Equal access to opportunities Overcoming barriers.

 

Key points 

•  Economic growth is not sufficient to ensure decent work and social development.
•  Equal opportunities require overcoming barriers to participation in society, including through education, prohibition of discrimination and efforts to ensure inclusion for women and people in vulnerable groups. 
•  Despite progress, targeted interventions are required to ensure full and equal participation for youth and women in education, training and work. 
•  Informality remains widespread and persistent, especially in developing countries, and presents a major barrier to decent work and social justice.

The three decades since the first World Summitfor Social Development have seen both economic highs and lows. Economic growth and convergence, such as that seen during the 2000s, helped to create jobs and reduce poverty globally. Periods of relative stagnation and uncertainty, such as the one ushered in by the 2008–09 global financial crisis, led to increased unemployment, which in some cases was worsened by excessive austerity measures. Similarly, unexpected events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, have brought severe, if temporary, disruptions to the global economy and labour markets. When economies experience natural and financial crises with devastating effects on labour markets, tailored strategies can help mitigate the worst effects. Economic growth is necessary but not sufficient to guarantee decent work. The quality of jobs, particularly as viewed through the lens of formal employment, does not automatically move in tandem with GDP. Similarly, trade and investment are important drivers of job creation in developing countries, but the quality of jobs may fall short of decent work goals. The private sector is the main vehicle for job creation, accounting for 70 to 80 per cent of all employment. Nevertheless, most of these jobs are in small enterprises, which face constraints to achieving decent work, particularly those in the informal economy. Informality has been slowly falling over several decades, but the transition to the formal economy has stalled in recent years. The global share of informal employment (informality rate) has declined by just 2 percentage points over the last 20 years; and in low-income countries, informality affects roughly six of every ten workers, meaning that formal employment remains accessible to only a minority of the workforce. While growth is rarely jobless in developing countries, the challenge of creating equal opportunities for decent and productive employment persists. The environmental, digital and demographic transitions will make the task even harder. Nonetheless, there has been some progress in overcoming barriers. On the supply side, there has been substantial improvement in educational attainment since the first World Summit for Social Development, particularly in developing countries and especially among girls and young women. In general, the higher the educational attainment, the better the quality of jobs which can be accessed. Even so, for millions whose highest educational attainment is a high school diploma, available jobs, often at low wages or in the informal economy, are generally not in line with their aspirations nor sufficient to ensure an adequate standard of living. For others who managed to acquire a higher education degree, there may not be enough jobs that make use of their knowledge. Both limitations contribute to the crisis of trust in institutions and lead to wasted human potential. This section assesses trends in labour market outcomes and examines the barriers and enablers of access to equal opportunities for decent and productive employment. Consideration is also given to the role of sustainable enterprises and the challenges businesses, especially MSMEs, face. The section then articulates the different components of the comprehensive policy approach needed for advancing this critical pillar of social justice.