This brief explores how adopting circular models can create more job opportunities, especially in the services sector. The note shows that the shift to the circular economy has potential for job creation- activities like waste collection, recycling, repair, and remanufacturing are more labour-intensive and could be important segues to job creation. From a skills perspective, the adoption of circular approaches brings to light the importance of skilling, upskilling and digital skill acquisition. In addition, circular jobs will likely demand multidisciplinary and deep technical/industry skills.

This report investigates how Norwegian aid may contribute to reducing emissions while fighting poverty. Three areas where Norway already has a strong record are clean energy, energy transition, nature-based solutions, and sustainable food systems. In addition to these, three areas where there is potential for cooperation are green taxes, the circular economy and urbanization, and green urban development. 

The creative sector is an important source of growth in the global economy, and digital creative trade has increased sharply in recent years and particularly in the context of COVID-19. Digital content is replacing physical goods in the sector, for example, in music, books and gaming. Digital aggregators like Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Spotify, TikTok and YouTube have fuelled rapid growth and diversified earnings towards streaming, ad-supported income and data monetization. Copyright revenues are also rising, and the share of digital collections is the fastest growth segment. Participation in the sector by developing countries appears to be increasing, although data availability is poor. To reap the potential benefits of the digital creative economy, developing countries should support a shift from the typical low value-added, stand-alone practitioner industry model to a strategic collaborative approach that facilitates higher levels of creative and digital entrepreneurship. This will require a stronger legal and institutional framework to improve leverage and monetize copyright, financial support for the commercialization of creative activities, government involvement in business support services (e.g. training, incubators, innovation labs, market incubators, cluster development and market development programmes), the creation of enabling institutions to represent the interests of creative workers and firms, and the harmonization of government  policies towards the sector. 

This note seeks to look back at the development and implementation process of the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET). It takes take stock of its main achievements and how they are taken forward in the 2020 Council Recommendation on vocational education and training (VET) for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience and paves the way for future EU initiatives.

This report explores the labor market outcomes and returns of SCPs, examines their providers, and identifies the practices adopted by the best programs. Relying on unique data that includes a novel survey of short-cycle programs (SCPs) directors in five LAC countries, it finds that while SCPs generate, on average, good labor market outcomes, they vary greatly in quality. Drawing on these findings, this report discusses how to create an environment where good programs are offered and students have the interest and means to attend them.

Over the longer term, the creative economy is likely to be a key driver of economic growth as governments around the world look to rebuild their economies in the wake of the downturn associated with Covid-19. It is reasonable to expect that the sector will return to its long-term trend of growing faster than the wider economy as, for example, advertising is likely to recover strongly with the wider economy and other sources of income have been more resilient. The fundamental driver of creative economy growth remains that when consumers have more to spend, and have increasingly sated their demand for other goods and services, they are more likely to spend that additional income on outputs of the creative economy. The importance of the creative economy for overall economic performance is therefore likely to grow. This means its importance for policymaking is also likely to continue to grow, with countries more or less well-positioned to take advantage of that underlying growth in global demand. While this study focuses on developed economies, middle-income countries are likely to show even stronger growth to the extent their overall national income grows faster.

This report highlights how rapid and widespread digitalization has changed the nature of work. The report's findings stress the importance and urgency of addressing the digital skills gap and highlight that digital and social inequalities also affect the available opportunities to develop digital skills.

This study examines applying the Circular Economy, focused on minimizing waste, to the complex coffee industry. A 7-month case study of a specialty coffee importer in Amsterdam revealed challenges like government policies and industry mindsets, but also highlighted the importance of shared vision, strong business models, and clear communication for success. The research suggests companies navigate identity concerns and misconceptions about CE through factual communication, emphasizing the interconnectedness of barriers and enablers for a strategic approach to a more sustainable coffee industry.

The growth of digital labour platforms is presenting opportunities and challenges for workers and businesses and a need for international policy dialogue. This report examines: the features of platform business model, what motivates workers to perform task on platforms and policy recommendations.

Making smart decisions today could set up the world’s young people for success in the green jobs of tomorrow. But shaping those decisions can be tricky as many of those future jobs don’t yet exist. The United Nations Environment Programme has developed GEO-6 for Youth - a digital guide on sustainable career choices and the skills required to thrive in green industries. This article from the World Economic Forum discusses six key skill categories that can help youth build a successful career in the future.

This booklet contains the collected recommendations of the OMC expert group report ‘Towards Gender Equality in the Cultural and Creative Sectors’ (2021). All recommendations are based on practical experience and good practise case studies. They highlight the importance of political commitment to improving gender equality in the cultural and creative sectors (CCS). It should also be stressed that gender equality strategies without targets or gender equality targets without monitoring are less effective and artistic quality and artistic freedom remain the primary selection criteria for any of the proposed measures. The following recommendations correspond to all the recommendations of the OMC report and include general recommendations addressing all policy makers and persons in positions of power, as well as the cultural and creative sectors, the media, and the education sector. The key challenges in this area are gender stereotypes, sexual harassment, access to the labour market and the gender pay gap, access to resources, access to leadership positions, and female entrepreneurship.

This report explores a “what if” scenario – what if the world took action to harness the full potential of DREs to end energy poverty, setting in motion a green power transition across the energy poor world? It combines qualitative case studies with predictive economic modelling to explore the job creation potential that would flow from a steep and rapid increase in investment in DREs across 63 energy-poor countries in Asia and Africa.

This Global Guidance Document provides an overview of how educators can prepare students to participate in the just transition to a green and more inclusive economy.

This study by UNESCO-UNEVOC aims at understanding the barriers to the participation of disadvantaged youth in TVET and examines some strategies being used to meet their needs.

The report contains six in-depth country profiles, where specific data and strategic analyses help present the voiced concerns and hopes of stakeholders on the ground. The country profiles are followed by extensive recommendations for Covid-19 response actions organized around the themes of Space, Community, Training and Funding. Both chapters give attention to non-Western expertise on the cultural and creative industries’ needs as well as their stakeholders’ aspirations for development and, thus, broaden the perspectives for more effective and holistic problem solving. 

This report seeks to answer the question of what works to improve productive employment opportunities and reduce poverty? This question is purposefully broad, as employment-targeted interventions often tackle a wide range of outcomes: the supply of labour that focuses on marketable skills and equal access to productive assets and the demand for labour that focus on promoting entrepreneurship, business development, and market access.

This study exposes failure to factor in gender in COVID-19 education responses and widening gaps in access to quality education following school closures. Citing some 90 countries, the study shows that despite governments' and partners’ swift responses to school closures, remote learning strategies in most countries failed to account for gender-based considerations and barriers that children face at home.

This is the first large-scale use of platform data in the region to inform the extent of women’s participation on e-commerce and how online platforms can benefit women business owners. Developed in partnership with the European Commission, with funding from the Umbrella Fund for Gender Equality and data from one of Africa’s largest platforms, Jumia, the report shows that closing earnings gaps between men and women on e-commerce platforms could add nearly $15 billion to the value of the African e-commerce market. Achieving such gains will require proactive efforts by e-commerce platforms, investors and policymakers, to not only increase the number of women selling online, but also support their growth, including entry into higher-value segments on e-commerce platforms.

This is the first large-scale use of platform data in the region to inform the extent of women’s participation on e-commerce and how online platforms can benefit women business owners. Developed in partnership with the European Commission, with funding from the Umbrella Fund for Gender Equality and data from one of the region’s largest platforms, Lazada, the report shows that closing earnings gaps between men and women on e-commerce platforms could add over $280 billion to the value of the regional e-commerce market. Achieving such gains will require proactive efforts by e-commerce platforms, investors and policymakers, to not only increase the number of women selling online, but also support their growth, including entry into higher-value segments on e-commerce platforms.