The International Labour Organization (ILO) is the United Nations specialized agency responsible for promoting social justice, internationally recognized labour rights, and decent work opportunities for all. Through its unique structure, which brings together governments, employers and workers, the ILO develops and promotes international labour standards and supports their implementation across sectors and global value chains.
As an Associate Partner of the United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS), the ILO contributes expertise on supporting broader efforts to strengthen the social dimension of sustainability and enhance the contribution of voluntary sustainability standards to sustainable development.
The ILO’s work is closely connected to the UNFSS agenda. Voluntary Sustainability Standards increasingly address labour-related issues such as freedom of association, collective bargaining, occupational safety and health, equality and non-discrimination, forced labour, child labour, wages, and access to remedy. These areas are central to the ILO’s normative mandate and to ongoing policy discussions on sustainable trade and supply-chain governance.
Through UNFSS, the ILO contributes to inter-agency dialogue on how sustainability standards interact with labour rights, due diligence, traceability, and responsible business conduct. This work supports a more coherent understanding of the social dimension of sustainability standards and their role in global value chains.
Relevant ILO initiatives
The ILO’s Multinational Enterprises and Responsible Business Conduct Unit promotes responsible business practices through the application of international labour standards and the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (MNE Declaration). Its activities support governments, enterprises, employers’ and workers’ organizations in fostering responsible business conduct, due diligence processes, and decent work outcomes across global value chains.
The ILO Supply Chains Hub provides knowledge, evidence and practical resources to advance decent work in supply chains. It brings together research, policy guidance, tools and field experience aimed at supporting fairer, more resilient and sustainable supply chains while promoting respect for labour rights and improved working conditions
By promoting decent work, responsible business conduct and social dialogue across global supply chains, these initiatives contribute to broader efforts to ensure that sustainability is not only measured through environmental outcomes, but also through tangible benefits for workers and communities.
Decent work and supply chains
Responsible business conduct
Evidence-based policymaking
Social dialogue and worker representation
Inter-agency coordination
Featured ILO work
The Decent Work in Supply Chains Evidence Hub is an AI-enabled platform that brings together ILO research on supply chains, trade, investment, and decent work. It draws on more than 500 ILO publications from the past decade and provides summaries, visualizations, and an evidence map to support research, policy design, and programme development.
Suggested link: ILO Decent Work in Supply Chains Evidence Hub
In March 2023, the ILO Governing Body approved a five-year strategy on decent work in supply chains. The strategy uses the ILO’s available means of action to support constituents in advancing decent work across supply chains.
Suggested link: ILO Strategy on Decent Work in Supply Chains
The ILO’s MNE Declaration is a central reference for responsible business conduct and the labor dimension of sustainable business practice. It provides guidance on employment, training, conditions of work and life, industrial relations, and the application of labor standards in business operations and supply chains.
Suggested link: ILO Multinational Enterprises and Responsible Business Conduct Unit
Better Work is a joint programme of the ILO and the International Finance Corporation. It works with governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, brands, factory owners, and workers to improve working conditions and competitiveness in the garment and footwear industry.
Suggested link: Better Work Programme
The Global Coalition for Social Justice, led by ILO, brings together governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, international institutions, civil society, enterprises, and academia to support social justice, decent work, and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Suggested link: Global Coalition for Social Justice
