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.