Decent Work

"The primary goal of the ILO today is to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security, and human dignity." - ILO Director-General Juan Somavia.

Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. It involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.

Decent work should be at the heart of global, national and local strategies for economic and social progress. It is central to efforts to reduce poverty, and a means for achieving equitable, inclusive and sustainable development. The ILO works to promote decent work through its work on employment, social protection, standards and fundamental principles and rights at work and social dialogue.

In each of these areas, people throughout the world face deficits, gaps and exclusions in the form of unemployment and underemployment, poor quality and unproductive jobs, unsafe work and insecure income, rights which are denied, gender inequality, migrant workers who are exploited, lack of representation and voice, and inadequate protection and solidarity in the face of disease, disability and old age. ILO programmes aim to find solutions to these problems.

Progress towards decent work calls for action at the global level, mobilizing the principal actors of the multilateral system and the global economy around this agenda. At the national level, integrated decent work country programmes, developed by ILO constituents, define the priorities and the targets within national development frameworks. The ILO, working in partnership with others within and beyond the UN family, provides in-depth expertise and key policy instruments for the design and implementation of these programmes, for the building of institutions to carry them forward, and for the measurement of progress.

Promoting decent work is a shared responsibility of the ILO's constituents and the Office. In the tripartite ILO, the decent work agenda incorporates the needs and perspectives of the governments, employer's and workers' organization that constitute the ILO, mobilizing their energy and resourcefulness, and providing a platform for constructing consensus on social and economic policies.

The 14th Asian Regional Meeting (AsRM) of the ILO held in Busan, Republic of Korea during August-September 2006, noted that the ILO's Decent Work Agenda has become integrated into the national agendas of many countries in the region as well the international development agenda. It also endorsed the Outcome Document of the United Nations World Summit in 2005 and the Ministerial Declaration by the High-Level segment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 2006.

The AsRM concluded that the Member States in the region are convinced that the ILO's Decent Work Agenda can contribute to a sustainable route out of poverty, assist in addressing the growing economic inequalities both within and between countries in the region, and thus makes an important contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The Decent Work Agenda also enables progress towards a fair globalization in which the goals of economic development and social equity are well-balanced.

At the AsRM the Member States committed to Asian Decent Work Decade - for the period up to 2015 - during which they will make a concerted and sustained effort to realize decent work in all countries of the diverse continent. Further, the tripartite constituents of the countries of the region committed to the achievement of specific decent work outcomes in accordance with their respective national circumstances and priorities, and to cooperate on specific initiatives at the regional level where joint action and sharing of knowledge and expertise will contribute to making decent work a reality by 2015.