The General Assembly of the United Nations has agreed an additional target for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - the achievement of 'full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people’.

From its formulation within the ILO, the decent work concept has been making steady progress through international bodies in recent years, and refers to a combination of employment quantity achieved through through job creation together with employment quality in terms of labour standards, social dialogue and social protection.

The endorsement of decent work as a target within the MDGs puts employment issues - including standards - at the forefront of development debates and should reorientate donor and government policies towards the promotion of better jobs. It also means that employment measures may be attached to poverty-reduction strategies. Four new indicators for assessing the new MDG target have been published. Currently these all relate to employment quantity and productivity rather than the qualitative labour standards and social dialogue elements of the framework.

Ergon has written a background paper for the DFID Labour Standards and Poverty Reduction Forum looking at the framework and content of decent work. Click here to download.

The ILO has developed a Toolkit for Mainstreaming Decent Work on behalf of the UN family. This is aimed at assisting international bodies in understanding how decent work can be integrated into policy making and practical programmes.