The FAIRWAY Programme

ILO’s FAIRWAY Programme is an interregional initiative designed to strengthen labour migration governance and improve conditions for migrant workers between Africa and the Arab States. In Phase I, the Programme focused on addressing the root causes of decent work deficits through national-level interventions in countries of origin—Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Morocco—and reinforcing reforms in destination countries across the Arab States. Targeting vulnerable sectors such as domestic work and construction, Phase I aimed to engage private sector actors, strengthen gender-responsive policy frameworks, combat discriminatory attitudes, and improve migrant workers' access to information and support services throughout the migration cycle.

Building on these foundations, Phase II (a four-year initiative) deepens the focus on labour migration governance in the Africa-Arab States migration corridor, particularly between East and West Africa and the GCC countries. It adopts a gender-transformative approach, seeking to reshape gender dynamics and address gender-based inequalities, especially within domestic, care, and construction work. Phase II emphasizes fostering inclusive, rights-based dialogue; strengthening cooperation among regional bodies such as the EAC and ECOWAS; supporting reforms in the GCC countries; and protecting and empowering migrant workers to ensure access to fair, safe, and regular migration pathways.

Across both phases, FAIRWAY consistently champions an inclusive rights-based, and collaborative approach to realizing decent work for migrant workers and building resilient labour migration systems across regions.

The FAIRWAY programme addresses underlying causes of decent work deficits at their source through national-level interventions in selected countries of origin in East, West and North Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Morocco). In the Arab States, the programme provides continuity to interventions in countries of destination across the region by building on the work of the Fairway Middle East project (2016-2019), which target low-skilled migrant workers from all regions. With a focus on key sectors where vulnerable migrant workers are engaged—including domestic work and the construction sector—FAIRWAY seeks to address the interlinked structural, behavioural, and practical barriers to improved labour migration.

FAIRWAY works to realise four objectives:

Private sector, employers’, and workers’ organizations are engaged to produce decent work environments for migrant workers
Gender-responsive policy frameworks are developed or strengthened to realise fair recruitment and decent work and regulatory compliance
Discriminatory attitudes towards women and men migrant workers are diminished; and
Migrant workers have improved access to information and support services throughout the migration cycle.

Phase II

Interregional Programme to Promote Decent Work for Migrant Workers from Africa to the Arab States

FAIRWAY Programme Phase II is a four-year interregional development cooperation initiative that aims to improve conditions for migrant workers by strengthening labour migration governance in the labour migration corridor between Africa and the Arab States. Building on the lessons learned and achievements from FAIRWAY Phase I and other ILO projects in the Africa and Arab States regions, the focus of the current phase of the Programme remains on employment sectors where migrant workers are most vulnerable – namely domestic and care work, and construction work.

The Programme adopts a gender transformative approach aiming to support attitude and social changes and to reshape gender dynamics, by addressing the causes of gender-based inequalities.

The Programme focuses on fostering cooperation and consensus building on labour migration governance and the protection of migrant workers, including through the development of common positions among countries of origin in collaboration with the East African Community (EAC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In the Arab States, the Programme expands on existing cooperation with the Ministries of Labour of the GCC countries, the GCC Executive Bureau, as well as with trade unions and employer organizations to focus on bringing about reforms in the GCC countries, with more limited, strategic interventions in Lebanon and Jordan.

ILO FAIRWAY, Phase II reinforces the focus on strengthening labour migration governance in the migration corridor between Africa and the Arab States (particularly the GCC countries) to enable Africans (especially from East and West Africa) migrating for employment to the Arab States to benefit from fair and regular migration pathways with improved access to protection services and decent work opportunities.

The intervention model is based on a gender-sensitive decent work agenda that focuses on three areas of engagement:

Inclusive, rights-based dialogue.
A gender-transformative approach to migration in the context of care work.
Protection and empowerment of migrant workers.

Geographically, this phase of the Programme will focus at a regional and inter-regional level on East Africa, West Africa and the Arab States, with a focus on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with three main outcomes to enhance labour migration governance:

Improved intra and interregional dialogue and cooperation for effective labour migration interventions.
Improved decent work outcomes for women migrant workers in accordance with a gender-transformative agenda (including in the specific context of care work).
Increased protection and empowerment of migrant workers through provision of services, protection of rights and representation (workers’ voice).