As the United Nations convenes the world for its global forum on Financing for Development, the ITUC draws attention to the high price that workers worldwide are paying in terms of lost livelihoods and rights in the wake of the multiple ongoing crises, reinforced by a gloomy global economic outlook.
To address the urgent necessity of boosting the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the global labour movement is calling for a New Social Contract that responds to six workers’ demands: (1) the creation of climate-friendly jobs with just transition; (2) a labour protection floor for all workers; (3) universal social protection; (4) minimum living wages and equal pay; (5) equality in income, gender and ethnicity; and (6) a more inclusive development system with a renewed multilateralism.
In light of this, unions call on the Financing for Development Forum to adopt financing strategies that turn priorities into reality, such as:
- Increasing official development assistance (ODA) and direct it to support key SDG 8 related policies, such as job creation and social protection.
- Stepping up the role of public development banks.
- Achieving tax justice through progressive taxation and global regulation.
- Strengthening business accountability to ensure its compliance with ILO standards and due diligence along the entire supply chains.
- Putting in place adequate mechanisms for debt relief, restructuring and cancellation.
- Setting up ambitious targets for special drawing rights reallocation.
- Reforming the multilateral trading system to deliver on development, just transition, and human rights.
