Decent work and the SDGs

Moderator

• Guillaume Mercier, Programme Manager, Organizational Development and Project Services Programme ITC, ILO

Panellists

• Patricia Vidal, Evaluation Officer, ILO
• Natalia Aquilino, Monitoring and Evaluation Director, Secretary for Industrial Development of the Ministry of Economy, Argentina
• Julius Cainglet, Vice-President for Research, Advocacy and Partnerships, Federation of Free Workers
• Fanny Sequeira, Secretary General, Confederation of Workers Rerum Novarum, Costa Rica
• Dejana Kuzmic, Head of International Cooperation, Serbian Association of Employers

Bolstering National Evaluation Systems through tripartite partnerships: Lessons from countries on the decent work agenda in the SDG era.

• Partnerships and agreements amongst governments, employers and workers to promote decent work at all levels are drivers for inclusive and sustainable growth. Social dialogue can be built by bringing the different stakeholders together and creating an environment for participation among NES stakeholders. Building alliances with non‑traditional national stakeholders often missing from the table, such as the ministry of finance, is essential to ensure a resilient NES.
• Evaluation contributes to improving tripartite labour systems. Evaluative evidence promotes transparency and acts as a powerful incentive to bring actors to the table. It helps facilitate negotiations between governments, employers’ organizations and trade unions. Equally, trade unions and employers’ organizations should be involved in national evaluations. There is still a lot of ground for improvement in the tripartite labour systems, and evaluation has much to contribute.
• An inclusive evaluation system requires an inclusive public policy cycle, including planning and implementation of public policies. National Evaluation Systems provide a platform to promote the participation of trade unions and employers’ organizations and contribution to decision-making processes.
• Employers’ organizations need to expand their role in NES. However, their evaluation capacities should be strengthened to enable their meaningful participation in the National Evaluation System and processes.

Conclusion

Social dialogue is a key instrument for economic and social cohesion and good governance. In turn, good governance and evaluation go hand-in-hand. Building strong, resilient National Evaluation Systems requires the effective engagement of all key stakeholders throughout the policy cycle. In the case of promoting decent work and economic growth (SDG8 and related indicators), the engagement of the government and social partners (workers and employers’ organizations) in planning, implementation and evaluation is fundamental to advance the promotion of decent work and centre sustainable development around human, environmental, economic and societal values based on collective knowledge and the kinds of evidence evaluation can provide.