C122, Recommendation 204 concerning the transition from the informal to formal economy and Recommendation 205 on Employment and Decent Work for Peace and Resilience as well as the ILO’s initiative on Global Coalition for Social Justice and the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions.