A new International Labour Organisation (ILO) Social Protection Spotlight Brief has emphasised the essential role of unemployment protection in safeguarding income security, productive and freely chosen employment.

The brief, titled: ‘Building Rights-Based Unemployment Protection Schemes,’ offers practical guidance for countries facing increasingly frequent and complex crises, the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) said.

The brief explained how international social security standards provide a strong foundation for designing effective, rights-based unemployment protection systems.

According to the Director-General of the ILO, Gilbert Houngbo, the standards guide countries in aligning income support with employment promotion objectives.

The report highlights key ILO instruments, notably the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102), which sets minimum levels of protection and core governance principles, and the Employment Promotion and Protection against Unemployment Convention, 1988 (No. 168) and its accompanying Recommendation No. 176, which offers more advanced standards in this field.

Houngbo said the standards emphasise that unemployment protection must go together with employment policies that promote decent work, even as it aims to support governments and social partners in building systems that protect incomes while accelerating transitions back into quality employment.

Also, the ILO and the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) had launched a new Community of Practice (CoP) for investment promotion agencies (IPAs) on foreign direct investment (FDI) for more and better jobs.

The initiative is built on the 10-year ILO and WAIPA collaboration on investment promotion and facilitation for decent work and responds to growing requests from IPAs for practical guidance and peer-to-peer exchange.

By providing the dedicated space for learning, dialogue and collaboration, the ILO and WAIPA commit to supporting IPAs in playing a stronger role in promoting investment that generates more and better jobs, advances responsible business conduct and contributes to a just and sustainable future of work.