The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has offered policy recommendations to ensure that all workers are protected against social risks and able to navigate challenging labour market transformations.

The global labour organisation called for the strengthening of social protection systems, warning that current gaps in coverage, adequacy and financing are leaving millions of workers unprotected in an increasingly volatile global economy.

In a report, ‘Universal social protection in changing labour markets: Protecting workers in all types of employment’, the ILO emphasises the need to keep reinforcing social protection systems to protect workers.

Director of the ILO’s Universal Social Protection Department, Shahra Razavi, said to address persistent coverage gaps, highlighted the need for a systematic extension of coverage, ensuring that all workers, including temporary, part-time, and self-employed workers, are adequately protected.

He urged that workers in all types of employment are adequately covered not only to support social and economic objectives, but also to facilitate transitions from the informal to the formal economy.

Beyond extending coverage, he stressed the urgent need to improve the adequacy and comprehensiveness of benefits to increase workers’ effectiveness in preventing poverty and reducing vulnerability.

The ILO chief argued that social protection must move beyond narrow, reactive approaches and provide reliable protection throughout people’s life cycles — supporting workers during transitions between jobs, sectors and forms of employment, and across critical life stages, from early childhood and school-to-work transitions to parenthood, periods of unemployment, illness or disability, to old age.

A central message of the report, he said, is that strengthening social protection requires sustainable and equitable financing mechanisms.

He highlighted the role of domestic resource mobilisation — including social security contributions and progressive taxation — as core to financing strategies, complemented where necessary by public subsidies to include workers with limited contributory capacity.

This approach, he said, enables risk-sharing, redistribution, and long-term system sustainability.

In building resilient systems for the future of work, in a context shaped by climate change, technological transformation, and demographic shifts, the publication underscored that robust social protection systems are indispensable for resilience.

According to him, they help workers and enterprises adapt to change, support transitions towards more sustainable economic activities, and reinforce social cohesion.

Strengthening social protection systems is no longer optional — it is essential.

“We need systems that reach everyone, provide adequate protection, and are financed fairly and sustainably. This is the foundation for resilience, social justice, and a just transition in the changing world of work,” he said.