Thematic Approaches

In an increasingly interconnected world driven by rapid technological advancements, the nature of work is undergoing significant transformations. The rise of digital platforms and technologies has ushered in a new era of digital employment, offering both opportunities and challenges. The International Labour Organization (ILO) recognizes the crucial need to understand and navigate the complexities of digital employment. ILO has developed these guidelines on digital employment diagnostics.

Urgent investment in human capital is needed to create a fairer world> 1.1 billion jobs are liable to be radically transformed by technology in the next decade. The Reskilling Revolution will position education at the core of the economic recovery by updating teaching and education systems to effectively prepare today's students for tomorrow's economy and society. This work aims to benefit 150 million students and young learners by 2024.

The ILO and Learning Lions are bridging the digital divide in remote areas by providing comprehensive digital skills training, mentorship and job opportunities to young people. This innovative program is transforming the lives of vulnerable communities, including refugees, and paving the way for an inclusive digital economy in Kenya.

New technologies, including the recent progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI), are transforming work and jobs worldwide. Climate change is also having an impact on the job market. To thrive in today’s world, young people need a full range of skills and knowledge to work, be active citizens, and live in the 21st century. This blog post explores how UNICEF is supporting young people with the skills they need to succeed in school, work and life.

Building on the success of the Resilience Academy and Open Cities programs, the objective of this pilot study is to explore the feasibility of establishing a Digital Works for Urban Resilience Program, targeting local populations who have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions.

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.

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.

Humans in the Loop uses the AI annotation market to create livelihoods opportunities for conflict-affected people and communities. This report summarizes how Humans in the Loop is impacting conflict-affected communities by connecting them to digital work programs and training during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper presents a review of current evidence and ideas relating to the digital gig economy (DGE): contingent (task- or project-based) intangible work delivered digitally and done for money, organised via online outsourcing platforms that are marketplaces bringing together buyers and sellers. Examples of such platforms include Freelancer, Upwork, Amazon Mechanical Turk and Zhubajie/Witmart.

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’.