Building the Case for the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions

A new publication from the UN Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions makes the case, for the first time in a single, consolidated volume, for what this initiative has achieved since its 2021 launch.

Jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Women and the World Food Programme (WFP), with support from the Technical Support Facility of the Global Accelerator and financing channelled through the Joint SDG Fund, the report documents how the initiative is being implemented across its 19 pathfinder countries, translating coordinated policy reform and increased financing into real progress on decent jobs and universal social protection. Each country has shaped the model to fit its own priorities, but the throughline is consistent: economic and social development are treated as one agenda, not two competing ones.

The stakes are significant. The report points to 3.8 billion people still without any social protection coverage and a global jobs gap of 402 million people, alongside evidence that every dollar invested in social protection returns two to five dollars in GDP growth within two and a half years. That evidence underpins the Global Accelerator's core pitch to ministries of finance, not just ministries of labour: social investment is a precondition for growth, not a drain on it.

The publication serves two audiences. For pathfinder countries and prospective ones, it offers concrete, peer-tested evidence through South-South cooperation. For donors, development banks, researchers and civil society, it offers an honest accounting of progress, lessons learned, and what remains to be done as the 2030 SDG deadline approaches.