Decent Development

The World Bank and other international financial institutions (IFIs) invest tens of billions of dollars each year to improve energy, transport and water and sanitation services, which profoundly affect economic and social development.

In recent years, the IFIs have taken some important steps towards safeguarding labour standards and employment rights in their projects, and consulting with trade unions and other civil society groups.

But there is often still a gap between policy and practice, and the creation of new employment is not necessarily a monitored goal of development projects. In fact, jobs are often lost as a result of them.

While that reflects failings within the institutions, another problem is that workers’ organisations often do not know how to engage with the institutions to influence policy and project design and implementation.

The Decent Development project is aimed at helping to bridge that gap by building capacity in unions and organisations of informal economy workers to use the policies and procedures of the IFIs to protect and promote decent work in the context of development projects.

Our partners in this project are the four global union federations representing 60 million workers in construction, energy, transport and public services, and FNV Mondiaal, the international department of the Dutch trade union federation, which has financially supported the project’s development.

For further information, please email admin@publicworld.org.