World of Work podcasts by the ILO: Recent Episodes
International Labour Org.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations and is devoted to promoting social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights, pursuing its founding mission that labour peace is essential to prosperity.
Today, the ILO helps advance the creation of decent work and the economic and working conditions that give working people and business people a stake in lasting peace, prosperity and progress. Its tripartite structure provides a unique platform for promoting decent work for all women and men.
Its main aims are to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues.
The latest episode of the “Global Challenges - Global Solutions” podcast explores the transformative role of Big Data in shaping policies and informing decision-making in today’s interconnected world. Big Data is different from traditional data, covering a wider range of information, and can include insights gathered from mobile phone data This new tool for powering economic development and informing policymaking can improve people’s lives and address the growing need for new and decent jobs. However, Big Data also raises concerns or questions around privacy, data sources and governance.In this podcast two experts on Big Data, Veronica Escudero, Senior Economist and Lead of the Skills, Labour Market Policies and Policy Evaluation Team of the ILO Research Department, and Sveta Milusheva, Senior Economist in the Development Impact department at the World Bank and co-lead of the Bank’s Global Data Facility – Mobile Phone Data for Policy (GDF–MPD) Program, explain how Big Data works and its impacts on the world of work.
This PROSPECTS podcast episode explores how the private sector can drive economic inclusion of young refugees by expanding access to decent work and protecting their rights at work. Roman Bojko, Human Rights and Social Impact Leader at Ingka Group shares more about the company’s global Skills for Employment initiative and lessons learned from integrating refugee talent across 26 countries. The conversation highlights how hiring refugees is not just the right thing to do - it’s also good for business, fostering innovation, resilience, and inclusion in the workplace.
Is trade good or bad for jobs? For years, ILO research has shown how international trade can be an engine of growth and creating decent jobs. But things are changing. The realities of trade and investment today are far more complicated than they used to be, and globalization has had an uneven impact. So, does it still mean that trade remains a viable strategy for promoting growth and reducing poverty while creating decent work opportunities men and women? In this podcast, we explore the influence of trade and investment on jobs in today’s world and some policy options with Christophe Ernst, ILO expert on trade and investment.
Investments in skills are instrumental in achieving social and economic goals. From the perspective of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, skills are important to achieving SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth, SDG 4 which includes TVET, and others. Be that as it may, levels of financing of skills and lifelong learning remain inadequate and not in tune with national development needs. The national financing gap for SDG4 during the period 2023-30 for example is large and growing in low- and middle-income countries.The importance of skills will be reaffirmed at the Second World Summit for Social Development in November 2025 that builds on the 10 Commitments of the first Social Summit in 1995 and aims at accelerating poverty eradication and promoting full employment, decent work, and social inclusion. So, can we bridge the investment divide? In this podcast, we address these issues, specifically the issue of financing skills and lifelong learning for economic and social development, with our guests Jean-Francois Klein, ILO Employment Policy advisor, and Pedro Moreno da Fonseca, ILO Technical Specialist on Lifelong Learning.
In this sixth episode of Refugees at work – What are their prospects?, we explore how the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus (HDPN) is reshaping the international refugee response. Speakers, Svein Erik Stav and Tewodros Aragie Kebede share research findings and field experience from Uganda, Ethiopia, Jordan and Colombia, where new policies have expanded refugee access to work and fostered economic inclusion. The discussion highlights the positive impacts of granting refugees the right to work, the importance of aligning humanitarian and development policies, and the need to adapt Nexus models to local realities. With insights into both successes and ongoing constraints, the episode underscores how refugees can move from dependency to self-reliance when given the right opportunities — benefiting not only themselves but also host communities and national economies.
The majority of the world’s refugees live in countries with fragile economies, where opportunities for employment and self-reliance are often limited. With displacement lasting more than a decade on average, the question of how refugees can build sustainable livelihoods has become increasingly urgent.In this fifth episode of Refugees at work – What are their Prospects?, Professor Alexander Betts and Bisimwa Mulemangabo discuss how refugees navigate labour markets, the barriers they face, and the innovative ways they create livelihoods. The conversation explores the diversity of refugee economies, from small-scale entrepreneurship to professional employment, and highlights how policies, host community dynamics, and private sector engagement can shape outcomes.Crucially, the discussion emphasizes the role of refugee agency — refugees’ own voices, choices, and aspirations — in designing effective and lasting solutions. By centring refugees as economic actors rather than passive recipients of aid, the episode points to pathways that can foster dignity, inclusion, and shared prosperity for both refugees and host communities.
This episode traces the ILO’s long history of engagement in displacement contexts, from its early work in the aftermath of the World Wars to its leadership today in promoting decent work for refugees and host community members. Nick Grisewood explains how the Syrian crisis, the New York Declaration, and the Global Compact on Refugees shaped the ILO’s renewed involvement and laid the foundation for the PROSPECTS Programme.At the heart of the discussion is the importance of labour market inclusion. Nick outlines how PROSPECTS brings together humanitarian and development actors, host governments, and the private sector to support more inclusive economies and societies. By addressing barriers such as work permit bottlenecks, skills mismatch, and onerous business registration procedures, the programme supports refugees and host communities to access sustainable livelihoods, reduce vulnerability, and contribute to national development.
The third episode of the Refugees at Work series turns to the critical role of donors in advancing inclusive and sustainable responses to forced displacement. Ana Uzelac reflects on how the Netherlands has pioneered new approaches through the PROSPECTS partnership, shifting from short-term humanitarian aid to multi-annual development financing that prioritizes refugee self-reliance and host community resilience. The conversation explores what sets PROSPECTS apart from traditional donor instruments, the added value of joint programming among international organizations, and the legacy such models can leave for policy, practice, and the lives of refugees and their hosts.
This PROSPECTS podcast episode explores young refugees’ rights to and at work. Despite international commitments recognizing their right to decent work, refugee youth continue to face legal, political, and practical barriers to full economic inclusion. Hasan Almatroud, a young Syrian refugee leader and Programme Coordinator for Amala Education in Jordan, and Shadya Abduljabbar, a Yemeni refugee in Ethiopia and Founder of Ethio Friends Foundation discuss their experiences, the challenges of navigating the labour market, and the importance of protecting and promoting youth rights at work.
The number of refugees worldwide has doubled in the past decade to 32 million, making forced displacement one of the defining challenges of our time. Yet the struggle to balance humanitarian response, labour market realities, and long-term development is not new.In this second episode of Refugees at Work – What Are Their Prospects?, we speak with Katy Long about the ILO’s 100-year history navigating refugee and migration issues. From the League of Nations’ response to Russian refugees in the 1920s to the Cold War politics that reshaped the international system, the conversation reveals surprising continuities and enduring challenges.Together, they discuss how historical approaches to employment, migration, and displacement continue to shape today’s policy choices — and what bold, creative solutions may be needed to ensure refugees can fully contribute to economic and social development in their host communities.
The first episode in the series provides a comprehensive overview of the evolving dynamics of forced displacement and their implications for labour markets and development policy in host countries. Professor Zetter outlines key trends, including the increasingly protracted nature of refugee situations, the shift from camps to urban settlements, and the increasing importance of labour market access. The discussion highlights how the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus and initiatives such as the PROSPECTS partnership can foster more coherent, inclusive, and sustainable responses, positioning refugees not only as beneficiaries of assistance, but also as active contributors to economic and social development.
ILO Senior Researcher Pawel Gmyrek joins Manjula Selvarajah, technology columnist and host at CBC Radio One (Canada), to unpack the findings of a new ILO Working Paper on generative AI and jobs. The conversation explores how GenAI is transforming the world of work, the methodology behind the ILO’s refined global exposure index, and what policymakers, workers, and employers should keep in mind as the technology evolves.🔗 Read the full paper: https://www.ilo.org/publications/generative-ai-and-jobs-refined-global-index-occupational-exposure
What happens when algorithms — not people — decide who gets hired, promoted, or assigned the night shift?In this debut episode of Work in Progress, Alessandro from the ILO Research Department speaks with Nikolai Rogovsky, Senior Economist at the ILO, about how artificial intelligence is transforming human resource management — and what it means for fairness, dignity, and the future of work.With nearly 30 years at the ILO and a PhD from Wharton, Nikolai unpacks insights from ILO Working Paper No. 95, exploring how companies are using AI in hiring and workforce optimization — and the risks this poses to decent work.To read the paper discussed in this episode, visit:https://www.ilo.org/publications/artificial-intelligence-human-resource-management-challenge-human-centred-1Work in Progress is a podcast from the ILO Research Department, sharing early ideas and behind-the-scenes perspectives on the changing world of work.
Things should be looking good for young people in the world of work, but they’re not. While unemployment among young workers between 15 and 24 has recovered from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s a growing epidemic of unhappiness among those workers in both the developed and now the developing world. So, what is to be done? This podcast asks David Blanchflower, a professor at Dartmouth College, renowned labour economist and recognized expert on youth employment, what can be done.
In the past half decade, the world of work has faced unprecedented challenges in the form of a global pandemic, social, political and economic crises, the explosive growth of Artificial Intelligence, and an increase in destructive climate events, among others. Meeting these challenges will require policies that support SDG 8 on decent jobs and economic growth and help advance the broader objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.So how do we address these policy and macroeconomic challenges while ensuring that employment policies help bridge jobs and economic growth, address broader economic realities and protect labour rights? In this podcast, ILO Employment Policy Director Sangheon Lee and Gilad Isaacs, Executive Director at the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) in South Africa offer their views.
Campaña para promover la formalización y el reconocimiento social de las trabajadoras del hogar en el Perú
Campaña para promover la formalización y el reconocimiento social de las trabajadoras del hogar en el Perú
Campaña para promover la formalización y el reconocimiento social de las trabajadoras del hogar en el Perú
Can Nature-based Solutions help us address environmental challenges, while laying the groundwork for creating millions of new jobs? A report by the ILO, the UN Environment Programme and the International Union for Conservation of Nature titled “Decent Work in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) says NbS has the potential to add up to 32 million jobs by 2030 to the already more than 60 million working to protect, and restore and sustainably use natural resources with the greatest gains in Africa, Latin America and the Arab States. At the same time, NbS will also require new skills training and reskilling of some workers. In this podcast, two lead editors of the report, Maikel Lieuw-Kie-Song, Senior Technical Specialist of the ILO Employment Policy Department, and Rowan Palmer, Programme Officer in the United Nations Environment Programme’s Economic and Trade Policy Unit explain.
Good employment policies underpin efforts to create more and better jobs, and help reduce inequalities and poverty, and empower people, especially women, young people and the most vulnerable such as people with disabilities. What is more, these polices also help address decent work deficits and are critically important to the realization of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 8, on promoting sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all. In this podcast, Juan Chacaltana, ILO Senior Employment Policies Specialist in the Employment Policy Department, and Alina Game, Technical Officer and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) expert, explain how Employment Impact Assessments involving a variety of tools for evidence-based policy development can help achieve these goals.
Amid rising labour shortages and employers around the world struggling to find skilled workers, labour migration, if managed properly, can help widen the pool of available skills. But the complex issue of increasing migration and the skills challenges faced by migrant workers and employers is huge. So how can we help migrant workers acquire the skills they need to find decent jobs, and employers find the skilled migrant workers they need for their enterprises? And what is the ILO doing to address this question, both in destination countries and countries of origin? In this episode, the ILO’s Christine Hofmann, Regional Skills Specialist for Africa, addresses these issues and the policy response.
Productivity growth is seen as central to economic development and social progress and drives up wages, living standards for workers and the competitiveness of businesses. So, how are different regions and countries increasing productivity, and can it be done in an inclusive way? In this podcast Professor Gaaitzen De Vries in the Department of Global Economics and Management of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and Luca Fedi, Employment specialist of the ILO Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work project, explore this issue and why it matters.
The number of ageing workers in the workforce is growing. People are working longer, either because they want to, they need to to make ends meet or have because they have unique skills. So, what are the implications of this trend for the trade union movement? What does it mean for older workers and their representatives? And how can trade unions address the multiple challenges that are emerging as the workforce ages? In this podcast we explore these trends with Plamen Dimitrov, President of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria and member of the Workers’ Group of the ILO Governing Body.
There’s a new trend in the world of work…the growth of an ageing workforce. It’s called the “Silver Tsunami’, and it means more people are working past retirement age, either because they want to or because they must, to make ends meet. So, what are the implications of this trend? What does it mean for retirement plans and social security? And what does it mean for employers and enterprises faced with an ageing workforce? In this podcast we’ll be talking two experts on ageing in the workplace: Roberto Suárez Santos, Secretary-General of the International Organisation of Employers (IOE), and Dorothea Schmidt-Klau, Chief of the Employment, Labour Markets and Youth Branch, in the ILO’s Employment Policy Department.
An explosion of online and micro-credential programmes since COVID-19 highlights the importance of lifelong learning to upskilling, reskilling and economic recovery. While these learning courses may help successfully train and equip large numbers of workers with the skills needed for the jobs of the future, they also raise several questions. In this podcast we explore the future of micro-credentialing with two experts on learning and skills development, Pedro Moreno Da Fonseca, ILO Technical Specialist on Lifelong Learning, and Anastasia Pouliou, Expert in Qualifications and credentials - Future of Vocational Education and Training (VET), and Lead Researcher on Micro-credentials at the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, known as Cedefop.
The world of work is being buffeted by a torrent of change, with multiple crises raising the magnitude and complexity of employment challenges to unprecedented levels.Labour markets have been hit by disruptive mega-trends that weren’t on our radar just a decade ago. These range from challenges we already know like gender disparities, informality and youth unemployment, to new and emerging issues, like climate change, increasing digitalization and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence.So how does this impact national employment policies for promoting employment? In this podcast, we interview ILO Employment Policy Expert Sher Verick on this subject.
In the world of work, men and women are often segregated by their type of work, one of the main reasons women suffered more job losses during the COVID-19 crisis than men and are facing a slower recovery. Now, a joint programme of UN Women and the ILO has developed a new tool to help policymakers rethink the design of sectoral policies and make informed decisions on where to invest to have a greater impact on gender equality. In this podcast Valeria Esquivel, Employment Policies and Gender Specialist at the ILO and Marzia Fontana, a Research Associate at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex explain how.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, global demand for rubber gloves soared, prompting the Malaysian rubber industry to increase production in the face of labour shortages. Forced labour reports led, among other things, to the United States seizing and holding the goods of seven Malaysian companies. In response, the sector adopted a zero recruitment fee model and reimbursed migrant workers, making significant progress in combating forced labour in just four years. This podcast episode takes an in-depth look at how Malaysian rubber businesses managed to change things for the better and shares tips, tools, and resources for businesses. For more information, and for free tools and resources please visit https://flbusiness.network/new-podcast-tackling-forced-labour-malaysia-rubber-industry/
In a world with high rates of unemployment and underemployment, more and more people are looking for work amidst rapid change that is increasing skills mismatches and shortages. Millions of young people in the developing world acquire skills through apprenticeships in the informal economy. In many countries they greatly outnumber youth acquiring skills through formal technical and vocational education and training.A new ILO labour standard on quality apprenticeships has focused attention on the need to upgrade training and learning. In this podcast, Yasser Ali, a Specialist on Skills Development based in Amman, Jordan discusses this issue and what needs to be done to strengthen apprenticeships in the informal economy.
In just three years Namibia has become a world leader when it comes to tackling forced labour in fishing. What’s more, Namibia now coordinates labour and environmental inspections of vessels. Namibia’s experience shows that environmental degradation and forced labour in fishing are no longer hidden and can be addressed cost-effectively at the same time.In this special episode we interview three forced labour experts to find out how Namibia has made so much progress in such a short amount of time. Each speaker also shares their top tips and favourite resources for the business community. To find out more, and to access the free tools and resources, please visit https://flbusiness.network/podcast-how-namibia-fights-forced-labour-fishing/
The world of work is undergoing profound change. These changes are creating skills gaps, mismatches and shortages that are resulting in unfilled jobs and lost productivity. So how do we close this skills gap? In search of an answer, the ILO has adopted a sweeping new international labour standard focused on updating its approach to skills and quality apprenticeships. The new “Recommendation on Quality Apprenticeships, No. 208” is designed to help workers and employers find ways to skill, reskill and upskill people to adapt to rapidly changing labour markets. But how will it work in practice? In this podcast Martin Henry, Research, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator of Education International in Brussels, and Kathryn Rowan, Executive Director of GAN, the Global Apprenticeship Network based in Geneva, share their insights.
Are we smart enough to manage the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the world of work?It seems there are rising concerns over whether AI is a "threat or a promise”. Is this concern warranted?To answer the question, we interviewed Uma Rani, a Senior Economist at the ILO’s Research Department, and Enrique Fernandez Macias, a researcher at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. They explore what kind of research and policies do we need to better assess the impact of AI on such issues as gender balance, social justice, and other ethical and moral questions arising from its use in both developed and developing economies.
The world is facing a host of challenges causing sluggish employment growth in some societies. The COVID pandemic hasn’t helped, weakening, and even in some cases reversing hard won gains in employment, with devastating economic impact. One key problem is what a recent ILO report sees as a lack of what it calls “structural transformation”. In this podcast, Bernd Mueller, Manager of the Employment Programme at the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin, Italy, and co-author of the ILO’s latest global employment policy review explains how structural transformation can help overcome these challenges, through a new policy framework aimed at creating jobs and advancing the quest for social justice.
Advancing social justice is an idea that’s getting new attention these days. One of the main areas where the need for social justice is growing as something people want is the world of work. Achieving that will be a tall order, given that more and more people are looking for jobs and more and more jobs looking for people to fill them. In this challenging environment, what role can research and dialogue play? This podcast asks two top experts, Sangheon Lee, Director of the ILO’s Employment Policy, Job Creation & Livelihoods Department, and Mikel Landabaso, Director, Fair & Sustainable Economy of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC).
The workforce in the clothing and footwear manufacturing sector is often predominantly made up of female workers. Though these jobs require a high degree of skills, they are often underpaid, insecure and characterized by an uncertain future, in particular because of the risk of being replaced by automated equipment. So, how are women in the apparel and footwear manufacturing sectors affected by automation and technological upgrading? And do these factors favour men over women? In this podcast we’ll examine these issues with the ILO’s Valeria Esquivel, Employment Policies and Gender Specialist, and Senior economist David Kucera.
In a world facing growing uncertainty, multiple transformative changes are buffeting the world of work. Will these changes mean people and countries are being left behind, or provide opportunities for a new approach to employment policies that can improve people’s livelihoods, and make economies grow sustainably and produce decent and productive jobs?
In this podcast we ask two experts from the ILO’s Employment Policy, Job Creation and Livelihoods Department, Sher Verick and Elina Scheja how the recently launched knowledge sharing and technical assistance platform called the Employment Policy Action Facility provides a new starting point for addressing this challenge.
Technology has made enormous strides over the past few decades, improving many people’s lives, and creating incredible economic, scientific, and medical breakthroughs. For some, it has been “the great equalizer”. But others are being left behind in a widening social and economic divide. How can we resolve this paradox in the future of work? In this episode, we’ll examine this question with ILO Employment Policy Department Senior Economist Dorothea Schmidt-Klau and recall some of the key observations on the impact of technology and digitalization from our previous podcasts.
Go green has become the new mantra of our times. To mitigate the impact of climate change, we’re moving fast in new directions that promise to usher in a new green and digital transformation aimed at addressing climate issues that reach well beyond the world of work. There’s an urgency to do this: as the world heats up, we’re running out of time. In this podcast, Moustapha Kamal Gueye, ILO Director of the Priority Action Programme on Just Transitions Towards Environmentally Sustainable Economies and Societies, explains how this transformation is coming about, and how it will affect the future of work.
A host of disruptive trends – ranging from public health crises, to accelerated automation, digitalization, and climate change – are putting labour markets under stress. New realities require new kinds of skills and re-skilling to help workers stay employed, and enterprises stay competitive. Career guidance has emerged as a critical element in both recovery plans and forward-looking strategies for navigating through such disruptions. In this episode, Pedro Moreno da Fonseca, ILO Technical Specialist on Lifelong Learning, and Glenda Quintini, a Senior Economist specializing in Skills and Employability at the OECD discuss the role of career guidance in helping individuals achieve their potential and making economies and societies more productive and inclusive.
This episode introduces the listener to free tools and resources that help SMEs on their journey to end forced labour. The tools and resources covered are particularly relevant to the SME context and help to implement fair recruitment, find and contact relevant organizations to partner with, access up to date, credible and relevant information, and more.In addition to our network coordinator, Laura Greene, this episode features short interviews with two experts:- Alice Pease, Manager at ILO GBNFL member the Global Business Coalition Against Human Trafficking (GBCAT)- Sherelle Wilson, Monitoring and Database Officer at the ILO.To access the tools and resources mentioned in this episode please visit https://flbusiness.network/how-to-fight-forced-labour-a-podcast-training-package-for-smes/
Today, our world is facing an unprecedented number of challenges: climate and demographic change, COVID-19, and a lack of decent work and social security, among others. Poverty, inequality, and hunger are on the rise. So, what can we do to shift gears and start moving forward again? A new initiative has been launched by the UN Secretary General with ILO coordinating support to address these challenges. The Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions aims to increase the level and coordination of the multilateral system’s efforts to help countries create 400 million decent jobs in both developed and emerging economies, and to extend social protection to half the world’s population who are currently excluded. To learn more about this, in this episode we interview ILO experts, Valérie Schmitt, Deputy Director of the Social Protection Department, and Jean-François Klein, Senior Administrator, Employment Policy Department.
In March this year 300 people joined us to hear from three inspiring SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) who had entered our Global Award for SME Action on Forced Labour. Mariska van der Linden, ILO GBNFL consultant, has taken the highlights from this event and turned them into a podcast. Listen to the podcast to hear from:
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The ARTE Group, a company making kitchen worktops which successfully set up a Child Labour Free Zone in India
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Wimrob Bees Ltd., which has set up a network of beekeepers and provides opportunities for decent work and income in rural Uganda
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FSI Worldwide, a recruitment agency that has set up permanent village-level fair recruitment systems in Nepal, India, and Kenya.
For more information on these inspiring SMEs, including fact files, case studies and top tips, please visit our website flbusiness.network
Over more than a decade, a series of economic crises have led to major shifts in the labour markets – creating new types of jobs and destroying existing ones. Researchers are examining the extent of these changes in employment structures, ranging from the decline in mid-paid jobs to the upgrading in high-paid, high-skilled jobs. How are these changes affecting different regions or economies? And which emerging sectors show the most promise for achieving employment growth in developed economies, as well as sustainable development, employment creation and poverty alleviation in less developed economies?
In this episode, Sergio Torrejón Perez, economic and policy analyst in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and coordinator of the joint ILO-JRC project “Global shifts in the employment structure”, and John Hurley, Senior Research Manager, Employment Unit, Eurofound, discuss these trends, and their impact on the future of work.
Are you a small- or medium-sized enterprise (SME) owner or employee? Then this podcast series is for you.
In three short episodes we introduce you to forced labour, share the latest figures, show you how to spot the signs, and point you in the direction of useful tools and resources. Even better, we introduce you to three SME owners/directors who are taking on forced labour and child labour and making a difference.
In this introductory episode Laura Greene, network coordinator, is interviewed by Mariska van der Linden, a consultant working with ILO GBNFL. Laura gives practical examples relevant to SMEs based on her personal experience and the latest evidence. She answers the following questions: • What is forced labour? • How big is the challenge we face? • What are the signs of forced labour a SME is likely to spot? • Why could SMEs be game changers when it comes to eradicating forced labour?
Our second episode features three inspiring SMEs that are leading the way and will be published later this month.
The global phenomenon of digitalization is increasingly going local. Worldwide, informal online platform work is growing, creating new jobs. Rwanda is a unique example. The central African country has seen increasing migration of young people from rural to urban areas. These young people need jobs—and both formal jobs, and more informal work in the gig and platform economy are providing opportunities. But how is this working? Many potential employees need to acquire new skills, including language skills. And can these trends create jobs that are decent and provide social protection? In this podcast, Elvis Melia of Meliacred, an expert at the German Institute on Development and Sustainability and the lead of a new study funded by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) looks at Rwandan jobs in the digital era.
Algorithmic management has been seen as a positive technological and digital factor in the organization of economic activity, but it also comes with a range of challenges. While some may see it as a useful tool for increasing organizational ability to control and monitor complex economic and work processes, with the increasing capacity to collect, store and process digital information it also raises new issues and engenders questions about ensuring privacy and personal space among the workforce.
In this episode, Uma Rani, a Senior Economist at the ILO’s Research Department and Enrique Fernandez Macias, a researcher at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre explain what algorithmic management means and what considerations are needed to ensure that it plays a positive role in the future of work.
Over the past decade, the world has witnessed a rise in platforms and the growing platformization of work. Many of the new forms of work are being generated in the gig economy. These trends are also pervasive in India. While these developments have resulted in increased access to work for women, they are also characterized by higher levels of uncertainty and lesser incentives for skills- and capacity-building, among other challenges. What lessons can be learned from India regarding the creation of more equitable access to jobs in the digital economy? What are some of the policy considerations to overcome these challenges? This episode responds to these core questions.
This podcast episode features an interview with Sabina Dewan, President and Executive Director of the JustJobs Network, Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in India, and Lead of the research project on the digital future of work in India commissioned by the German Agency for International Cooperation or GIZ.
Life is about transitions--at work, in our personal lives, as we age. Diverse megatrends – from demographics to climate change, from globalization to technological advances and digitalization – are transforming the world of work in ways that are presenting, sometimes new turbulence to the difficult transitions throughout our lives, What’s more, the COVID pandemic has further added to the transitions we’re facing. A solid understanding of labour market transition patterns and of people’s aspirations and needs is essential to ensuring protected and effective transitions. This episode aims to enhance global knowledge of such patterns for informed and timely policymaking, particularly in emerging and developing countries and identifies the role digitalization plays as a driver of changing transition patterns but also as a facilitator of transitions.
Digitalization is changing the nature, mode, and pace of work. This means the skilling and re-skilling of workers will be essential if enterprises and entire industries are to maintain and increase functionality and productivity, effectively manage shocks, ensure, and sustain the well-being and livelihoods of workers, and create decent jobs. Understanding and anticipating the evolving skills needs is a crucial step that can guide the training of workers. This episode explores labour market skills needs, and how education, training and lifelong learning can effectively skill and re-skill workers throughout their lives in an evolving and increasingly digitalized labour market.
This podcast episode features an interview with ILO Senior Skills and Employability Specialist and Team Leader on Skills Strategies for Future Labour Markets Olga Strietska-Ilina.
In many ways, digitalization has made the world of work a better place, supporting growth in both productivity and incomes. Yet many groups of workers, in particular, those who are already disadvantaged and marginalized such as women, older persons, and persons with disabilities, face dual challenges associated with unequal access to digital technologies compounded by the lack of capacities to use them. This lack of access to modern technologies has been even more pronounced in traditional divides – rural versus urban, and developing and emerging economies versus developed economies. Other characteristics such as age, and skills levels add to the widening of the gap. In this episode, Professor Balaji Parthasarathy of the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore, India, and Matteo Sostero of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre discuss the digital divide and offer some ideas for narrowing it.
Many countries have a very young workforce. While this population dividend can have a positive impact on growth and development, young people often can’t find decent jobs in formal work settings. Now, there is a growing trend toward work that has gone on-line, and is staying on-line. This episode explores how digitalization through “crowd working” platforms can be used as a tool to tap into the labour market potential of a young population, facilitate the creation of new jobs, and further the development and economic growth of an increasing number of societies.
The episode features an interview with Niall O’Higgins, Senior Economist in the ILO’s Employment Analysis Unit, Employment Policy Department.
This podcast investigates the possibilities of using big data to analyse ongoing work trends in both developed and developing economies as a means of anticipating future work needs. It discusses different types of big data such as online job vacancies, and geospatial data sources such as satellite imagery with a view to seeing how such information can track and measure economic growth and other indicators in both developing and developed countries and help inform policy design and implementation.
This episode features Tony Bonen, Acting Executive Director of Canada’s Labour Market Information Council in Ottawa, and Matthieu Charpe, Senior Economist at the ILO’s Employment Policy Department.
Increasing digitalization and use of new technologies have pushed employment policies in new directions worldwide. In the wake of the recent pandemic, while there has been an increase in the number of workers in informal employment, digitalization and technology are also helping others transition to formal employment through a process called E-formality. At the same time, the digital and technical evolution in public employment services (PES) that help match workers with jobs and employers find the workers they need, is playing a critical role in supporting a recovery from the pandemic and other labour market disruptions.
Podcast features ILO Employment Policy Department's Vicky Leung, Technical and Programme Officer, Transition to Formality Unit, and Michael Mwasikakata, Head, Labour Market Services for Transitions Unit.
Tanto el trabajo forzoso como el trabajo infantil son problemas de gran importancia en México, un país pionero de la Alianza 8.7 que ha acelerado el paso para erradicar ambos abusos. En este podcast, analizamos las causas principales detrás del trabajo forzoso e infantil en México, lo que se está haciendo para combatir estos problemas, lo que falta por hacer y cómo lograr hacerlo.
El podcast presenta entrevistas con cuatro expositores expertos de empresas y de organizaciones empresariales y de empleadores que tienen experiencia de primera mano en la lucha contra el trabajo forzoso y el trabajo infantil. Entre ellos abarcan varios temas relacionados con estos dos problemas incluyendo la visión del sector privado para su erradicación, la contratación equitativa, el impacto del COVID-19, la importancia de las certificaciones, la formalización laboral, la seguridad social y el desarrollo de capacidades, entre otros.
El podcast se centra especialmente en el sector agrícola y destaca la importancia del papel que juegan las micro, pequeñas y medianas empresas para eliminar el trabajo forzoso y el trabajo infantil.
People are living longer than ever before in both developed and developing countries. And in both cases, older people either want to, or have to, keep working, often out of the realistic fear of falling into poverty. In this podcast Dorothea Schmidt-Klau, Senior Economist at the ILO’s Employment Policy Department, unpacks these trends in ageing in the world of work and how to address them.
This is the fifth episode of the ILO’s Social Finance Podcast on financial inclusion, impact insurance and sustainable investing. The podcast brings you insights from around the world, highlighting how financial services contribute to social and economic development.
In this episode, we take a deep dive into the risks faced by women throughout their lifetimes. Lisa Morgan, Technical Specialist at the ILO, speaks with Jane Portas about her work on Risks in Life, the 6 Moments That Matter framework for securing fair financial futures, and Insuring Women’s Futures, a voluntary, public trust program Jane co-founded, hosted by the UK’s Chartered Insurance Institute. They discuss the “6 Moments That Matter” for women’s financial resilience, how insurers can respond and the role of men in women’s financial futures.
You can find out more about The Risks in Life Series of reports for practitioners and policymakers, financial wellbeing materials to empower girls and women, and 6 Moments That Matter at www.6momentsthatmatter.com. This also includes a recent report on the role of financial services and employers in addressing economic abuse and the first preventative financial wellbeing guide for women (Controlling Your Financial Future – 6 Moments That Matter for Girls & Women, based on research and survivor experience). If you’d like to find out about Insuring women’s Futures visit https://www.insuringwomensfutures.co.uk/.
To all our listeners, this is your podcast! We want to cover the topics that interest you. Feel free to send us your ideas for future episodes and we will do what we can to include them. Email: socialfinance@ilo.org.
This episode is also available on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3KpYaD5 and iTunes: https://apple.co/3pKMMty
The transcript for this episode is available on the ILO website: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/documents/article/wcms_838979.pdf
Background music: www.purple-planet.com
For information about audio copyright and permissions see www.ilo.org/global/copyright/lang--en/index.htm. For 6 Moments That Matter copyright see www.6momentsthatmatter.com.
This is the fourth episode of the ILO’s Social Finance Podcast on financial inclusion, impact insurance and sustainable investing. The podcast brings you insights from around the world, highlighting how financial services contribute to social and economic development.
In this episode, we look at why and how impact investors are promoting employment as an impact theme. Lisa Morgan, Technical Specialist at the ILO, speaks with Amit Bouri, founder and CEO of the Global Impact Investment Network (the GIIN) and Patricia Richter, Senior Technical Officer at the ILO. They talk about the fundamental role that decent work and quality jobs play in sustainable development and how investors can leverage their financing to contribute positively to employment outcomes that address today’s pressing issues. They highlight the collaboration between the GIIN and its members with the ILO, including the work on developing quality jobs investment strategies and metrics for measuring impact achieved.
You can find out more about all the resources discussed in this podcast at: GIIN - Annual Impact Investor survey 2020: https://thegiin.org/research/publication/impinv-survey-2020 IRIS+: https://iris.thegiin.org/ Quality Jobs theme – IRIS+: https://navigatingimpact.thegiin.org/quality-jobs/outcomes/impacts/
To all our listeners, this is your podcast! We want to cover the topics that interest you. Feel free to send us your ideas for future episodes and we will do what we can to include them. Email: socialfinance@ilo.org.
This episode is also available on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3lKmztp and iTunes: https://apple.co/31CWk0G
The transcript for this episode is available on the ILO website: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/documents/article/wcms_831229.pdf
Background music: www.purple-planet.com
For information about audio copyright and permissions see www.ilo.org/global/copyright/lang--en/index.htm.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the world of work. Lockdowns, restrictions on activity and movement, and economic turmoil have cut working hours and resulted in the elimination of millions of jobs.
Preliminary evidence suggests that the recovery is not benefiting women and men equally, once again leaving women behind. The impact on women, and especially young women, has been catastrophic.
Yet much has been learned since the start of this crisis, and a clearer picture of its impact on jobs—especially among women in the world of work—has emerged, as has an awareness about what kind of policy responses can safeguard jobs and support recovery.
Guest: Valeria Esquivel, Employment Policies and Gender specialist in the Employment, Labour Market and Youth Branch of the ILO’s Employment Policy Department
This is the third episode of the ILO’s Social Finance Podcast on financial inclusion, impact insurance and sustainable investing. The podcast brings you insights from around the world, highlighting how financial services contribute to social and economic development.
In Episode 3, we look at digital solutions for inclusive insurance. Lisa Morgan, Technical Specialist at the ILO, speaks with Jeremy Leach and Sam Ndori from Inclusivity Solutions about their work digitizing insurance across Africa. They talk about the opportunities for digital solutions to create a seamless customer journey, and the challenges of bringing together the partners needed to make that possible. Jeremy and Sam also give their advice for others embarking on digital insurance project during the COVID-19 pandemic – “the biggest learning moment the insurance world has ever seen”.
To all our listeners, this is your podcast! We want to cover the topics that interest you. Feel free to send us your ideas for future episodes and we will do what we can to include them. Email: socialfinance@ilo.org.
This episode is also available on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3ycqOCT and iTunes: https://apple.co/330LcLG
The transcript for this episode is available on the ILO website: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/documents/article/wcms_828345.pdf
Background music: www.purple-planet.com
For information about audio copyright and permissions see www.ilo.org/global/copyright/lang--en/index.htm.
Ce podcast plus long et plus approfondi (en français) examine les causes profondes communes du travail des enfants et du travail forcé en Côte d’Ivoire. Le podcast explore les actions des organisations d’employeurs et du gouvernement qui ont particulièrement bien réussi à s’attaquer à ces deux fléaux et esquisse les prochaines étapes. Le podcast présente des interviews avec Edouard Ladouyou de la Confédération Générale des Entreprises de Côte d’Ivoire (CGECI, un membre de la OIT GBNFL), Mariame Bédié du Groupement Professionnel des Exportateurs de Café et de Cacao, et Ndri Koffi de l’Union Nationale de Entreprises Agricoles et Forestières.
Ulrika Bonnier from The Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade (TRACIT), an ILO GBNFL member, tells us how child and forced labour are linked to crimes and criminal networks and proposes actions.
WWF expert Corey Norton sets out how environmental degradation, child and forced labour are linked, and what some of the solutions are. This short podcast looks in particular at fisheries crimes.
This short podcast episode features an interview with Rainforest Alliance expert, Rachel Rigby, on how climate change increases vulnerability to child and forced labour and what we can do about it.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the world’s young workers hard. While the pandemic has had an unprecedented impact across the global workforce, youth have suffered greater job losses than other age groups.
According to the latest ILO statistical update on the impact of COVID, which came out just before World Youth Skills Day on 15 July, employment of young people aged 15 to 24 fell sharply in 2020.
What’s more, the crisis and lockdown measures constrained young people from even looking for work, increasing the so-called NEETs—young people not in employment, education, and training—last year, leaving young people worse off for years to come.
In this podcast, we hear from ILO senior youth employment experts Niall O’Higgins and Sher Verick on the situation now, and where we are headed.
Two billion people – more than six out of ten workers in the world – make their living in the informal economy. The ILO estimates that some 1.6 billion of these workers have been significantly impacted by the COVID pandemic. Among them, women and young workers have been particularly hard hit.
What is to be done? One emerging solution is technology. The ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work recognizes the role of technological innovation in driving change in the world of work and its human-centred approach, and promotes harnessing the potential of technological progress to achieve decent work and sustainable development.
In this podcast, ILO Employment Policy Specialist Juan Chacaltana and Technical Officer, Vicky Leung discuss emerging policy trends in how technology can facilitate the transition to the formal economy, or e-formality, and some of the challenges.
We often ask whether youth are ready for the future. But is the future ready for them? That’s the underlying theme, and the title of a recent, comprehensive book by the ILO on the youth employment challenge.
In 2019, around 430 million young people were working but some 68 million, or more than 13.6 per cent were unemployed. What’s more, and ILO estimates that some 22 per cent of all youth (or roughly 267 million) weren’t in education, employment or training in 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only made matters worse. In this podcast, the editors of the book, Sukti Dasgupta, ILO Employment Department Chief of the Employment, Labour Markets and Youth Branch, and Juan Chacaltana, Senior Employment Policies Specialist, discuss these issues and how to transform traditional youth employment policies to help build a better future for them.
The field of responsible business conduct has come a long way but has failed to consider and engage SMEs. Laura Spence, Professor of Business Ethics at Royal Holloway, University of London, sets out why and how SMEs should be included in the conversation.
Samuel Lee Moh Chuan, Senior Group HR Manager at the Wen Ken Group (Malaysia), discusses the impact of COVID-19 on Malaysian businesses, and the need to connect top down and local action on forced labour to really make a difference.
Global job markets are changing rapidly, driven by increased automation, new technology and demographic change among other factors. And over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has injected new uncertainty into this changing labour market. What are some of the medium- to long-term solutions to meeting these challenges?
To address these trends and the policy response, the ILO Employment Policy Department has recently launched a new Global Employment Policy Review: Employment Policies for Inclusive Structural Transformation. Interview with Sangheon Lee, Director of the Employment Policy Department, and the co-editors of the report, Dorothea Schmidt-Klau and David Kucera.
Douglas Opio, Executive Director of the Federation of Uganda Employers and Chair of the ILO GBNFL Steering Committee, explains why responsible business conduct should be at the top of each SME’s agenda and how to achieve it in practice.
The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting labour markets and livelihoods in advanced economies. But what is the impact on the world’s least developed countries, or L-D-C-s, which together account for 1.3 per cent of the global GDP, 13 per cent of the world’s population, and 40 per cent of the world’s poor.
In this podcast, Aurelio Parisotto, Head of the ILO’s Employment and Economic Analyses Unit, provides insights from a new publication entitled “COVID-19 - Tackling the jobs crisis in the Least Developed Countries”, which draws preliminary evidence from a range of ad-hoc country studies intended to adequately capture the impact of the pandemic on labour markets in LDCs, and the policy responses needed to restart economies and promote a job-rich recovery that leaves no one behind.
Our natural world provides enormous opportunities for creating jobs and stimulating economies. More than half of the world’s GDP – some US$44 trillion – is moderately or highly dependent on nature. And globally, some 1.2 billion jobs in sectors such as farming, fisheries, forestry and tourism depend on the effective management and sustainability of healthy ecosystems.
But today, the natural world and our economies are experiencing multiple challenges, intensified by the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. This cascade of crises has had a dramatic and tragic impact on labour markets, eliminating hundreds of millions of jobs and livelihoods.
Unprecedented times call for unprecedented responses. This podcast is based on the new, ground-breaking report by the ILO and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) that urges policymakers to urgently explore the potential of Nature-based Solution and seek to integrate them in their crises responses. Interview with the report’s editors, Vanessa Pérez-Cirera, WWF’s Deputy Leader for Nature Global Climate and Energy Practice, and Maikel Lieuw-Kie-Song, the ILO’s Employment Intensive Investment Programme Technical Specialist.
How do we deal with the enormous crisis in employment during the COVID-19 pandemic? National employment policies play an important role in addressing this issue by providing a vital entry point for the crisis response and a way forward to a job-rich recovery. In this podcast, Chief of Employment, Labour Market and Youth Branch Sukti Dasgupta and Head of the Employment Strategies Unit Sher Verick of ILO Employment Policy Department explain the vital role of national employment policies in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID 19 crisis has laid bare the entrenched gender inequalities that, compounded with other inequalities, plague labour markets. As the latest ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the world of work, fifth edition has shown, the employment of women is relatively at greater risk than that of men, due to their overrepresentation in the service sectors severely impacted by the crisis. In this interview, Valeria Esquivel, Senior Employment Policies and Gender Officer/ILO EMPLOYMENT Policy Department, discusses how the current crisis is different from previous crises in terms of its impact on women workers, and highlights some policy recommendations the ILO has to offer.
This is the second episode of the ILO’s Social Finance Podcast on financial inclusion, impact insurance and sustainable investing. The podcast brings you insights from around the world, highlighting how financial services contribute to social and economic development.
In Episode 2, we turn our attention to Eastern Africa for insights from Kenya. In a discussion between Lisa Morgan, Technical Officer at the ILO and Saurabh Sharma, General Manager of Britam Microinsurance, you can learn more about how inclusive insurers are dealing with and planning for the immediate and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To all our listeners, this is your podcast! We want to cover the topics that interest you. Feel free to send us your ideas for future episodes and we will do what we can to include them. Email: socialfinance@ilo.org.
This episode is also available on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/d9D-bbZ and iTunes: https://lnkd.in/dCJnmMv
The transcript for this episode is available on the ILO website: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/documents/article/wcms_749043.pdf
Background music: www.purple-planet.com
For information about audio copyright and permissions see www.ilo.org/global/copyright/lang--en/index.htm.
In this interview Sher Verick, Head of the Employment Strategies Unit, and Susana Puerto Gonzalez, Research and Technical Specialist, discuss the extent of the youth employment crisis, how the current crisis is different than previous economic crises and ILO's policy recommendations for addressing it.
In this interview, Mito Tsukamoto, Chief of the development and Investment (DEVINVEST) branch of the ILO’s Employment Policy Department, elaborates on the crisis facing informal economy workers, and highlights the ILO’s response to building a “better normal” through inclusive and sustainable development.
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the world of work into its worst crisis since the end of World War II. What is more, as a result of the pandemic, hopeful initiatives such as the UN Social Development Goals are now facing daunting new challenges. In this interview, Sangheon Lee, Director of the department that guides ILO action for promoting full and productive employment policies, discusses the situation as it stands and how to get from the “new normal” to a “better normal”.
In this interview, ILO Senior Skills and Employability Specialist Ashwani Aggarwal discusses the new world of on-line learning and e-training that is taking shape, and some of the challenges that have emerged.
We are proud to launch the ILO’s Social Finance Podcast on financial inclusion, impact insurance and sustainable investing. The podcast brings you insights from around the world, highlighting how financial services contribute to social and economic development.
In the first episode, Lisa Morgan interviews Greg Solomon, actuary and specialist in reinsurance, risk management and capital management on COVID-19, insurance, and financial inclusion.
This episode is also available on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/evir-Wp and iTunes: https://apple.co/3dLEzxf
The transcript for this episode is available on the ILO website: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/documents/article/wcms_746999.pdf
Background music: https://www.purple-planet.com
For information about audio copyright and permissions see https://www.ilo.org/global/copyright/lang--en/index.htm.
Violence and harassment in the workplace is in the headlines and seems more commonplace than ever before. Where and why does it happen and what can be done to stop it?