The global development agenda beyond 2015: employment and decent work for all

Stephen PurseyMultilateral Cooperation Department

ILO( April 2014

MYWORLD UN Global Survey

Main outcomes of post-2015 UN consultations: People need better job opportunities

MyWorld survey: Proportion of people from each country who selected jobs as one oftheir priorities in the post-2015 agenda

Thinking about jobs: how can we make people’s concerns central in the new agenda?

Recent trends in global economy and implications for employment and growth

Designing a new comprehensive, universal and integrated sustainable development framework

Strategies for employment and growth

Policy mechanisms to promote more equitable and sustainable employment trends

Scale of the Global Jobs Challenge

Crisis-related jobs gap widened to 62 million jobs lost since 2008

Mixed trends in reduction of working poverty

From 55.2 per cent in 2000, the share of $2 a day working poor declined to 32.1 per cent in 2012, but remained at nearly 60 per cent in LDCs. Progress uneven across regions, with more than 87 per cent of reduction in East Asia.

More than half developing world workforce self-employed or unpaid family workers – likely to be informal.

15 per cent of developing world’s total workforce still living on below $1.25 a day - nearly 400 million workers - two thirds in South Asia and Sub Saharan African - mainly in agriculture.

Two-thirds of Africans working but living in poverty

Incidence of working poverty remains high in Africa Total working poor rising to around 200 million

workers

Employment Transformation

Movement of working women and men from less productive work that barely yields a living, to better jobs.

Economic transformation helps create opportunities for decent work, and more and better jobs feeds back into growth dynamics making it more inclusive and sustainable.

Access to safe, productive and fairly remunerated work is a key vehicle for individuals and families to gain self-esteem, a sense of belonging to a community and a way to make a productive contribution.

Jobs and environmental, economic and social sustainability challenges

Transforming consumption, production and employment patterns onto trajectories that do not damage our environment.

Developing countries exports to high income countries much less buoyant requiring a reorientation of growth drivers towards national markets and South South trade.

Most higher income and some middle income countries moving into an era of population ageing.

World labour force increasing by over 40 million per year, but gradually declining. To keep pace with the growth, which mainly in developing world, close the crisis jobs gap, some 670 million new jobs needed by 2030 ,more to raise female participation.

Employment and social policies to manage transformations

New policies to crowd in investment in the real economy, - not just lower interest rates, but dedicated finance for smaller enterprises, support to innovation and ITC, green industries, and labour-intensive public infrastructure programmes in the poorest countries.

Skills for youth, women and for industries and workers in transitions.

Well-designed policies and institutions, including minimum wages and employment protection laws, which build fair and efficient labour markets and smooth formalization.

Investment in social protection and, for the poorest countries, social protection floors offering a basic set of income and health guarantees.

Employment and social policies to manage transformations (continued)

A focus on gender equality, through for example investment in early child hood day care facilities and stepped up anti-discrimination legislation.

A sufficient tax base, progressive tax systems and restraints to tax-motivated illicit financial flows, in order to generate public revenues to support productive and social investments.

Remedying the dearth of information about the numbers, tenure and quality of jobs. Improvement in the collection and availability of labour market statistics promotes employment creation because of its implications for accountability, transparency and effectiveness of policy-making.

Decent Work and Development: where is the UN today?

MDGs target 1b “Full and productive Employment

and Decent Work for All” – UN and ILO

Post 2015 Reflection Open Working Group Negotiations Implementation

Messages from the post-2015 global thematic consultation on growth and employment

Adopting a stand-alone goal on employment in the post-2015 agenda with clear and measurable indicators.

Decent jobs for the poor and most vulnerable as a pre-requisite for sustained inclusive growth.

Addressing the structural causes of unemployment and promoting economic diversification and recognizing that governments must be responsible for driving structural transformation through coherent policies.

Development-friendly macroeconomic policies. Expanding social protection systems as a crucial policy tools to reducing

poverty and inequality and fostering social cohesion. Combining expanded social protection with employment generation

programmes especially targeting women and low-skilled workers. Strengthening social dialogue and the voice of workers so as to improve

working conditions and ensure fair distribution of benefits. Complementing official development assistance with reforms in the

international trade, finance and technology transfer systems

http://www.worldwewant2015.org/node/392756

Key reports on Post-2015

The report of the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (HLP) recommended an illustrative global goal on "Creating jobs, sustainable livelihoods and equitable growth".

The Secretary-General’s report to the 68th session of the UNGA on the MDGs in September 2013 noted that inclusive growth, decent employment and social protection had been essential to drive progress on the existing MDGs

The SDSN report suggest a development goal with a target on decent work and a goal on learning with a target on that all youth transition effectively into the labour market, including an indicator on NEETs

The inter-governmental process (OWG): Where do we stand so far?

MDG format: single set of a limited number of action-oriented, concise and easy-to-communicate sustainable development goals (SDGs)

Aspirational/Transformative Universal – ie applicable to all countries, developed and

developing

Measurable – to ensure monitoring and accountability

Integrated – ie balancing economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability

National flexibility – eg in setting targets and indicators that respect national priorities and circumstances

Towards a new set of goals: 19 focus areas identified by the OWG

1. Poverty eradication.

2. Food security and nutrition

3. Health and population dynamics

4. Education

5. Gender equality and women’s empowerment

6. Water and sanitation

7. Energy

8. Economic growth

9. Industrialization

10.Infrastructure

11.Employment and decent work for all

12.Promoting equality

13.Sustainable cities and human settlements

14.Climate

15.Sustainable consumption and production

16.Marine resources, oceans and seas

17.Ecosystems and biodiversity

18.Means of implementation

19.Peaceful and non-violent societies, capable institutions

Transforming the global development trajectory by focussing on jobs

Working out of poverty Sustainable jobs – social, economic and

environmental dimensions Role of employers’ and workers’

organizations: who will implement the new agenda?

Building institutions for inclusive labour markets

National strategies within a global framework for cooperation and coordination

2015 UN connecting to “We the Peoples”