Building resilience through fair and inclusive employment
As we approach the Second World Summit for Social Development in November of this year, our collective commitment to decent work through a renewed social contract is being sorely tested. Geopolitical conflicts and environmental, demographic and technological upheavals, both immediate and long term, along with an increasing disenchantment with domestic and international institutions, threaten to undermine the progress we have made since the first WSSD in 1995.
That is why, arm in arm with the recently launched Global Coalition for Social Justice, we must recommit ourselves to reinforcing the positive developments the world has witnessed since 1995, and to chart the steps for further advances for social justice. Working jointly, we can renew and reinvigorate the call for social justice by identifying successes, challenges and mechanisms to move forward.
To inform the discussion at the WSSD and help strengthen the Global Coalition, the International Labour Organization is publishing a report on the state of social justice in the world of work, examining advances and setbacks since 1995. While some data are sobering, the research reaffirms the complex and indissociable relationship between human rights and labour rights over a century of international law. Our research shows that many of the indicators linked to human rights greatly improved in the first two decades after the first World Summit for Social Development, but advances have slowed significantly over the last 10 years. Child labour, for example, fell from 21% in 1995 to 10% in 2015, but has not dropped even a tenth of a percentage point since then. This same trend holds true for poverty, deaths due to occupational disease and work accidents, and labour productivity – where the data reveal real improvements since 1995, but a plateau in the decade since 2015.
Maintaining the momentum
Although the world is generally moving towards social justice, progress is uneven – between indicators, regions and groups of people. Educational completion rates have gone up throughout the world since 1995, but this laudable achievement has not been accompanied by a narrowing of the gender employment gap. Overall, advances in equal access to opportunity have lagged, leaving much work to be done to address employment, formalisation and entrepreneurship gaps, notably those relating to age, gender and disability. These disparities have barely budged despite the advances in education.
In addition, compliance with freedom of association and collective bargaining rights has shown a clear deterioration in recent years and union membership has gone down. The importance of social dialogue to decent work and social justice is why, among the challenges identified in the ILO report, these setbacks are among the most worrisome. Freedom of association and collective bargaining constitute one of the five principles and rights at work because it is recognised to be a crucial enabling human and labour right. Social dialogue is both a mandate and an obligation for the ILO and all the countries that comprise it.
Evidence-based policies deliver progress
It is important to recognise, however, as we look at developments since 1995, that the overall trend – even if with some exceptions – reveals impressive advances from that year until the 2008 global financial crisis, followed by stagnation. The data show us that substantial advances in social justice are possible but are never guaranteed. Evidence-based policies make a real difference. Our data expose the linkage between minimum wages, access to education and training, social protection, and social dialogue. Such policies, when accompanied by complementary educational, sectoral and labour market policies focused on creating decent and productive employment, including in the care, green and digital economies, have driven real
progress.
At the 2025 Kananaskis Summit, G7 leaders can profoundly shape our shared future by showing their commitment to the data- and evidence-based policies that provide the tools and framework for the way forward on a renewed social contract built on social justice. G7 leadership can help catalyse countries around the world to pursue the sustainable, inclusive programmes and strategies that have been shown to change people’s lives for the better. As we look to the second World Summit on Social Development, our renewed, collective commitment can forge the conditions that enable all people to work in freedom and dignity; enjoy equal access to opportunities for full, productive and freely chosen employment that provides economic security and enables them to thrive; derive a fair share from their productive endeavours and social contributions; and, where transitions are necessary over their lifetimes to experience them with justice and dignity.
