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In just a few years, the Government of Qatar has undertaken comprehensive labour reforms to improve the conditions of the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in Qatar. In doing so, it adopted new legislation, introduced new or improved existing labour administration systems and enhanced labour relations. While this is still a work in progress, and there are gaps in implementation, the reforms have already yielded benefits for workers, employers and the economy more broadly. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has closely supported these reforms through a technical cooperation programme with the State of Qatar, particularly the Ministry of Labour (MOL). This document provides a concise summary of the key highlights and the remaining challenges. This will help to illustrate the extent of the reforms and present some of the priorities going forward. Moreover, it is hoped that the good practices mentioned within could inspire enhanced labour protection in other contexts.

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This report uses labour market indicators to measure progress or lack of progress towards the goal of gender equality in the world of work and identify where and why blockages to labour market equity continue to exist. The report focuses on the relationship of women to labour markets and compares employment outcomes for men and women to the best degree possible, given the latest available labour market indicators from the ILO Key Indicators of the Labour Market. The main findings highlight a continuing gender disparity in terms of both opportunities and quality of employment. There have certainly been areas of improvement particularly in raising female participation but, in general, the circumstances of female employment - the sectors where women work, the types of work they do, the relationship of women to the job, the wages they receive - bring fewer gains to women than are brought to the typical working male.

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Given that women account for approximately 80 per cent of the garment sector workforce, many of the sectoral impacts of the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic have and will continue to disproportionately affect women. This brief raises awareness of the gendered reality of COVID-19 and outlines some of the ways in which the pandemic impacts women and men workers in the garment sector in the short, medium and long-terms. Ultimately dedicated gender-responsive measures and policies should be designed and implemented based on the needs and realities of different groups of women, of men and of others. Otherwise, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to exacerbate pre-existing inequalities, undermine women's empowerment and hamper the social and economic sustainability of the garment sector over the short, medium and long terms.

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This report reviews women's entrepreneurship development in the [Middle East and North Africa] MENA region by providing a detailed assessment of the barriers that women face when starting a business and the landscape of active labour market policies (ALMPs) available to facilitate women's entrepreneurship. In addition to highlighting a number of good practices that emerge from the available evidence base, this report also contributes more generally to the literature on gender-related norms by presenting new evidence on the impact of mass media on people's perceptions related to women in business. The 'Impact Report' series disseminates research reports from Taqeem-supported employment assessments and impact evaluations. Taqeem (meaning 'evaluation' in Arabic) is a partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) as part of an IFAD-financed project, titled 'Strengthening gender monitoring and evaluation in rural employment in the Near East and North Africa'.

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In the field of teacher training and professional development, the increasingly multi-functional roles and responsibilities of teachers and trainers have led to new learning approaches with greater autonomy for program decisions and outreach to the world of work. In parallel, the need for greater involvement of teachers and trainers in professional development decisions has become clear. Criteria for good teachers that respond to increased expectations include strong knowledge bases and a range of teaching competencies for enhanced teaching practice and learning outcomes. This report on the training, remuneration and the teaching and learning environment of teachers and trainers in vocational education and training was prepared for the ILO Global Dialogue Forum on Vocational Education and Training held on 29-30 September 2010.

Chapter one outlines major challenges facing technical and vocational education and training, as well as public and private service provision. Chapter two looks at the structure of teacher and trainer education, initial and continual, and reforms to meet new challenges. Chapter three considers the employment situation within systems and institutions, shortages of qualified instructors, job security and career structures. Chapter four reviews remuneration and incentive packages and the teaching and learning environment as determined by factors such as workload, class sizes, infrastructure and health and safety issues. Trends in the use of social dialogue mechanisms both for overall policy, organization and financing of vocational education and training and the means by which terms and conditions of teaching and other work are determined within institutions and national systems are explored in chapter five.

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Non-standard employment, including temporary work, part-time work, temporary agency work and other multi-party employment arrangements, disguised employment relationships and dependent self-employment, has become a contemporary feature of labour markets the world over. This report documents the incidence and trends of non-standard employment across different countries of the world and explores the reasons behind this phenomenon, including increased firm competition, shifting organizational practices of firms, and changes and gaps in the regulation of work. It assesses the implications for workers' pay, income security and other conditions of work, as well as the effects on firms, labour markets and society in general. The report reviews international, regional and national regulation of non-standard employment, identifying differences across countries as well as promising legislative responses for ensuring decent work. It also analyses other policy responses such as strengthening workers' organizations and collective bargaining, redesigning social protection systems, and further policies for addressing labour market governance. The ultimate objective is to provide guidance on practices that can help ensure worker protection, sustainable enterprises and well-functioning labour markets.

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This report summarises the analysis of major issues affecting the status of teaching personnel worldwide at all levels of education by the Joint ILO-UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations concerning Teaching Personnel. Established in 1967 after the ILO and UNESCO adopted a recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (1966), the Joint Committee meets every three years to review major trends in education and teaching and to make relevant recommendations. The Joint Committee at its 11th session examined a number of urgent issues affecting teaching personnel, including escalating violence in education, the role of social dialogue in a climate of austerity and public services cutbacks, academic freedom in the context of changes in higher education, the continuing shortage of teachers in many countries, and how conditions of employment can be improved to attract highly qualified people to the teaching profession.

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Created in 1919, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) brings together governments, employers and workers of its 170 member States in common action to improve social protection and conditions of life and work throughout the world. This anniversary issue is subtitled: The ILO: looking back; looking forward. Show less

This brochure was jointly developed by the ILO and the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA). It aims to consider how underemployment and decent work deficits can exacerbate, particularly in times of [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19, grievances, inequalities, turmoil, conflict and violence. In this framework, the joint brochure intends to guide UN Country Teams, UN Resident Coordinator Offices, UN Agencies, funds and programmes as well as governments, workers' and employers' organizations strategic choices about how employment and decent work can contribute to sustaining peace in the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus, through the following potential pathways: (1) mainstreaming employment and decent work into joint UN planning frameworks; (2) designing and implementing programmes in a conflict-sensitive way to contribute purposefully to peace by addressing simultaneously three conflict drivers: the lack of economic opportunities; the lack of contact and social cohesion; and the existence of grievances and sense of injustice; (3) supporting the creation of immediate decent jobs and livelihood opportunities in humanitarian responses, specifically for youth and women, that must be used as an investment in long-term development; (4) focusing not only on the quantity of jobs created, but also on the quality of work; (5) strengthening labour and economic institutions, social dialogue and Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work; and (6) building evidence on the contribution of decent work, employment and livelihoods programmes to peacebuilding processes.

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This publication sheds light on the magnitude of domestic work, a sector often 'invisible' behind the doors of private households and unprotected by national legislation. The adoption of new international labour standards on domestic work (Convention No. 189 and its accompanying Recommendation No. 201) by the ILO at its 100th International Labour Conference in June 2011 represents a key milestone on the path to the realization of decent work for domestic workers. This volume presents national statistics and new global and regional estimates on the number of domestic workers. It shows that domestic workers represent a significant share of the labour force worldwide and that domestic work is an important source of wage employment for women, especially in Latin America and Asia. It also examines the extent of inclusion or exclusion of domestic workers from key working conditions laws. In particular, it analyses how many domestic workers are covered by working time provisions, minimum wage legislation and maternity protection. The results demonstrate that under current national laws, substantial gaps in protection still remain. The volume concludes with a summary of the main findings and a reflection on the relevance of the newly adopted international standards to extend legal protection to domestic workers.

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