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| Decent Work |
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| "Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection." (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Paris 1948, art. 23) |
 Poor people invariably lack adequate and secure livelihoods. In the countryside and cities, they experience unemployment, underemployment, unreliable casual labour, poverty wages and unsafe working conditions. In the countryside, their livelihoods are made precarious by multiple factors such as: inadequate access to land and irrigation, lack of seeds and fertilisers, deficiencies of transport, and the overexploitation of common resources such as pastureland, forests and fish.
The right to decent work encompasses productive and sufficient work of acceptable quality in which rights are protected and which generates an adequate income with adequate social protection. Sufficient work means that all have full access to income-generating opportunities. Thus, the right to decent work has three rights dimensions: the right to work, rights in work and the right to adequate social protection.
The right to decent work is not confined to wage employment, but extends to self-employment, home working and other income-generating activities. It demands the creation of a social, economic and physical environment in which all people have fair and equal opportunities to prosper by virtue of their own endeavour and in a manner consistent with their dignity. Thus, the right to decent work carries with it the responsibility to promote the personal capabilities and expand the opportunities for people to find productive work and to earn a decent livelihood.
Accordingly, the right to decent work implies the availability of both employment opportunities and the preconditions for income generation such as the availability of assets, credit and a favourable regulatory environment.
Rights in work include the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work, including fair wages, equal remuneration for work of equal value, equal opportunities, safe and healthy conditions of work, and reasonable hours of work and rest, as well as the rights to organize and bargain collectively.
Various forms of “exploitative” work, such as bonded labour and other forms of slavery-like practices are prohibited. All employment opportunities and income-generating activities must be of acceptable quality i.e. culturally appropriate and consistent with the dignity of the individual.
The right to decent work also requires that well-designed and adequate social safety mechanisms are put in place for those occasions, such as economic and political crises, when regular employment becomes unavailable to some individuals.
 | Regional Implementation
This right is addressed by our projects in the following regions:- Africa - 4 projects
- Arab States - 3 projects
- Asia and the Pacific - 4 projects
- Latin America and the Caribbean - 4 projects
- Europe and North America - 1 project
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Empowering marginalized adolescent girls in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan to become agents of social transformation |
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Poverty eradication through sustainable tourism development in Central Asia and the Himalayas |
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A comprehensive skill training and capacity building program to improve the socio-economic opportunities for marginalized youth in four Arab countries |
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Contributing to poverty eradication through innovative approaches in an ecological disaster area |
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Fighting poverty by developping handicraft in Africa, the Arab States, Asia and Latin America |
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From subsistence living to small-scale enterprises to eradicate poverty in Eastern and Southern Africa |
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Economic and social development to improving the lives of artisan and small-scale mining communities in the fragile ecosystems of Latin America |
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Fighting against poverty through sustainable development of tourism in the Sahara |
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Employing technology to address basic needs, access resources and to promote sustainable livelihoods globally |
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Integrated approaches using formal and non-formal education as catalysts for poverty reduction among young girls in Cambodia, Indonesia and Nepal |
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Involving youth in community tourism, cultural and natural heritage preservation for poverty eradication in the Carribean (YouthPATH) |
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