Fair recruitment Roadmap: A guide for national action

In recent years, there has been an increased national uptake of the ILO fair recruitment guidance, notably the GPOG and the accompanying definition of recruitment fees and related costs. Several countries have implemented reform measures of their recruitment governance frameworks in line with ILO guidance on fair recruitment. 

However, despite the emergence of promising practice examples on implementing fair recruitment principles, recruitment-related violations still occur as unscrupulous labour recruiters and other actors continue to exploit implementation and protection gaps in law, policy and practice that leave workers vulnerable to recruitment-related abuse and violations. This underscores that realising fair recruitment requires efforts to mainstream and adapt global processes and initiatives to local contexts.

This Roadmap offers step-by-step guidance to diverse stakeholder groups at the national level that want to commit to fair recruitment of workers, including migrant workers. It takes the ILO GPOG as the starting point, draws from the most relevant global policy instruments and documented learning from core stakeholders, as covered in reporting to and by the ILO CEACR, and other key documents such as global and regional progress reports, documented promising practices and interviews with core informants.

As national contexts differ, there is, however, no one best solution. Therefore, this Roadmap offers pointers, illustrations, examples, and promising practices for consideration by relevant policymakers and stakeholders in three parts. While Part 1 introduces the user to fair recruitment, highlighting key stakeholders and other key considerations, Part 2 outlines the step-by-step process of operationalising fair recruitment on the national stage, and Part 3 provides a diverse range of promising practices for users to consider in designing or developing national fair recruitment interventions.