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Advancing social justice for everyone, everywhere
The Global Coalition for Social Justice is a ground-breaking initiative aimed at intensifying collective efforts to urgently address social justice deficits and to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Decent Work Agenda.
The aim of the Global Coalition for Social Justice is to promote strong, sustainable and inclusive development through reinforced global solidarity, policy coherence and concerted action among a wide array of stakeholders.
Why a Global Coalition for Social Justice?
Overlapping crises and the acceleration of long-term structural economic transformations are making it harder to achieve social justice and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Social justice makes societies and economies function better, reduces poverty, inequalities, and social tensions, and plays an important role in achieving shared prosperity, stability for peace and more inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development. Clearly, the quest for social justice, at the heart of the ILO's constitutional mandate, goes beyond the world of work and requires the involvement of the entire multilateral system.
Origins of the Global Coalition for Social Justice
The Global Coalition for Social Justice is an initiative of the ILO Director-General Houngbo, and has been shaped and developed in close consultation with ILO tripartite constituents, and endorsed by the ILO Governing Body in November 2023. The creation of the Coalition has been welcomed by a large number of Heads of State and Government, ministers and other global leaders, including the UN Secretary General.
Coalition membership
The Coalition is open to governments, employers' and workers' organizations, international and regional organizations, financial institutions and development banks, enterprises, international non-governmental organizations and academia, committed to the advancement of social justice and to engage in collaborative efforts to achieve shared objectives.
Becoming a partner in the Coalition represents a commitment to contribute to advancing social justice and the SDGs at the global, regional and/or national levels, including through multilateral cooperation and to:
Advocate for social justice and uphold the principles and values of the UN and the ILO, including the fundamental principles and rights at work.
Commit to developing, independently or in collaboration with other actors, one or more actions or initiatives aimed at significantly advancing social justice.
The nature and scale of these commitments may vary according to the partners' capacities and priorities. Partners will also be encouraged to voluntarily document their respective experiences and share information with others.
A voluntary coalition for social justice
Participation in the Coalition will not entail any membership fees. Nonetheless, all costs related to participation in the Coalition's meetings, including travel and related costs to attend the Forum and the meetings of the Coordinating Group, will be borne by each participant.
The Coalition is a voluntary platform for governments, employers' and workers' organizations, international and regional organizations, financial institutions and development banks, enterprises, international non-governmental organizations and academia, committed to the advancement of social justice and to engage in collaborative efforts to achieve shared objectives.
The Coalition leverages collaboration among partners to amplify the unique strengths of each participant, comprehensively and coherently addressing social justice challenges. The Coalition thus serves as a platform to generate increased political commitments and foster concrete actions in support of national priorities.
A collaborative space to advance social justice
The Coalition will provide a collaborative space in which partners join forces to shape individual and collective actions, with a focus on social justice and decent work, aiming at leaving no-one behind and accelerating the delivery of the 2030 Agenda in support of national priorities.
The collaborative approach will ensure that each partner's strengths and expertise are maximized to effect real change, thereby amplifying the impact of their actions and relevance in addressing the needs identified, and achieving outcomes that go beyond what can be accomplished individually.
Global advocacy for social justice
The Coalition will elevate advocacy efforts to incorporate the social justice dimension in the international, regional and national political debates.
A platform to share knowledge and experience
The Coalition will serve as a platform to monitor and collect analysis and data (including through a recurrent report on the state of social justice in the world), as well as enabling multilateral knowledge-sharing, using a web-based platform as a repository of good practices to promote policy coherence on social justice and decent work.
Areas of immediate action
The Coalition’s thematic development will be built on the common priorities and opportunities jointly identified by its partners, starting by:
Addressing inequality, discrimination and exclusion.
Realizing labour rights as human rights, ensuring human dignity and meeting basic needs.
Expanding access to and capabilities for productive and freely chosen employment and sustainable enterprises.
Providing protection and building resilience.
Strengthening just transitions and the social dimension of sustainable development, trade and investment.
Reinforcing institutions of social dialogue.
The ILO will target a number of initial priorities for advancing the Coalition’s early thematic development based on the concrete feedback it received from the tripartite constituents and partners.
Employment creation and universal social protection: Including through the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions and efforts to strengthen the enabling environment for sustainable enterprises and investment in skills in support of full and productive employment and sustained economic growth. The Global Accelerator represents a particularly important opportunity for engagement by Coalition partners, as multiple actors have already agreed to join forces in it.
Reduction of inequalities: Including by strengthening development cooperation to support country efforts to advance progress on the implementation of international labour standards; addressing youth unemployment; enabling the transition from the informal to the formal economy; advancing non-discrimination, gender equality, diversity and inclusion; ensuring access to opportunities particularly in education, skills development and lifelong learning; promoting fair labour migration; and protecting occupational safety and health and other aspects of working conditions, including wages. This also involves setting up an enabling environment for sustainable enterprises to support full and productive employment and sustained economic growth.
Elevation of social justice and decent work in the priorities of other multilateral organizations: Based on discussions with other institutions at the World of Work Summit and elsewhere, opportunities for progress in this regard include fiscal support for critical social spending in developing countries; decent work in supply chains and international trade; and just transition planning in the context of international lending and other assistance for climate mitigation and adaptation. These are areas in which other multilateral organizations, in particular international financial institutions and development banks, have expressed an interest in improving alignment and cooperation.
Promoting social dialogue: Add including through its institutions, and expanding the role and promoting the value added of social dialogue and of the ILO’s tripartite structure and normative framework in the UN and other multilateral policy development and coordination processes. Important opportunities in this regard include the Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks of the UN country teams and other related coordination processes, as well as Decent Work Country Programmes.
Governance arrangements and Secretariat
Participation in the Coalition's activities, especially at the operational level, will be governed by the rules and practices agreed by the partners involved in those activities. The Coalition will not duplicate governance or decision-making processes of programmatic activities nor create additional reporting obligations.
Forum
The annual Forum is a flexible space or event for Coalition partners to discuss thematic issues, share good practices and initiatives towards advancing Social Justice, and facilitate knowledge exchange.
Coordinating Group
Composed of a small group of partners that are in addition, committed to carrying the Coalition's strategic agenda forward and promoting, individually or jointly, its objectives and the social justice agenda, as well as to working together to organize and participate in the functioning and operations of the Coalition, including the planning and preparatory work.
Secretariat
The Coalition's Secretariat is hosted by the ILO and supports the Coalition's activities and coordinates a repository of good practices.
