The Global Forum brought together heads of State and Government, heads of international organizations and multilateral development banks, and employers’ and workers’ leaders from around the world to propose concrete actions and strengthen the international community’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.

It addressed the most challenging issues facing the world of work, such as inclusive growth and decent jobs, universal social protection, protecting workers and sustaining enterprises, and a just transition to carbon neutrality. Attendees discussed around how to reach an inclusive, sustainable and resilient recovery from the pandemic crisis.

Worth highlighting the reference to the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for a Just Transition  that the UN Secretary-General António Guterres launched at the General Assembly in September 2021. This ambitious proposal includes generating investments and resources to create at least 400 million new jobs, including in the green, digital and care economies.

UN Secretary General said that the Forum “comes at a crucial time when our ability to recover from this pandemic – and rescue the Sustainable Development Goals – hangs in the balance. We need a human-centred, green recovery that puts people first”.

ILO Director-General Guy Ryder highlighted that “We do have to take seriously this rebuilding of resilience in our economy, in the world. And that, I think, requires us to take these integrated approaches to policy making.”

IOE President, Michele Parmelee, IOE Vice-President to the ILO, Renate Hornung-Draus , IOE Secretary-General, Roberto Suárez Santos, and other IOE Employers’ Members participated at the event as speakers.

The participants agreed to advance a human-centred recovery through strengthened multilateral and tripartite cooperation. And commitments in that direction were made by the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), UNICEF, African Development Bank (ADB), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Special Envoy on Climate and Finance, as well as by the Heads of State or Government of Argentina, Belgium, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mozambique, the Republic of Korea, Samoa, Senegal, Spain and Switzerland.