Productivity is fundamentally linked to the prosperity of countries and their people. It is closely linked to “Decent work”, a key concept for the ILO which describes the opportunity for workers to earn a fair income, in a productive, safe environment, with job security and guaranteed labour rights. Higher productivity creates more opportunity for decent work, as greater prosperity allows for wage growth for workers. At the same time, more decent work contributes to higher productivity by enhancing workers’ skills, motivation, safety, health and well-being.

To support member states to achieve sustained productivity growth, the ILO has developed the Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work Programme. The programme enables Governments, Employers and Workers’ Organizations to jointly tackle the root causes of low productivity, develop solutions for decent job creation and fair sharing of productivity gains.

Sustaining productivity growth in an economy is a complex process as there are many contributing factors to consider at national, sector and enterprise-level. Therefore, the ILO proposes an ecosystems approach to identify the most pressing constraints to productivity growth and the level at which they can be addressed. Through consultation between Governments, Employers and workers organizations, the programme selects a “slice” of the economy such as specific sectors and associated businesses which have a high potential for productivity growth and decent job creation.

Stakeholders work together and identify the most pressing constraints and jointly implement solutions to promote higher productivity growth, decent job creation,and social justice, with the aim of creating an environment which supports a virtuous cycle of improving productivity and decent job creation across industries and the wider economy as a whole.