Economic growth, full employment and decent work: the means and ends in SDG 8

ABSTRACT

This article examines SDG 8 ‘Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all’. It critically examines the goal from two perspectives, the business approach advocated by the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) and the human right to full employment and decent work advocated by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and human rights NGOs. While full employment and decent work are indeed prominent in SDG 8, the 2030 Agenda embraces market-centred institutional arrangements that may present obstacles to achieving the goal. Specifically, grafting the human rights to full employment and decent work onto a business-oriented economic growth agenda in SDG 8 calls into question whether the 2030 Agenda enshrines full employment and decent work as human rights obligations of states or merely as benefits of economic growth. The article concludes that the ambiguity in SDG 8 presents both opportunities for human rights monitoring and accountability but also enhanced legitimacy for the business approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable Development Goals
• full employment
• decent work
• economic and social rights

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge Gillian MacNaughton for her insightful and extremely helpful comments to drafts of this article and to the editors of this volume and the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Diane F. Frey is a lecturer in labour and employment studies at San Francisco State University and also teaches negotiations at Harvard Extension and Summer Schools. She is an affiliate of the Economic and Social Rights Group of the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut.

Notes

1 ILO, World Employment Social Outlook: Transforming Jobs to End Poverty (WESO) (Geneva: International Labour Office, 2016), iii, xiv.

2 Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, ‘Goal 1 End Poverty in All Its Forms Everywhere’, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg1 (accessed January 9, 2017).

3 ILO WESO, xiii.

4 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Report on Work, Human Development Report 2015: Work for Human Development (New York: UNDP, 2015), 63 (hereafter UNDP 2015 Report on Work).

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.,5.

7 ILO, WESO, 51.

8 UNGA, Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, resolution adopted by the General Assembly on September 25, 2015, UN Doc A/RES/70/1 (2015), Target 8.5 p. 19/35.

9 Ibid., Target 8.1, p. 19/35.

10 Diane F. Frey and Gillian MacNaughton, ‘Full Employment and Decent Work in the Post-2015 Development Agenda’, in International Norms, Normative Change, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, ed. Noha Shawki (Lanham MD: Lexington Books, 2016), 185–201, 195–6.

11 IOE, ‘Guidance Paper: The Post-2015 Development Agenda and its Impact on Business’ IOE Guidance Paper, undated, http://www.ioe-emp.org/fileadmin/ioe_documents/publications/Policy%20Areas/sustainability/EN/_2015-08-26__C- (accessed December 25, 2015).

12 Jens Martens, ‘The 2030 Agenda: A New Start Towards Global Sustainability’, in Spotlight on Sustainable Development, 2016: Report by the Reflection Group on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, ed. Barbara Adams et al. (2016), 12, https://www.2030spotlight.org/en/published.

13 In a similar vein, rethinking economic growth and well-being has been undertaken in David Griggs et al., ‘An Integrated Framework for Sustainable Development Goals’, Ecology and Society 19, no. 4 (2014): 49.

14 World Bank Group, Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016: Taking On Inequality (Washington DC: The World Bank, 2016), 2

15 Wolfgang Sachs, ‘Preface to the New Edition’, The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power, 2nd edn (London: Zed Books, 2010), x.

16 ILO, Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, adopted by the International Labour Conference, 97th Session, Geneva, June 10, 2008; UNGA, Resolution on the International Labour Organization Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, adopted by the General Assembly December 19, 2008, UNGA Res. 63/199.

17 Ibid.

18 Gillian MacNaughton and Diane F. Frey, ‘Decent Work for All: A Holistic Human Rights Approach’, American University International Law Journal 26, no. 2 (2011): 441–83.

19 UN Charter, http://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/un-charter-full-text/, arts 55–6.

20 UNGA Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 217 A (III), http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3712c.html, arts 2, 22, 23, 24,

21 Author’s calculation based on cross referencing data from Worldometers, Current World Population by Country, http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/, and United Nations Office of The High Commissioner of Human Rights, Status of Ratification International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, http://indicators.ohchr.org

22 See Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), http://ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cescr/pages/cescrindex.aspx

23 UN CESCR, General Comment 3: The Nature of The State Party Obligations, UN Doc. E/1991/23 (1990); UN CESCR, General Comment 18: The Right to Decent Work, UN Doc. E/C.12/GC/18 (2005), UN CESCR, General Comment 19: The Right to Social Security, UN Doc. E/C.12/GC/19 (2007); UN CESCR, General Comment 23: Just and Favourable Conditions of Work, UN Doc., E/C.12/GC/23 (2016).

24 CESCR General Comment 18, para. 6.

25 CESCR General Comment 3, paras 3, 4, 8.

26 Ibid., para. 9.

27 Ibid. See also UN CESCR, ‘An Evaluation of the Obligation to Take Steps to the “Maximum of Available Resources” under the Optional Protocol to the Covenant’, 38th Sess., UN Doc. E/C.12/2007/1, 2007.

28 CESCR General Comment 18, para. 10.

29 Ibid., para. 7.

30 Ibid., para. 4 referencing ILO Convention No. 122; para. 11 referencing ILO Convention No. 158.

31 ILO Convention 122, Ratifications, ILO Normlex, http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:11300:0::NO:11300:P11300_INSTRUMENT_ID:312267:NO.

32 ILO Convention No. 122 (1964), http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:312267 (accessed March 27, 2017); see also Jean Mayer, ‘The Concept of the Right to Work in International Standards and the Legislation of ILO Member States’, International Labour Review 124, no. 2 (1985): 227.

33 ILO (2013) ‘Guide on Employment Policy and International Labour Standards’ (International Labour Standards Department, Employment Policy Department Code: COC-WEI-NOU, 2013), http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---normes/documents/publication/wcms_233783.pdf; International Labour Conference, 99th Session (2010) Report III(Part 1B) ‘General Survey Concerning Employment Instruments in Light of the 2008 Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization’, http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_norm/@relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_123390.pdf

34 ILO Recommendation No. 122, 1964, Section II (2) and II (4)(1).

35 Ibid., section II (7)(2).

36 Ibid., Annex I (4)(c).

37 Other ILO Recommendations on employment policy: 83, 99, 168, 169, 188, 189, 193 and 198.

38 UNGA, Transforming Our World, para. 59.

39 Arthur Okun, ‘Potential GNP: its Measurement and Significance’. American Statistical Association Proceedings of the Business and Economics Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association (1962): 98–104; World Bank Group, World Development Report 2013: Jobs (Washington DC: The World Bank Group, 2012), 88; Miklós Antal, ‘Green Goals and Full Employment: Are they Compatible?’ Ecological Economics 107 (2014): 276–86.

40 Louis Emmerij, Richard Jolly and Thomas Weiss, Ahead of the Curve? UN Ideas and Global Challenges (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003), 60 speaking about the 1960s.

41 Antal, ‘Green Goals’, 80–1.

42 David Woodward, ‘Incrementum ad Absurdum: Global Growth, Inequality and Poverty Eradication in a Carbon-Constrained World’, World Economic Review 4 (2015): 43–62.

43 UNDP 2015 Report on Work, 17.

44 Ibid., 6.

45 Ibid., 23.

46 See further: ILO Governing Body Six Point Strategy for work on the post-2015 agenda (ILO, September 4, 2013), http://ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_221635.pdf

47 UNGA, ‘Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development', Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly on September 25, 2015, UN Doc A/RES/70/1 (2015), https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld (accessed July 23, 2017)

48 ILO, ‘2030 Development Agenda: Major Breakthrough for World of Work’ (ILO press release, August 4, 2015), http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_388407/lang--en/index.htm

49 Matt Simonds, ‘The SDGs Summit and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, ITUC, September 18, 2015, https://www.ituc-csi.org/sdgs-summit-2030-agenda

50 Martens, ‘The 2030 Agenda’; Mark Elder, Magnus Bengtsson and Lewis Akenji, ‘An Optimistic Analsysis of the Means of Implementation for the Sustainable Development Goals: Thinking about Goals as Means’, Sustainability 8, no. 9 (2016), 962, http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/9/962 (accessed July 23, 2017): ‘The confusion between goals and means may be the sharpest in the cases of Goals 8 and 9 … ’

51 John L. Campbell and Ove K. Pedersen, ‘Introduction: The Rise of Neoliberalism and Institutional Analysis’, in The Rise of Neoliberalism and Institutional Analysis, ed. John L. Campbell and Ove K. Pedersen (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 5.

52 Ibid.

53 J. W. Nevile, ‘Policies to Minimise the Costs of Unemployment’, in Post-Keynesian Essays from Down Under, Volume III: Essays on Ethics, Social Justice and Economics, ed. Joseph Halevi, G. C. Harcourt, Peter Kriesler and J. W. Nevile (Houndmills: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016), 47.

54 Fernando J. Cardim de Carvalho and G. Julio López, ‘Are Full Employment Policies Obsolete?’, International Journal of Political Economy 36, no. 3 (2007); Philip Harvey, ‘Benchmarking the Right to Work’, in Economic Rights: Conceptual, Measurement, and Policy Issues, ed. Shareen Hertel and Lance Minkler (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 120.

55 Irfan ul Haque, ‘Globalization, Neoliberalism and Labour’ (discussion paper 173, United National Conference on Trade and Development [UNCTAD], 2004), http://www.rrojasdatabank.info/globneoliblabour.pdf, p. 6.

56 Jens Martens, ‘Corporate Influence on the Business and Human Rights Agenda of the United Nations’, (working paper, Bischöfliches Hilfswerk MISEREOR e.V., Aachen, 2014), http://www.misereor.org/fileadmin//user_upload/misereor_org/Publications/englisch/working-paper-corporate-influence-on-business-and-human-rights.pdf.

57 Lou Pingeot, Corporate Influence in the Post-2015 Process. Aachen/Berlin/Bonn/New York: Bischöfliches Hilfswerk MISEREOR e V, Brot für die Welt – Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung e. V. and Global Policy Forum, 2014, https://www.brot-fuer-die-welt.de/fileadmin/mediapool/2_Downloads/Fachinformationen/Sonstiges/Corporate_influence_in_the_post_2015_process.pdf (accessed July 23, 2017); Regina Scheyvens, Glen Banks and Emma Hughes ‘The Private Sector and the SDGs: The Need to Move Beyond “Business as Usual”’, Sustainable Development 24, no. 6 (2016): 371–382.

58 Pingeot, ‘Corporate Influence’, 8. High Level Panel representatives Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, Betty Maina, CEO of Kenyan Association of Manufacturers. The HLP report included thematic consultations and extensive outreach to the private sector including consultation with 250 executive corporate officers in 30 countries.

59 Ibid., 9.

60 See e.g. The Major Group Position Paper, The Business and Industry's vision and priorities for the Sustainable Development Goals, March 2014, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/3432SD2015%20Position%20Paper_Business%20&%20Industry.pdf

61 Pingeot, Corporate Influence, 17–8; Scheyvens et al.

62 IOE, Guidance Paper.

63 Ibid., 19.

64 IOE Website, About the IOE: http://www.ioe-emp.org/about-ioe/ and IOE members: http://www.ioe-emp.org/members/

65 Ibid.

66 IOE, Guidance Paper; Pingeot, ‘In Whose Interest?’.

67 Ibid; IOE, Guidance Paper, 6.

68 Ibid.

69 Ibid., 3, 6.

70 Ibid., 6–7.

71 Ibid., 6–7.

72 Ibid., 7.

73 UN Human Rights Council, Agenda item 3, Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council, October 9, 2012, A/HRC/RES/21/2, para. 14, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/G12/173/89/PDF/G1217389.pdf?OpenElement (accessed April 4, 2017); Julia Kercher, ‘The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Contributions of the UN Human Rights Council to Debate so far, Background Paper’ (background paper, Geneva, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, undated), http://www.fes-globalization.org/geneva/documents/2015/2015_06_Background%20Paper%20HRC%20and%20SDGs%202015_FES%20Layout.pdf, See e.g. the website of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/MDG/Pages/Intro.aspx (accessed July 24, 2017)

74 HRC 22nd Session on human rights mainstreaming, March 1, 2013, 19, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/AHRC221_English.pdf; HRC 26th Session side event; see also Kercher, ‘The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’, 2; HRC 28th Session, 3 March 2015 High Level panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming.

75 Kercher, ‘The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’, 5–6.

76 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) ‘Human Rights and Post-2015 Development Agenda’, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/MDG/Pages/Intro.aspx

77 For example: HRC Special Procedures, (2012) Open Letter from Special Procedures mandate holders of the Human Rights Council to States negotiating the Outcome Document of the Rio+20 Summit, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/OpenLetterRio20.aspx (accessed April 4, 2017); http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14558 (accessed April 4, 2017); HRC Special Procedures World Press Freedom Day: Free media reinforces the post-2015 goals (2014), http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14558& (accessed April 4, 2017); Also See Kercher, ‘The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 5, for full list.

78 United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Magdalena Sepulveda Carmona ‘The need to include a rights-based approach to Social Protection in the Post 2015 Development Agenda’ (undated), http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Poverty/SRPovertyPost2015.pdf (accessed April 4, 2017); HRC Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, The Post-2015 Development Agenda: Realizing the rights of women living in poverty through commitments on gender equality and unpaid care work Submission by the UN  (undated), http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Poverty/UCWPost2015Agenda.pdf (accessed April 4, 2017); See also Kercher, ‘The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’, 4–6; including 31 special rapporteurs support inclusion of freedom of association and 15 special rapporteurs call for inclusion of social protection floors based on human rights and right to social security.

79 Joint Statement: Human Rights for All Post-2015, May 10, 2013, http://www.cesr.org/joint-statement-human-rights-all-post-2015 (accessed April 4, 2017).

80 Ibid., ‘Introduction’.

81 Ibid.

82 Ibid., number items 2, 5.

83 Ibid., number item 1.

84 Ibid., number items 1, 4, 5, 8.

85 Ibid., number item 1.

86 Ibid., Introduction.

87 IOE, Guidance Paper, 6.

88 Ibid., 3, for example.

89 Ibid.

90 Ibid., 7.

91 CESCR General Comment 18, para.10.

92 IOE, Guidance Paper, 3, 6.

93 Ibid., 7.

94 Joint Statement: Human Rights for All Post-2015, number 4.

95 Ibid.

96 Ibid., number 2, number 4.

97 IOE, ‘Guidance Paper: The Post 2015- Development Agenda and its Impact on Business’ and ‘Joint Statement: Human Rights for All Post-2015’, May 10, 2013, http://www.cesr.org/joint-statement-human-rights-all-post-2015 (accessed April 4, 2017).

98 Compilation Document, (2014) Major Groups and other Stakeholders Dialogue with the Co-Chairs on SDGS, UN Open Working Group, April 2, 2014, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/3674Compilation%20Document%20on%20Goals%20and%20Targets_April%2011-%20final.pdf (accessed July 24, 2017). Simonds, ‘The SDGs Summit and the 2030 Agenda’; Matt Simonds, ‘Decent Work for All by 2030: Taking on the Private Sector’, in Spotlight on Sustainable Development, ed. Adams et al., 68.

99 Compilation Document, 19. They did however argue that ‘decent wages’ should be tied to share of national income rather than growth- related concepts of productivity.

100 Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen, India Development and Participation, 2nd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2002), 34.

101 Economic growth may even be contrary to upholding human rights norms. See for example the case of the right to water: Meera Karunananthan, Council of Canadians, in collaboration with Devin Tellatin and the NGO Mining Working Group, ‘Whose Rights to Water Will the 2030 Agenda Promote?’, in Spotlight on Sustainable Development, ed. Adams et al.,.

102 UN Charter, arts 55–56.

103 ICESCR, art. 6,

104 Ibid., art 2; CESCR 2007, ‘An Evaluation of the Obligation to Take Steps’ CESCR.

105 CESCR General Comment 18.

106 Harvey, ‘Benchmarking the Right to Work’; Diane F. Frey and Gillian MacNaughton, ‘A Human Rights Lens on Full Employment and Decent Work in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda’, Journal of Workplace Rights (April–June 2016): 1–13, doi:10.1177/2158244016649580.

107 UNGA, Transforming Our World, 27.

108 Ibid., preamble.

109 Ibid., preamble; 2.

110 Ibid., para. 2.

111 Ibid.,

112 Ibid., para. 3, 9 (twice), 13, 21, 27, 68 and pp. 14, 19 (twice).

113 Ibid., para. 13.

114 R. Barkemeyer et al., ‘What Happened to the Development in “Sustainable Development”?’, Sustainable Development 22, no. 1 (2014): 15–32.

115 Ibid., 17.

116 Ibid., 16.

117 The World Bank, Commission on Growth and Development, The Growth Report: Strategies for Sustained Growth and Inclusive Development (2008); https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/6507/449860PUB0Box3101OFFICIAL0USE0ONLY1.pdf; World Bank Group, World Development Report 2013: Jobs; The World Bank, Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathway to Sustainable Development, 2012, http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTSDNET/Resources/Inclusive_Green_Growth_May_2012.pdf

118 The World Bank, Commission on Growth and Development, The Growth Report.

119 World Bank Group, Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016: Taking On Inequality, 3.

120 The World Bank, Commission on Growth and Development, The Growth Report, 1.

121 IOE, Guidance Paper.

122 Pingeot, ‘In Whose Interest’, 10.

123 Simonds, ‘Decent Work for All by 2030’, 68.

124 Ibid.; see also Paul L. Quintos, The Post-2015 Corporate Development Agenda, 2015, 4, http://www.cetri.be/IMG/pdf/the20post-203e50.pdf.

125 Martens, ‘The 2030 Agenda’, 12.

126 Simonds, ‘Decent Work for All by 2030’, 68–9.

127 Woodward, ‘Incrementum ad Absurdum’, 59.

128 Ibid.

129 Ibid.

130 Ibid., 58.

131 UNGA, Transforming Our World, Goal 10, p. 21/35; see also Kate Donald, ‘Will Inequality Get Left Behind in the 2030 Agenda?’, in Spotlight on Sustainable Development, ed. Adams et al.; Gillian MacNaughton, ‘Vertical Inequalities: Are the SDGs and Human Rights Up to the Challenges’, this issue.

132 The World Bank, Commission on Growth and Development, The Growth Report, 5.

133 Antal, ‘Green Goals’, 280–1.

134 Herman E. Daly, From Uneconomic Growth to a Steady-State Economy: Advances in Ecological Economics (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2014).

135 Antal, ‘Green Goals’; Simonds, ‘Decent Work for All by 2030’.

136 Herman E. Daly, ‘A Further Critique of Growth Economics’, Ecological Economics 88 (2013): 20–4, 20.

137 Antal, ‘Green Goals’, 284.

138 Ibid.; see also Philip A. Lawn, ‘Full Employment in a Low-Growth or Steady State Economy: A Consideration of the Issues’, Australian Bulletin of Labour 28, no. 1 (2002); Kate Raworth, ‘A Safe and Just Space for Humanity: Can We Live Within The Donut? (Oxfam Discussion Papers, 2012), https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/dp-a-safe-and-just-space-for-humanity-130212-en.pdf; Eléonore Fauré, Åsa Svenfelt, Göran Finnveden and Alf Hornborg, ‘Four Sustainability Goals in a Swedish Low-Growth/Degrowth Context’, Sustainability 8 (2016): 1–18.

139 ILO Convention No. 122.

140 IOE Policy Working Group on Employment, http://www.ioe-emp.org/policy-areas/employment/

141 Ibid.