By Satyaki Chakraborty 

 

INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation Director-General, Gilbert F. Houngbo, has welcomed the G20 Leaders’ support for the UN Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions. In their final Declaration the G20 leaders pledged to, “support progress on the implementation” of the UN Global Accelerator, a UN initiative led by the ILO that aims to bring together UN Member States and a wide range of public and private sector partners to help create 400 million decent jobs and extend social protection coverage to the four billion people currently excluded. The leaders agreed to create a new Working Group on the Empowerment of Women. They reaffirmed the importance of gender equality and the promotion of, “full, equal, effective and meaningful participation of women in the economy as decision-makers”, adding that that such investment “has a multiplier effect in implementing the 2030 Agenda”. “I heartily welcome the G20’s endorsement of the Global Accelerator and its potential to deliver change and better working lives for hundreds of millions of people. The creation of the working group on women’s empowerment is also an historic step forward,” Houngbo said. “The G20 leadership has made progress on some of the most crucial future of work issues facing us if we are to build a sustainable and equitable future. We must build on this momentum, particularly at the UN SDG Summit later this month.” Following two days of discussions the leaders committed themselves to promote sustainable, quality, healthy, safe and gainful employment, address skill gaps, and ensure inclusive, adequate and sustainably financed social protection policies.

 

They endorsed a set of policy priorities for “adequate and sustainable social protection and decent work for gig and platform workers”. The Declaration also included pledges to promote well-managed migration, increase efforts to eliminate child labour and forced labour in global value chains, support youth employment and encourage skills for sustainable and inclusive economic development – including extending coverage of the ILO/OECD Skills for Jobs Databases to G20 countries. Speaking at the Summit, Houngbo stressed that effective policy responses to climate change needed to deliver on both climate targets and decent employment creation. “If we don’t recognise these issues a social backlash could make the transition even harder. It is essential we achieve a just transition…. that greens the economy in ways that are fair, inclusive and leaves no one behind” he said, adding that this would require three things: effective and inclusive social dialogue, new financing strategies for social protection, and the creation of decent employment. “Here, the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions…can play a major role,” he said. Houngbo also addressed the issue of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the labour market. “AI increases the need to invest in skilling people,” he said. “And it also increases the need to strengthen protections and employment for platform economy workers. Productivity gains from AI will need to be shared by all, in order to promote the development of society in the direction of increased social justice.”

 

The G20 Leaders’ Summit was held in New Delhi, India on 9-10 September, under the theme “One earth, one family, one future”. In 2024 the rotating Presidency of the G20 will pass to Brazil, which will also host the first meeting of the Working Group on the Empowerment of Women. The summit decisions, if implemented, will be of big help to the global south in the area of new employment generation. The developing and the poor countries are suffering from the problem of acute joblessness and that is hampering their economic growth. The G 20 declaration of New Delhi gives some hope that the developed countries will take special measures to ensure larger job generation in the developing and the poor countries. As regards India which was the host country of the recently concluded G-20 summit, the employment crisis has accentuated due to the large increase in the youth work force. According to the UN report on World Population 2022, in India, in the age group of 9-22 years, the population will rise from 102 million in 202 to 130 million in 2025 and 191 million in 2030. For people between 23 and 40 years, the population will grow from 409 million in 202 to 522 million in 2025 and to 767 million in 2030. Presently, the unemployment rate in India is over 8 per cent and the new entrants, especially the youth are having a tough time in getting jobs. Studies show that 599 million people will be in job market in 2030 which is a humungous task.