Towards a Fairer Future: Why the G20 ILO Pact on Decent Work Could Reshape Global Economies

In Johannesburg, under the resonant theme of Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability, world leaders from the G20 came together not simply to renew diplomatic ties, but to chart a bold new direction. one that places decent work, social protection, equality and inclusion at the very heart of economic growth. The adoption of the G20 Leaders’ Declaration, welcomed by the ILO, marks more than a diplomatic milestone. it holds the promise of a transformation in how the global economy defines and delivers prosperity.

This is not a call for growth at any cost. Rather, this is a call for growth rooted in dignity, fairness, and shared opportunity. The Declaration argues, convincingly, that industrialization and economic modernization cannot be ends in themselves, they must be coupled with creation of good jobs, social protection systems that ensure nobody is left behind, robust labour rights, and wage fairness. In short: progress must be inclusive.

The significance of this shift cannot be overstated. Too often, policymakers have assumed that economic growth by itself will trickle down and lift everyone. This faith in trickle‑down economics has repeatedly proved flawed, inequalities widen, vulnerable groups fall through safety nets, young people find themselves stalled at the edge of opportunity, and gender divides persist. The 2025 Johannesburg Declaration acknowledges all of this and pushes us toward a different paradigm, one where the quality of growth matters as much as its quantity.

What does this new paradigm look like in practice? The Declaration enshrines several concrete, measurable goals—integrating youth into the workforce, closing long‑standing gender gaps, safeguarding workers’ rights, ensuring social protection, valuing care work, and encouraging inclusive industrial policies.

At its core lies a renewed social contract one where the benefits of productivity and innovation are shared across society, where industrialization does not lead to exclusion, but to inclusion, where growth lifts up all, not just a few.

One of the central thrusts of the G20 Declaration is the insistence that industrialization must proceed hand-in-hand with the creation of decent jobs, universal social protection, and respect for labour rights. Leaders recognize that industrial policy whether through the promotion of manufacturing, technology, MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), startups should not simply aim for output, capacity, or GDP growth. Rather, it should serve as a mechanism for equitable job creation, for strengthening local economies, for offering dignity and security to workers.

This is a powerful re-imagining of the role of industrialization. Historically, many nations prioritized rapid growth, structural transformation, export‑led manufacturing, and technological competitiveness. In that model, labour rights, social protection and wage fairness were often afterthoughts or worse, casualties of competitiveness. The Johannesburg Declaration turns that logic on its head. It insists that true, sustainable competitiveness depends on fairness, social protection and inclusion because a workforce that is secure, motivated, fairly compensated and protected is ultimately more productive, more stable, and more innovative.

Equally crucial is the call for robust labour institutions, fair wage‑setting mechanisms, and universal and adaptive social protection. These are not abstract aspirations, but policy foundations: collective bargaining, social dialogue, labour rights and protections underpinned by law and social policy  are indispensable for reducing inequality, preventing exploitation, and ensuring that gains from growth are shared.

In an age of deep structural transformation with automation, digitalization, climate transition and shifting global trade this approach offers a compass. Industrial policies should not advance at the expense of workers; instead, they must generate high-quality, resilient jobs, while ensuring social safety nets and worker protections keep pace with change.

Youth at the Forefront: The Nelson Mandela Bay Youth Target

For the world’s youth, who today face uncertain labour markets, disrupted education pathways, and structural barriers, the Johannesburg Declaration offers renewed hope. The G20 committed to the Nelson Mandela Bay Youth Target: to reduce by 5 percentage points (from 2024 levels) the proportion of 15‑ to 29‑year-olds who are neither in employment, education, nor training (NEET) by 2030.

This is not a mere statistical ambition, it is an effort to reclaim a generation. Across the world, youth face multiple and overlapping disadvantages: skills‑mismatch, lack of access to quality education or vocational training, informal employment, gender and disability barriers, and often exclusion by virtue of geography, poverty or social marginalization. The Declaration acknowledges all these realities. It urges targeted policies to strengthen youth employment strategies, expand access to technical and vocational training (TVET), internships, apprenticeships, in‑work learning, and reskilling or upskilling aligned with labour‑market needs.

Moreover, it recognizes that job creation alone is not enough, what matters is decent work. The jobs offered to young people must be sustainable, offer fair wages, protections, social security, and opportunities for advancement. That is how youth inclusion becomes not just a welfare measure, but an engine of growth, innovation and long-term development.

Importantly, the Declaration calls for special attention to disadvantaged youth: young women, youth with disabilities, migrants, those from less privileged backgrounds. Inclusion must be intersectional if it is to be meaningful.

By putting youth at the center, the G20 acknowledges a fundamental truth: societies that exclude young people from decent work threaten not just social justice but social stability, economic dynamism, and intergenerational equity.

Parallel to youth, the issue of gender equality in the workforce emerges as a core commitment of the Declaration. Through the Brisbane–eThekwini Goal, G20 leaders commit to reducing the gender gap in labour force participation by 25% by 2030 (from 2012 levels), and to progressively work toward shrinking the gender pay gap aiming for a 15% reduction by 2035 (based on 2022 levels).

This is a long-overdue reaffirmation: almost all G20 countries have narrowed participation gaps over the past decade, but progress has been uneven and for many, far insufficient. More than numbers, the Declaration demands attention to quality, fairness and meaningful participation: equal pay for work of equal value, access to quality jobs, opportunities for leadership and decision-making, removal of structural barriers, and investment in the care economy (childcare, eldercare, disability-inclusive services).

The emphasis on care work is particularly significant. For decades, unpaid care often performed by women has underpinned economies and societies, yet remained invisible and undervalued. By committing to care policies and social protection, and by using frameworks such as the ILO 5R model (Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute, Reward, Representation), the Declaration seeks to acknowledge and remunerate care work adequately, a radical shift toward gender justice and social inclusion.

The Declaration also condemns all forms of discrimination, violence, and harassment against women and girls, commits to ensuring women have equal access to economic resources, finance, markets, and entrepreneurship opportunities including women-led businesses, cooperatives, and MSMEs.

In other words: this is not about token representation, it is about systematically dismantling structural inequality, redistributing opportunity, and building economies in which gender is never a barrier to dignity, work and economic agency.

Social Protection, Labour Rights and Social Dialogue

Beyond youth and gender goals, the G20 Declaration places strong emphasis on universal and adaptive social protection, labour rights, fair wages, collective bargaining, social dialogue, and institutional frameworks. It recognizes that without these foundational pillars, even well‑intentioned employment and equality targets could falter.

This is timely. Many economies especially in developing and emerging countries are coping with rising informality: contract work, gig economy, precarious employment, weak protections, and often little to no social security. These trends leave millions vulnerable, undermine social cohesion and make economic shocks (like a pandemic, climate disaster, or technological disruption) devastating. By embedding social protection and labour rights at the core of industrial and economic policy, the Declaration offers a blueprint for resilience.

Digital transformation and the rise of platform work are also acknowledged. While new technologies promise efficiency, innovation and growth, they can also deepen divides unless matched with appropriate labour standards, protections, and social security coverage. The Declaration underlines the need for policies that ensure platform and non‑standard workers are not left behind: social dialogue, standard-setting, and social protection must evolve alongside technological change.

Finally, the Declaration recognizes entrepreneurship, MSMEs and startups including women‑led and local enterprises as engines of job creation, innovation and inclusive growth. By encouraging global collaboration, technology diffusion, industrial innovation alongside social protection and equity, the G20 is signalling a shift from growth driven by scale and capital to growth driven by people, dignity, and opportunity.

Why This Concordance Matters Especially in Today’s World

The Johannesburg Declaration and the ILO’s endorsement of it arrives at a moment of converging global crises. Climate change, technological disruption, demographic shifts, rising inequality, persistent gender and youth exclusion, and growing social tensions. In such a context, an economic model that focuses only on output, exports, or GDP growth is not only insufficient, it is dangerous.

1. Economic transformation without social destruction

As economies move toward green transitions, digitalization, automation  many jobs may vanish, others may emerge, but uncertainty looms. In this context, a cautious, people‑centred industrial policy one that cares about worker protections, decent jobs, social security, reskilling is indispensable. The Declaration’s commitment to social protection and decent work offers a shield against dislocation, inequality, and social destabilization.

2. Youth bulge and demographic dividend, but only if harnessed

Across many G20 and non-G20 countries, youth constitute large shares of population. If their energies, creativity, and potential are harnessed through decent work, skills training, entrepreneurship, and inclusion the result could be a demographic dividend. But if they remain excluded, unemployed or underemployed, the consequences will be far more severe: social unrest, economic stagnation, wasted potential. The Nelson Mandela Bay Youth Target is not just a goal, it is an investment in the future.

3. Gender equality is not optional, it is essential for growth

Historically, women’s labor paid or unpaid has been undervalued. This has had grave costs: unrealized productivity, widespread economic exclusion, persistent inequality. But when women participate fully in the workforce, in decision-making, in leadership economies grow, societies stabilize, innovation flourishes. The Brisbane–eThekwini Goal recognizes this truth, embedding gender justice into the economic agenda.

4. Social cohesion, solidarity and a multilateral ethos in a fragmented world

The Johannesburg Summit, the first G20 held on African soil symbolically and substantively emphasized global solidarity, multilateralism, and shared responsibility. In a world beset by fragmentation, conflict, rising inequality, climate emergencies and social divisions, this renewed global pact grounded in inclusion, fairness and social protection offers a path forward. The Declaration reaffirms that no one should be left behind, and reminds nations that cooperation, dialogue, and solidarity remain indispensable.

Implementation Will Tell the Real Story

Of course, declarations and targets however noble are only the beginning. The real test lies ahead: in how governments, employers, social partners, civil society and international institutions translate these commitments into action.

First, national policies must reflect these ambitions. That means labour legislation, social protection schemes, wage policies, care infrastructure, investment in skills and training, support for MSMEs, and inclusive industrial policies. In many countries especially those with large informal sectors, weak social safety nets, structural inequality, these will require significant resources, institutional reforms and political will.

Second, informal economy and marginalized sections must not be left out. In many regions, a majority of workers are informal, without contracts, social security, or stable earnings. Unless inclusion efforts explicitly target informal workers, young people without formal credentials, rural and marginalized communities, persons with disabilities, gender minorities, the goals will remain aspirational.

Third, job quality matters as much as job quantity. It is not enough to increase participation or employment rates: what matters is decent work fair wages, worker rights, social protection, safety, opportunity for advancement. If economic growth is driven only by low-wage, precarious jobs, the risk is a widening of inequality, social injustice, and long-term instability.

Fourth, monitoring, data, transparency and accountability will be crucial. The Declaration assigns to the ILO and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) the task of tracking progress on youth and gender targets, NEET rates, pay gaps, social protection coverage, labour force participation, But to work, this demands high-quality, disaggregated data (by gender, age, employment status, informal/formal, disability), transparency from governments, and periodic review.

Finally, perhaps most challenging of all is the need for sustained political will. Many of these targets require reforms that may run against entrenched interests: business, informal networks, structural inequalities, social norms (especially gender norms), and even tradition. Implementing equal pay, care policies, social protection, collective bargaining, all this demands courage, consistency, solidarity.

For countries with youthful populations, informal employment, structural inequality, and persistent gender gaps like India, the Johannesburg Declaration offers both hope and a blueprint.

In India, millions remain outside formal employment, many in informal, low‑paid, unstable jobs. Youth face skills gaps, regional divides, and structural barriers. Female labour force participation remains far below full potential; unpaid care work tends to be undervalued and largely invisible. For such a context, the G20‑ILO framework could offer a path forward:

• By investing in technical and vocational education (TVET), apprenticeships, reskilling and upskilling especially in emerging sectors (green economy, digital economy, care economy, MSMEs) youth can access real, decent jobs, rather than temporary or precarious work.
• By strengthening labour institutions, enforcing labour rights, offering social protection including for informal workers and those in non‑standard employment, the state can ensure workers are not left vulnerable in times of crisis or change.
• By investing in care infrastructure, promoting gender equality, enforcing equal pay, encouraging women’s participation and entrepreneurship the economy can unlock significant untapped potential, boost productivity, and foster inclusive growth.
• By supporting youth and women from marginalized or disadvantaged backgrounds rural youth, persons with disabilities, socially excluded communities through targeted policies, the state can build a more equitable society.
• By fostering entrepreneurship, MSMEs, local enterprises including women-led businesses, as engines of job creation and innovation, the economy can become more resilient, distributed, and inclusive, rather than concentrated in a few sectors or elite corporations.

But to realize this, governments must move beyond rhetoric. They must enact laws, develop social protection systems, ensure data collection and transparency, support education and training, build care infrastructure, and encourage social dialogue. For civil society and the private sector, the call is to commit to fair wages, decent working conditions, gender equality, and inclusive hiring. For citizens especially youth and women the time is to demand inclusion, rights, dignity.

A Vision of Social Justice, Dignity, and Shared Prosperity

The G20 Leaders’ Declaration and the ILO’s embrace of it is more than a political statement. It is a reimagining of economic progress: from growth-driven to people-driven, from output metrics to human dignity, from exclusivity to inclusion. It is a recommitment to the idea that economic development cannot be divorced from social justice.

In a world beset by technological disruption, climate upheaval, demographic shifts, inequality and uncertainty, this shift in paradigm could not be more urgent. For youth, women, workers, the marginalized, it offers hope. For economies, it promises resilience, stability, and long-term growth. For societies it charts a path toward fairness, inclusion, social cohesion and shared prosperity.

Of course, the path ahead will not be easy. Declarations are one thing; implementation is another. But as the ILO Director‑General has underscored, moving social justice from aspiration to lived reality for all is not only possible, it is imperative.

As nations around the world including India watch, the task ahead is clear: transform commitments into policies, policies into action, and action into real change. Let this be the moment when economic progress becomes synonymous with human progress, when inclusive growth replaces exclusive gains, and when social justice becomes the foundation of global development.

The challenge is vast. But the compass is clear. If the spirit of Johannesburg of solidarity, equality, sustainability endures, and if collective will is sustained, we may yet shape a future where dignity, opportunity, and shared prosperity are not privileges — but rights.