Decent Work Worldwide

In 2023, the BMZ presented an agenda for more and decent jobs worldwide. The BMZ is scaling up its activities for decent work worldwide, with support from the former trade union president Reiner Hoffmann, who has taken on the role of SDG Ambassador for Decent Work Worldwide. “Decent work worldwide will require a socially compatible work environment and the empowerment of women,” Hoffmann explains.

The Agenda for Decent Work Worldwide guides the BMZ’s funding decisions and is a commitment to promoting decent working conditions. Since October 2023, the Agenda has been introduced actively in the development policy dialogue, for instance at conferences with the EU (European Union), World Bank and ILO (International Labour Organization).

The Agenda for Decent Work Worldwide covers seven action areas:

Training, employment and social protection: The BMZ is supporting its partner countries in boosting formal employment, for instance in sectors of the future such as solar and hydrogen technology.
Green industrial and structural policy: BMZ partner countries are given support in achieving a just transition of their economies and shifting from fossil fuels to renewables.
Trade and supply chains: The BMZ is committed to promoting fair trade and fair global supply chains.
Living wages and incomes: Together with its international partners, the BMZ is fostering the dialogue between social partners in order to help achieve living wages and incomes and fair purchasing practices.
Trade unions and groups representing workers’ rights: The BMZ is adapting its portfolio so as to include workers’ perspectives even more in consultations and deliberations on green structural change.
Digital transformation: Especially in the partner countries of the BMZ, digitalisation creates new opportunities for jobs and education, particularly for women and girls.
Migration: The BMZ works for the fair international placement of apprentices and skilled staff. In our partner countries, BMZ projects provide advice on the requirements and possibilities of regular and safe labour migration to Germany and other countries.

“I wasn’t able to go to school. I had never thought that one day I would take part in a training programme, train as a baker and find a job.” When Khady Diouf was a child, her parents told her that going to school was not for girls. She learned how to cook, clean and do the laundry and her family expected her to become a good housewife. The older she became, the more she wanted to be independent and stand on her own two feet.