GLOBAL CONTEXT

The future of work is one of the most contentious development debates today on what is the impact
automation technology like artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics on jobs, skills, and wages and how this
will affect the new types of jobs created and lost across markets and countries. This will change the nature
of work, with models and structure, including independent work, the gig economy, and outsourced
services.
The world is experiencing several significant transitions on technology, climate and demographics that
superposed to existing conditions of the world of work, 300 million working poor, 193 million
unemployed, poor employment conditions, gender disparities, among others, will lead to further
marginalization and inequality if left unattended.
The fast-changing landscape of work will present opportunities and pose risks by exacerbating the
imbalances in paid and unpaid work, with women in disadvantage. A critical issue is to prepare countries
and economies to move towards sustainable work that allows people to work effectively and sustainably
to earn decent living wages.

UNDP’S COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE

UNDP’s focus is on how development policies, decisions and pathways can shape the possibilities for
people to operate in these future economies and societies. UNDP is committed to follow through on the
recommendations of the ILO Global Commission on the Future of Work. UNDP is well positioned to
partner with ILO and other UN agencies on several topics covered by the Commission’s recommendations,
primarily on: closing the gender gap in the world of work; improving measurement of well-being,
environmental externalities and equity; supporting countries towards implementing universal social
protection schemes; and providing country level support to the implementation of future of work national
strategies.

UNDP’S OFFER
More than two in five workers are in vulnerable forms of employment, with women dominating the
unpaid care work sector, in developing and emerging countries. Seventy percent of workers have informal
employment, and more than one fourth of people working live in moderate to extreme poverty.
Given the changing nature of work and jobs, integrated solutions will be needed to achieve the SDGs,
particularly focusing on decent work and economic growth, a carbon neutral economic growth models,
leave no one behind, and digital skills across different entry points: (1) address the issue of working poor
(300 million workers in developing countries are considered working poor) and vulnerability of the
informal economy; (2) increase protection of individuals in spite of their contractual modalities (universal
protection coverage in line with the Commission on the Future of Growth Report); (3) Address the barriers
for full meaningful employment by women (e.g. unpaid care); (4) youth jobs; and (5) support countries to
develop national and sub-national strategies integrating issues related to the future of work.
1. Working poor and the informal economy: address the vulnerabilities and barriers faced by the
working poor and those in the informal economy, helping countries to put strategies into place that
will generate the opportunities needed.
2. Diversifying social protection schemes for universal coverage: including the informal sector, disaster
risk and climate change impacts, particular labour market disruption, distributional impacts, skills
mismatch, the technological divide between developed and developing countries, growing diversity
of forms of employment, protection systems and governance and norms.
3. Barriers for women employment: UNDP will support countries to identify and tackle the structural
barriers that undermine women’s equal participation in the world of work, in particular unpaid care.
Our work providing SDG integrated support to countries show that many countries have not
integrated measures of unpaid care in their planning instruments due to several reasons ranging from
lack of data, capacities or political understanding of the overall implications of unpaid care to the
economy and society.
4. Youth jobs: with particular emphasis on skills development, including entrepreneurship, and support
to productive and trade capacity with priority to expand economic opportunities for youth.1
5. National strategies: On the integration of future of work issues into national strategies, UNDP can
deploy its vast experience in working with national counterparts on development planning, including
analytics and tools, integrating issues of relevance to women, youth, digital transformation, and
informal economy.2

UNDP’s service offer will be structured around four modalities of action to be delivered through a package
of support to UNCTs and UNDP COs:
• Advocacy: This will take the form of think-pieces, with common messages around the themes
identified as priority for collaboration and more broadly on the Future of Work.
• Policy dialogue and mainstreaming: (i) national dialogues for the dissemination of the Report of the
Commission on the Future of Work; (ii) mainstreaming of work considerations in national and sub-
national development plans and other policies and strategies; and (iii) collaboration to foster policy
dialogue at the global and regional level.
• Training and Research: Participation and contribution of UNDP in the Employment Policy Research
series of ILO; joint training of government officials beyond Labour Ministries (e.g. to include Planning,
Finance, Agriculture, etc.), and other stakeholders on employment issues and the Future of Work, at
the ILO’s Turin Training Centre and others; development of a joint research agenda (see potential
topics below).

The ultimate expected delivery is to provide programme support to countries, by advancing collaboration
in regions and countries through the roll-out of a package to support UNCTs and UNDP COs on the future
of work to be integrated into Country Common Assessments (CCAs), UNDP Country Programme
Documents, and the UN Sustainable Development Frameworks (UNSDFs) at UNCT level.

1 See service offer related to UNDP’s work on private sector and the trade service offer.
2 More than half of all non-agricultural employment in most middle- and low-income economies is informal, reaching over 80%
in Central Africa; the proportion of informal employment has risen in many regions over recent decades; the informal economy
accounts for nearly a third of GDP in Latin America, more than half in India and well over 60% of the total GDP of Sub-Saharan
Africa (source: The Informal Economy in Developing Nations: Hidden Engine of Innovation, 2016).

2
The following thematic areas could constitute the focus of joint initiatives and collaboration between
UNDP and ILO, UN Women and other partners with high stakes on the Future of Work agenda.
Issues include: Technology and its implications for sustainable economic development and employment;
climate change and just transitions and skills for a circular economy; demographic transitions; inclusive
structural transition, gender equality and the care economy, and social protection.
Of particular interest to UNDP, under the UN System Wide Strategy on the Future of Work (paragraph 41),
the following is included as relevant research themes:

• Impacts of the future of work on developing countries, with a focus on informal employment;
• The role of human capital and natural capital, with respect to the need for investment in people and
environments;
• Structural transformation processes (including in the rural sector) and the role of industrial policies,
especially in relation to demographic, climate, and technological changes;
• Empowering women, with focus on removing structural barriers to women’s economic empowerment
in both urban and rural areas;
• Preparing young people for the jobs of today and tomorrow, especially in an era of permanent
technological changes and ageing societies;
• The employment and environmental implications of the investment in infrastructure;
• Changing landscape of work in increasingly ageing societies;
• Investing in jobs benefiting the bottom billion; and
• Impacts of increased human mobility on the future of work.