2022
Microsoft

This Note examines how crowd work platforms, online marketplaces for freelance tasks, can impact low-income women in patriarchal societies. While these platforms offer increased work opportunities, the research explores the challenges women face. The study, conducted in India, found significant hurdles like gaining family permission, limited support, and working in secrecy. Despite these difficulties, the research also highlights positive outcomes such as increased confidence,autonomy, and agency for the women involved. The report concludes by discussing ways to reduce the tensions and difficulties faced by women engaging in crowd work.

South Asia
Knowledge Brief
2022
British Council

The British Council together with the Jogja Festivals Study Centre joined forces to study the landscape and key players of festivals in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and South East Asia. Particularly for the South East Asian Region, this has become one scope to study due to the key role that the Indonesian government played in initiating the ASEAN Working Group of Creative Economy, the World Conference on Creative Economy and the fact that there are many international festivals.

East Asia and Pacific
Report
2022
Circle Economy

This report ilustrates the current state of accounting and reporting solutions, and how they can support businesses in driving the circular transition. The report concludes that the shift to a circular economy requires complex changes to our present ways of doing business. To push forward the circular transition—and to be able to unlock business opportunities in the new circular economy— the current approach to value, impact, and risk must be redefined.

Global
Report
2022
World Bank Group

It is well-established that bringing more women into the formal labor force is critical for economic development. One strategy often cited is further integrating developing countries into global trade, particularly global value chains (GVCs), to contribute to female labor market outcomes through the expansion of female-intensive industries. As a result, a big question frequently debated, is whether the apparel industry – which is the most female-intensive and globally engaged manufacturing industry – can be a key player in this regard. In recent decades, the apparel industry has shifted its production to low-wage developing countries, increasing the demand for women, closing male-female wage gaps, and bringing women into the formal labor force. Indeed, the benefits of apparel exports have reached the female population, but is an apparel-led export strategy sufficient to induce the transition from jobs to careers? This Report provides an answer by focusing on seven countries where the apparel industry plays an important role in its export basket – Bangladesh, Cambodia, Egypt, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Vietnam. The Report’s key finding is that countries should take advantage of the apparel industry as a launching platform to overcome the fixed costs of introducing more women into the labor market. However, for this approach to work, there needs to be complementary policies that tackle the barriers that hinder women in their pursuit of long-term participation in the labor force and better-paid occupations.

Global
Book/Chapter
2022
IDB

Using quantitative and qualitative data tailored for this research, we will review the main challenges the food industry is currently facing. We will discuss its growth and the ways in which LAC restaurants can be strengthened as a core center where other creative industries can converge. Gastronomy: Trends and Digital Strategies is part of the IDB editorial series, Art, Culture and New Technologies in Latin America and the Caribbean, intended to point out the impact of digitization and the adoption of technologies by cultural and creative industries from the region, and how this can catalyze innovation, social cohesion and change. 

Latin America and Caribbean
Report
2022
European Commission

The Work Plan for Culture 2019-2022 selects gender equality as one of the five sectoral priorities for EU action. The purpose of this study is to provide background information and context on the specific challenges faced by women in the cultural and creative sectors for the OMC Working Group. The main focus of the report is on understanding the current state of affairs concerning women in the CCSs, the gender gaps at work, and the underlying drivers of those gender gaps. Available quantitative data has been mapped for the different sub-sectors within the CCSs, and has been combined with information from qualitative literature and expert interviews to establish the state of affairs regarding women in these sectors, along with the drivers leading to this state of affairs. The report provides an overall analysis of gender gaps in the CCSs as a whole and presents examples of the types of initiatives which have been implemented to address these gender gaps. 

Europe and Central Asia
Report
2022
ILO

The 2022 edition discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people and their labour market prospects during the recovery and beyond. Youth have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and youth labour markets are now being buffeted by the lingering impacts of the pandemic, geopolitical risks and macroeconomic risks such as the impact of supply chain disruptions and rising inflation, particularly that of food and energy. There is also the potential permanent damage wreaked by these crises on the fabric of labour markets. As countries seek to address these multiple challenges, they must also not lose sight of longer-term priorities. In particular, targeted investment in the green, blue (ocean), digital, creative and care economies hold great potential to provide decent jobs for young people while setting economies on path towards greater sustainability, inclusiveness and resilience.

Report
2022
GIZ, Goethe-Institut

What does it mean to be a creative entrepreneur and how can you establish yourself in the market as a creator? The perFORM Music Incubator is a music business and artist development project in Kenya initiated as part of the project  Cultural and Creative Industries to support music creators in building sustainable careers.

Africa
Good Practice/Case Study
2022
ASPEN Institute

This note focuses on the linguistic challenges many faces as they try to acclimate to life abroad when their native language is no longer dominant in their surroundings. From designing curricula around the needs of families to recognizing and accounting for dialects when sharing resources or providing services, this note takes an in-depth look at how to use #2GenImm approaches to help families overcome the language barrier.

Global
Report
2022
ALIGN

This report outlines the great potential for feminist digital activism to catalyze transformative shifts in thinking and behavior. It analyzes how hashtag campaigns, organized groups and individual activists post-feminist content online to change attitudes, behavior, and influence policies and laws. Finally, the report considers how online and offline activism can bolster one another.

Global
Report
2022
CGAP

Drawn from CGAP’s in-depth qualitative and quantitative research across five countries, this paper’s insights focus on the potential for financial services to support platform workers and sellers in leveraging the opportunities and mitigating the risks emerging in platform work.

Global
Knowledge Brief
2022
SIDA

This technical note provides support for applying a human rights-based approach (HRBA). The note begins with a short introduction to the HRBA and Sida’s PLANET tool. It then explains how human rights norms and standards underpin the thematic area. The note demonstrates how PLANET can guide staff in planning, assessing and monitoring a contribution through a series of guiding questions and examples. Finally, it provides a simple empowerment and capacity development analysis model and a list of additional resources to explore.

Knowledge Brief
2022
Online Labour Observatory

The Online Labour Index 2020 (OLI 2020) allows for new forms of analyses regarding the development of online platform work. In this blog post, authors offer some insights into how these features can be used based on the example of descriptive statistics pointing towards a phenomenon that they call the ‘tech shift’.

Global
Knowledge Brief
2022
World Economic Forum

As the world starts recovering from the pandemic, accelerating disruptions translate into permanent changes to labour markets. This paper examines proactive investments that yield a triple dividend – boosting economic activity, expanding employment opportunities, and generating multiplier effects in the form of more inclusive economies and societies.

Global
Report
2022
World Bank

This World Bank report argues that the lack of market contestability in the MENA region makes it hard for new firms to start up and expand—so employment cannot grow fast enough to keep up with the growth of the working-age population. In addition, the report underlines the limited market dynamism and stunted job creation that continues to depress MENA's private sector. Finally, the report highlights the importance of understanding the policies and regulations hindering market contestability.

Middle East and North Africa
Report
2022
Harambee

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.

Report
2022
UN Habitat

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.

Global
Report
2022
OECD

 This discussion paper was prepared by the OECD at the request of Indonesia G20 Presidency to support the discussions in the G20 Tourism Working Group on 23 September 2022, and the G20 Tourism Ministers Meeting on 26 September 2022. The paper i) provides an overview of the links between tourism and cultural and creative sectors, ii) outlines the importance of cultural and creative sectors internationally, iii) discusses the benefits and challenges of creating a more integrated approach to cultural and creative tourism policy, and iv) suggests issues for discussion and areas for further G20 cooperation.  

Global
Report
2022
IDB

Based on new quantitative and qualitative data tailored for this research, we suggest different ways in which museums in LAC—at the core of a network formed by other creative industries—can resume and enhance growth. Here we consider a museum a space for innovation, social transformation, digital disruption and economic development. In addition, we intend to look at their paramount and yet not sufficiently explored opportunities, their challenges, and their ongoing and future strategies, especially in the context of their relation to new technologies, since the onset of COVID-19. Museums: Trends and Digital Strategies is part of the IDB’s editorial series, Art, Culture and New Technologies in Latin America and the Caribbean, intended to point out the impact of digitization and the adoption of technologies by cultural and creative industries from the region, and how this can catalyze innovation, social cohesion and change. 

Latin America and Caribbean
Report
2022
IDB

Music and Performing Arts: Digital Trends and Strategies is part of the IDB’s editorial series, Art, Culture and New Technologies in Latin America and the Caribbean, that aims at identifying the ways in which technology can drive innovation in the creative economy. The sector generates a multidimensional impact rarely analyzed from an economic perspective, considering them productive activities worthy of attention and promotion. These industries provide entertainment while also contributing to the economy by creating jobs —many of them based on innovation and creativity—, creating attractive assets for investment, talent and tourism, and by fostering social cohesion, while promoting mutual understanding and empathy. 

Latin America and Caribbean
Report