Most of the countries in the South Asia subregion have a large portion of labour force in the informal economy with no coverage of labour laws or access to basic social protection. The Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) for India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been adopted through a process of tripartite consultation as a mechanism to provide technical advisory services by the ILO to the constituents. They have identified employment, including skills development; social protection covering occupational safety and health, working conditions, gender equality and extension of social security to informal economy as priority areas.

The Decent Work Technical Support Team in New Delhi with the team of Specialists is working very closely with the ILO Offices in the subregion on policy issues, action oriented research, demonstration of pilot initiatives through a process of tripartism.

Besides, a number of countries in the subregion are vulnerable to natural disasters like earthquakes (India, Pakistan, Nepal), tsunami (India and Sri Lanka), floods (India, and Bangladesh) and droughts. Further, some of the countries (Afghanistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka) are currently in post-conflict recovery and rehabilitation. The ILO has been actively involved with all stakeholders on recovery and livelihood issues.