December 2022 - You are accessing an archived version of our website. This website is no longer maintained or updated. The Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform has been migrated here: https://sdgs.un.org/

Decisions by Topic: Employment, decent work for all and social protection
A/RES/70/1 - Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

1.3 Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable

Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

2.3 By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment

Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

3.c Substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed countries and small island developing States

Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical
and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

5.4 Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure
and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family
as nationally appropriate

Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and
decent work for all

8.1 Sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 per
cent gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries
8.2 Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors
8.3 Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services
8.4 Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour
to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, with developed countries taking the lead
8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for
young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value
8.6 By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training
8.7 Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking
and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms
8.8 Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment
8.9 By 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products
8.10 Strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance
and financial services for all

8.a Increase Aid for Trade support for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, including through the Enhanced Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance to Least Developed Countries

8.b By 2020, develop and operationalize a global strategy for youth employment and implement the Global Jobs Pact of the International Labour Organization

Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster
innovation

9.2 Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry’s share of
employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, and double its share in least
developed countries
9.5 Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in
particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the
number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and
development spending

Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

10.4 Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality


A/RES/69/313- Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (Addis Ababa Action Agenda)

16. Generating full and productive employment and decent work for all and promoting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. To enable all people to benefit from growth, we will include full and productive employment and decent work for all as a central objective in our national development strategies. We will encourage the full and equal participation of women and men, including persons with disabilities, in the formal labour market. We note that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, which create the vast majority of jobs in many countries, often lack access to finance. Working with private actors and development banks, we commit to promoting appropriate, affordable and stable access to credit to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as adequate skills development training for all, particularly for youth and entrepreneurs. We will promote national youth strategies as a key instrument for meeting the needs and aspirations of young people. We also commit to developing and operationalizing, by 2020, a global strategy for youth employment and implementing the International Labour Organization (ILO) Global Jobs Pact.


A/RES/66/288 - The Future We Want

147. We recognize that poverty eradication, full and productive employment and decent work for all, and social integration and protection are interrelated and mutually reinforcing, and that enabling environments to promote these need to be created at all levels.

148. We are concerned about labour market conditions and widespread deficits of available decent work opportunities, especially for young women and men. We urge all governments to address the global challenge of youth employment by developing and implementing strategies and policies that provide young people everywhere access to decent and productive work, as over the coming decades decent jobs will need to be created to be able to ensure sustainable and inclusive development and reduce poverty.

149. We recognize the importance of job creation by investing in and developing sound, effective and efficient economic and social infrastructure and productive capacities for sustainable development and sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth. We call on countries to enhance infrastructure investment for sustainable development and we agree to support United Nations funds, programmes and agencies to help assist and promote the efforts of developing countries, particularly the least developed countries, in this regard.

150. We recognize the importance of job creation by adopting forward-looking macroeconomic policies that promote sustainable development and lead to sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth, increase productive employment opportunities and promote agricultural and industrial development.

151. We emphasize the need to enhance employment and income opportunities for all, especially for women and men living in poverty and, in this regard, we support national efforts to provide new job opportunities to the poor in both rural and urban areas, including support to small and medium-sized enterprises.

152. We recognize that workers should have access to education, skills, health care, social security, fundamental rights at work, social and legal protections, including occupational safety and health, and decent work opportunities. Governments, trade unions, workers and employers all have a role to play in promoting decent work for all, and all should help young people to gain access to needed skills and employment opportunities, including in new and emerging sectors. Women and men should have equal access to opportunities to acquire job skills as well as to worker protections. We recognize the importance of a just transition, including programmes to help workers adjust to changing labour market conditions.

153. We also recognize that informal unpaid work, performed mostly by women, contributes substantially to human well-being and sustainable development. In this regard, we commit to work towards safe and decent working conditions and access to social protection and education.

154. We recognize that opportunities for decent work for all and job creation can be generated through, inter alia, public and private investments in scientific and technological innovation, public works in restoring, regenerating and conserving natural resources and ecosystems, and social and community services. We are encouraged by government initiatives to create jobs for poor people in restoring and managing natural resources and ecosystems, and we encourage the private sector to contribute to decent work for all and job creation for both women and men, and particularly for young people, including through partnerships with small and medium-sized enterprises and cooperatives. In this regard, we acknowledge the importance of efforts to promote the exchange of information and knowledge on decent work for all and job creation, including green jobs initiatives and related skills, and to facilitate the integration of relevant data into national economic and employment policies.

155. We encourage the sharing of experiences and best practices on ways to address the high levels of unemployment and underemployment, in particular among young people.

156. We stress the need to provide social protection to all members of society, fostering growth, resilience, social justice and cohesion, including those who are not employed in the formal economy. In this regard, we strongly encourage national and local initiatives aimed at providing social protection floors for all citizens. We support global dialogue on best practices for social protection programmes that takes into account the three dimensions of sustainable development and, in this regard, we note ILO Recommendation 202 concerning national floors of social protection.

157. We call upon States to promote and protect effectively the human rights and fundamental freedom of all migrants regardless of migration status, especially those of women and children, and to address international migration through international, regional or bilateral cooperation and dialogue and a comprehensive and balanced approach, recognizing the roles and responsibilities of countries of origin, transit and destination in promoting and protecting the human rights of all migrants, and avoiding approaches that might aggravate their vulnerability.


E/CN.17/2005/12 - Report on the 13th session (30 April 2004 and 11-22 April 2005)

(p) Provide an enabling policy and regulatory environment and mobilize the requisite means of implementation, including through regional cooperation and international support, including increased financial resources to promote sustainable human settlements development in both urban and rural areas, in accordance with
national priorities;

Integrated planning and management

(q) Support integrated planning and management of human settlements, incorporating land use, housing, water supply and sanitation, waste management, energy, employment and income-generation, education and health-care services, transportation and other infrastructure, giving due consideration to urbanization
trends, in particular, to the needs of the urban poor in implementing the Millennium Declaration, with a view to preventing new slum formation, by:

(i) Integrating urban-rural linkages into national planning processes and promoting further research to inform policies and measures to manage urbanization;
(ii) Integrating slum upgrading and slum prevention into national development planning, taking into account social, economic, cultural and environmental aspects;
(iii) Including natural disaster risk mitigation, early warning, preparedness and post-disaster considerations and related capacity-building measures in human settlements planning and development, including at regional level;
(iv) Establishing and strengthening regional and subregional initiatives for human settlements planning and development, and supporting such initiatives through capacity-building and resource mobilization;
(v) Strengthening capacities for waste management, including through implementation of the relevant international instruments including the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal;
(vi) Promoting increased participation of all stakeholders, in particular women and youth as well as slum-dwellers and their organizations, in planning, implementation and, where appropriate, decision-making processes;
(vii) Decentralizing responsibilities to local authorities depending on national circumstances, specificities and legal frameworks accompanied by capacitybuilding and corresponding transfer of resources;
(viii) Promoting international networking for information exchange among local authorities and stakeholders, including for the implementation of Local Agendas 21;
(ix) Resolving to take further effective measures to remove obstacles to the full realization of the rights of the peoples living under colonial and foreign occupation, which are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person and must be combated and eliminated;

Access to affordable land, housing and basic services

(r) Assist in providing access for the poor, in urban and rural areas, to decent and affordable housing and basic services, in accordance with the Habitat Agenda, through:

(i) Achieving, by 2020, a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers, as proposed in the ?Cities without slums? initiative;
(ii) Designing pro-poor policies, with a focus on tenure security and access to affordable serviced land;
(iii) Promoting stable and transparent land markets and strengthening land administration;
(iv) Targeting subsidies to poor people for housing and basic services, including the consideration of loans and subsidies that reflect the payment capabilities of the poor for housing and basic services;
(v) Improving equal access to basic services and land tenure, with particular attention to the equal rights of women to own and inherit land and other property and to access credit markets;
(vi) Promoting public-private partnerships for financing and developing infrastructure and affordable housing;
(vii) Strengthening enforcement capacity for building codes and laws in the housing sector;
(viii) Promoting research, production and use of local construction technologies and building materials and integrating traditional knowledge and practices, as appropriate, in national housing policies;
(ix) Facilitating transfer of technology for low-cost housing construction using local materials;
(x) Strengthening the capital base and building the financial capacity of community savings and microfinance institutions serving the poor;
(xi) Encouraging donors and international financial institutions to provide innovative financing for low-income housing and community improvement, including through loan guarantees, seed capital for revolving funds, and
facilitating access of local authorities to capital markets;
(xii) Providing increased financial assistance, including by multilateral and regional development banks, for slum prevention and upgrading;
(xiii) Providing support to refugee host countries in developing and rehabilitating infrastructure and environment, including affected ecosystems and habitats;

Employment and enterprise promotion

(s) Support national measures encouraging private sector investment, entrepreneurship and job-creation, including the following:
(i) Incorporating employment and enterprise development policies into national planning and slum prevention and upgrading programmes;
(ii) Facilitating the development of the microfinance sector;
(iii) Enhancing capacity in managerial, environmental and technical skills of small and medium-sized enterprises, including in the informal economy, to improve their access to finance and marketing opportunities;
(iv) Providing education and vocational training to women and youth, particularly the urban poor, to improve their access to decent jobs, combining provision of financial services with mentoring, business training and
counselling;


United Nations