South Africa’s paid care economy contributes 13.8% towards total employment in the labour market and is largely undertaken by women – estimated at 84% in Graph 1 below.
Historically, the care economy has been a neglected sector, however, recent attention has been brought to it by South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa. This presents an opportunity to create momentum around expanding solutions for the care economy.
This report is structured to dive into each of the care economy sectors, starting with early childhood development, and then education, healthcare and domestic work. Each section will provide an overview of the sector, specify key operators, outline challenges and bottlenecks, and identify opportunities for targeted investment.
This report proposes a new approach to tackling plastic pollution. It focuses on empowering informal waste recovery systems (IWRS) and their workers. These workers, often overlooked, possess valuable skills and knowledge in waste collection. The report argues that current solutions often exclude them, harming their livelihoods and hindering waste management. Instead, it proposes using resources to support a smooth transition for these workers and their communities,essentially bringing them into the fold as key players in solving plastic pollution.
This article draws on 70 interviews in addition to participant observations to highlight the role of gig economy platforms in producing a novel form of reputational insecurity. This insecurity is generated by platforms disrupting the traditional operation of industry reputation in freelance markets.
This document is an overview of the lessons learned from an IFAD project on scaling up rural youth access to inclusive financial services for entrepreneurship and employment implemented in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. It contributes to shaping regional policy dialogues and strategies for supporting youth integration in the rural development space and will inform the design of future youth projects in IFAD.
To analyze SSCM in the fast fashion industry, this study compares the sustainability reports of H&M and Everlane, industry leaders with strong sustainability messaging. This comparison reveals that fast fashion has failed to sufficiently engage upstream and downstream stakeholders in their SSCM strategies. Moving forward, fast fashion companies should incentivize collaboration towards more comprehensive SSCM policies throughout the supply chain.
This report, by the IDB, OECD and UNESCO, outlines current knowledge of the impact that AI systems have on women’s opportunities for work, and their position, treatment and status in the workforce. It does so by exploring how AI is used within and outside the workplace, and how it could be used in the future. It looks at the potential impact of new and emerging AI technologies on the skills that employers will require, on how women look for and are hired for jobs, and on how jobs are structured through automated monitoring and oversight. The report maps the opportunities and challenges that AI presents for the working lives of women and highlights the complexities that varying national and regional contexts present for understanding the impact of AI on the work of women. The report also notes that current research does not offer a complete or definite picture of how AI impacts the working lives of women and calls for further research and analysis in this area.
The EU Blue Economy Report continues to analyse the scope and size of the Blue Economy in the European Union. It aims at providing support to policymakers and stakeholders in the quest for a sustainable development of oceans, coastal resources and, most notably, to the development and implementation of polices and initiatives under the European Green Deal in line with the new approach for a sustainable Blue Economy.
The Mercy Corps Ventures pilot detailed in this report was completed over three months at the start of 2021 to test whether digital stablecoins and mobile wallets could ease frictions and reduce costs in cross-border payments for un/underemployed youth completing microwork in Kenya, and the results are very promising.
The main goal of this paper is to review the state of the apparel and footwear industry as it relates to automation, employment and gender issues in context of the ILO-EU project “Building Partnerships on the Future of Work” project. The paper highlights the importance of the sector for women’s employment and the gendered nature of the industry; summarizes the literature on the effects of industrial automation and digitization on employment in the apparel and footwear industry, in particular their gender dimensions; and presents a brief overview of the apparel and footwear sector in the project countries, namely Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, Romania and Spain.
This report outlines the case for thinking beyond borders to achieve a sustainable, circular economy that matches environmental goals with social ambitions. It highlights key levers for governments and multilateral bodies, illustrating the benefits of a global, socially just approach to environmental, trade and development policies, and the risks of continuing along current policy pathways.
The Toolbox for Rural Youth Employment is a vital resource for enhancing employment opportunities in the agri-food sector and supporting rural development. This comprehensive guide offers a curated selection of effective tools and methodologies, with detailed instructions and practical examples demonstrating their application in various contexts. It also provides links to additional resources for a deeper understanding and effective implementation.
As Europe goes through its green and digital transformations, high-quality vocational education and training (VET) is key to ensuring people have the right skills for the jobs of today and tomorrow. The Council Recommendation on VET for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience, adopted in November 2020, sets out the EU’s comprehensive vision and strategic objectives for the future of VET. This brochure outlines this vision and the importance of VET reforms at national level, including key principles and actions to support these reforms.
This report explores how to maximize the economic value of skills in a dynamic job market. It emphasizes that a skill's worth depends heavily on how well it complements other skills, particularly those in high demand. The value of any skill is also relative to the worker's existing skillset, with the greatest value often arising from combining skills from different areas. Focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) skills, the report finds them especially valuable due to their strong complementarity and rising demand, boosting worker wages by an average of 21%. These findings can inform policies and practices for digital reskilling initiatives.
Millions of women are engaged in platform work around the world, both as workers and sellers. By better understanding women’s experiences on platforms, financial services providers (FSPs) and platforms can design solutions to help women maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of platform work. To shed light on the opportunities and challenges facing women platform workers, as well as to better understand their financial profile and need for financial services, CGAP conducted primary research with women platform workers and sellers.
To shed light on the opportunities and challenges facing women platform workers, as well as to better understand their financial profile and need for financial services, CGAP conducted primary research with women platform workers and sellers.
This research reveals that 77 percent of young people in Asia Pacific aspire to get a green job within the next 10 years. For companies operating in Asia Pacific, this presents a huge opportunity to move rapidly toward their environmentally sustainable business outcomes. The challenge, however, is they need to start acting now to design the jobs that will attract motivated young people of a variety of skill levels.
This document presents the Retirement Savings Laboratorys (Laboratory) main findings, lessons, and challenges from several pilot interventions aimed at promoting voluntary pension savings among independent and low-income workers in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
This ILO report seeks to enhance our understanding of how digital labour platforms are transforming the world of work, and the implications of that transformation for employers and workers.
This paper examines the vital, yet under-recognized role of waste pickers in the circular economy, particularly in low- and middle-income nations. It explores the tension between the environmental and social aspects of circularity. While waste pickers significantly contribute to recycling and environmental well-being, they often face exploitation and minimal support. The paper proposes a two-pronged approach: a hierarchy illustrating waste pickers' foundational role in the recycling chain, and a model for a socially restorative circular economy that prioritizes fair treatment and social inclusion for these essential workers. By addressing these social inequalities, the paper argues, we can achieve a more sustainable and equitable circular economy.
This paper focuses on key sectors across 21 emerging markets that can be prioritized in post-COVID green recovery efforts. These sectors are grouped around greening existing and future energy infrastructure, building climate-smart cities, and helping speed the transition of key industries to green production practices. Concerted actions by public and private players across these areas can deliver economic recovery in the short and medium term and can deliver long-term sustainable and low-carbon growth.
