What is this toolbox?
This toolbox aims to help you apply the concept of Decent Work to your day-to-day work in fragile and low-income contexts. The toolbox contains definitions, good-practices, tools and monitoring approaches for development practitioners and interested others.
A partnership project
Development of the toolbox was made possible through funding by the VET Toolbox consortium in which British Council, Enabel, Expertise France, GIZ, LuxDev and AFD cooperate.
How to use the toolbox?
You can use the toolbox to find answers to questions you might have, read-up on background articles or find inspiring examples related to Decent Work.
Both the 4 ILO pillars of Decent Work and thematic areas serve as entry points for exploring the toolbox’s content. For each pillar and thematic area, the toolbox provides relevant definitions, related tools (e.g., manuals), resources (e.g., articles), and relevant projects.
The toolbox also provides practical guidance for (those working with) employers on how to ensure that employment conditions are in line with decent work standards. To that end, SA-8000 requirements and guidance are linked to the elements that, together, make up for decent work.
Based on the 4 strategic objectives of ILO's decent work agenda, the toolbox rests on 4 pillars of decent work, providing an outline for exploring the decent work concept.
Example projects of the VET Toolbox partners (currently only from Enabel) that aim to contribute to the decent work agenda can be explored here.
We share Resources to stimulate learning and encourage networking, dialogue and the exchange of experiences.
Thematic Area's are linked to the decent work pillars and serve as concrete entry-points to find the material that you are looking for.
Our Top picks
Decent work is also about renumeration, even more so in the fragile and low-income contexts that are central to this toolbox. Living wage and living income can be useful concepts to explore in this regard, as they provide for contextualized (localized) guidance on what workers (including farmers) should earn to provide for themselves and their families. Both concepts come with active communities of practice, who’s resources the toolbox refers below.
How is my project contributing to decent work? To answer this question, you need a good monitoring and results measurement framework. In this section, the toolbox, provides some guidance and resources that help you to reflect on and design such a framework.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below, the toolbox provides answers to some of the frequently asked questions. Where relevant, a link is provided to toolbox resources that help you navigate these questions.
Programmes that aim to contributing to decent work, do so through a variety of activities, targeting different groups and stakeholders while aiming for very different outcomes. Therefore, measurement of the success and progress of such activities should follow the logic of these activities. When a programme departs from a decent work deficits analysis (see related FAQ), monitoring should keep track of the extent to which such deficits have been overcome.
It is important to realize that programmes aiming to contribute to decent work come in many different forms. As such, good indicators range from an increase in income among the target group to changes in national legislation allowing workers to form unions. The toolbox provides suggestions on how to go about measuring progress towards decent work here.
Due to the breath of the concept of decent work and therefore also of related programming, the toolbox cannot provide a comprehensive list of good practices. The toolbox, however, does provide information on decent work example projects listed here. In addition, resources included in the toolbox (here) can serve as useful leads to explore good practices.
Decent work, as defined by the ILO, is a binary concept, work only qualifies as decent if it ticks all the required boxes. And, when work does not meet one of the criteria is, it cannot qualify as decent work. As such, the concept is not flexible. Nonetheless, context does determine what it means to meet certain criteria, for example in the case of remuneration and a living wage.
The decent work deficit is expressed as the absence of sufficient employment opportunities, inadequate social protection, the denial of rights at work and shortcomings in social dialogue. These domains correspond with the four pillars of decent work. Per domain, the decent work deficit expresses the gap between the situation as is and what it ought to be to meet the criteria for decent work. An analysis of decent work deficits may allow for prioritizing activities to contribute to decent work.
Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. It involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men. This ILO definition of decent work does not immediately allow for application of the concept.
The toolbox includes a list of programmes and projects that VET Toolbox partners (Enabel in particular) consider to be contributing to decent work. The projects show that decent work programming comes in many different forms, e.g., employment creation, strengthening of worker organizations to advocate for the rights of workers, improved training and internships for young people etc. For examples of programming (modalities) that are used to address decent work, please see the list of (Enabel) projects here.