As part of our international cooperation, we are embarking on a new planning cycle for a future joint programme. This work should lead to a new programme for the Belgian international cooperation (DGD) 2027-2031 and will also enable us to gather information for other possible programmes and funding opportunities in the years to come.
In the next DGD Programme, each organisation will have the opportunity to implement its own action plan, and we also wish to place even greater emphasis than before on cooperation between different organisations at the national, continental and international levels. In a rapidly changing world where workers' rights remain a battleground, we believe that cooperation between different social movements is the best way to move forward together and achieve greater impact.
On this page, you will find the information you need to prepare yourself and participate fully in this important planning process. This information will be supplemented and enriched throughout the planning process, including with the results of the steps already completed.
Identifying potential priorities for our cooperation with all the organisations involved will therefore be an essential first step in this process. Therefore, a consultation session will be organised in each country with all the organisations involved, with the support of colleagues from WSM, ACV-CSCi, LCM-ANMC and BIS-MSI. As a group of organisations, brought together around the table, you will be able to identify what you think are the priorities around which we can work together.
During the virtual intercontinental workshop (1-3 July 2025) and the face-to-face continental workshops (in September and October 2025), these proposals will be discussed and weighed up so that the organisations involved can then decide together on common lines of work for the next five years. During the workshops, a global action plan will be drawn up for each of these lines of work.
We’re looking forward to collaborating with you and your networks in order to advance a number of issues that will strengthen workers' rights!
Workers, today and tomorrow – that is, all people whose income depends on work, with a particular focus on those who are excluded, exploited or insecure due to their socio-economic situation, including people working in the informal economy, in precarious jobs and in rural areas. The ILO defines this group of people as “workers”, regardless of whether they are currently engaged in paid work and regardless of the form of contract (or lack thereof) under which they are employed.
The Coordination Platform for Decent Work (CPDW) is a network of nine Belgian civil society organizations active in international cooperation that join forces to promote and implement the Decent Work agenda worldwide. The CPDW consists of four NGOs (WSM, FOS, Solsoc and Oxfam), two mutual health organisations (ANMC-LCM and Solidaris) and three trade union organizations (ACV-CSC International, BIS-MSI (ACLVB-CGSLB) and IFSI-ISVI (ABVV-FGTB). The platform bases its work on the Joint Strategic Framework (JSF) of Decent Work that brings together 3 (joint) programs in 36 countries spread over Latin-America and the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and Belgium: the program of 1/ WSM, ACV-CSCi, BIS-MSI and ANMC-LCM, 2/ IFSI-ISVI, Solsoc, FOS and Solidaris, and 3/ Oxfam Belgium (decent work program in South-East Asia). The aim of the platform is to promote coordination of strategies between different actors in a country or around a theme, earn from each other in terms of strategies and thematical approaches and to and to jointly engage in policy advocacy in Belgium to put Decent Work higher on the agenda of the Belgian international cooperation. The coordinator of the platform is hired by WSM.
All over the world, the social and solidarity economy creates jobs for millions of vulnerable workers who find it difficult to find opportunities or make a decent living from their work in the current economic system. The current economic system favours economic activities within globalised value chains that do not contribute to decent work and lead to massive violations of human and environmental rights. The social and solidarity economy is therefore an alternative that connects people through links of solidarity. It redistributes profits fairly and transparently, and ensures democratic decision-making that includes women and young people in particular. It also encourages workers to form trade unions. The social and solidarity economy also takes care of the environment. Human development is at the heart of the concerns of these initiatives, placing social justice and the inclusive integration of vulnerable people into society at the centre.
Support for social economy cooperatives is therefore a priority when we talk about job creation. It is an ideal instrument for giving people access to decent work and, at the same time, protecting them from the risks they encounter throughout their lives. In fact, the social and solidarity economy is a lever that enables workers to access universal social protection, through a variety of different mechanisms (increased income enabling enrolment in pre-existing social security schemes, collective registration of cooperators, collaboration between community health mutuals and cooperatives, etc.).
For millions of informal workers, the social and solidarity economy is a valuable tool for making the transition to the formal economy, as mentioned in Recommendation 204 adopted by the International Labour Organisation in 2015.
Recently, the International Labour Organisation (2022) and the United Nations (2023) adopted resolutions recognising the key role of the social and solidarity economy in human development. These resolutions aim to promote this economy and accelerate its recognition by governments, economic players, social movements and trade unions.
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A recent study conducted in 2025 by WSM, ACV-CSC and BIS-MSI (the international solidarity organisation of the Belgian liberal trade union) on the shrinking of civic space concludes that the influence of civil society organisations, including trade unions, in shaping public policy is diminishing worldwide. Many organisations struggle to engage with state authorities, but encounter bureaucratic obstacles, funding limitations, and even repression and violence. In several countries, governments sometimes justify these restrictions on security grounds, thereby weakening social dialogue and the commitment to other forms of institutionalised dialogue with non-union organisations representing informal workers.
In many countries, trade unions say they face systemic anti-union policies and legal obstacles that prevent them from mobilising and organising workers effectively. Employer reprisals, legal harassment and even physical threats against trade union leaders and activists are increasingly common. In some countries, government-controlled institutions even undermine trade union activities by creating fake rival unions aligned with state interests.
Civil society organisations also face a wide range of constraints, including exclusion from consultation processes and institutionalised dialogue with state authorities, restrictions on foreign funding and administrative barriers that prevent them from operating freely. In many cases, repression goes beyond legal mechanisms and includes public stigmatisation, surveillance and police intimidation, particularly in regimes with authoritarian tendencies.
The shrinking civic space in some cases leads to self-censorship, as organisations fear reprisals from the government. Many social movements, including trade unions, say they are reluctant to speak out against government policies because of threats of deregistration by the authorities and the risk of harassment and violence.
Social organisations, including trade unions, nevertheless respond to the shrinking civic space with a mixture of defensive and adaptive strategies. They never give up and they know they have to survive in this context. One of the main approaches is to strengthen internal governance and capacity development efforts. This includes training union leaders and activists in negotiation, advocacy and legal knowledge to navigate increasingly complex regulatory environments.
Building alliances at national and international level is another essential response. By drawing on international labour and human rights frameworks, these organisations can challenge repressive policies and build global solidarity.
Digital advocacy and alternative media channels have emerged as essential tools in the face of shrinking civic space. Many organisations have moved their advocacy efforts online, using social media, encrypted communication platforms and independent digital news outlets to bypass state-controlled narratives.
Legal advocacy based on the regulations of international institutions such as the ILO is a key strategy for some trade unions and social movements. This legal approach is proving effective in maintaining pressure on governments to meet their commitments on labour standards and human rights.
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Social protection is a human right. And yet, in 2024, almost half of the global population (47,4%) had no coverage at all. This is down from 57,2% in 2015. However, at the current pace it will take until at least 2075 to achieve Universal Social Protection. Moreover, Universal social protection means not only ‘some social protection for everybody’. It means adequate social protection, throughout the life cycle for everyone.
Therefore, multiple sources of financing are needed. A smart combination of solidarity based social contributions and fair, progressive tax revenue is the best guarantee for sustainable and broadly supported social protection systems.
Even if governments bare the primary responsibility to guarantee the right to social protection for all their citizens, civil society and trade unions play key roles in addressing governance and coverage gaps in social protection. They also contribute to inclusive, effective, and sustainable social protection governance in all stages of the policy cycle.
Social protection helps people adapt to and cope with climate-related shocks by providing income security and access to healthcare.
It is therefore paramount to continue our action to strengthen and extend social protection coverage to excluded groups. We must stimulate the transition from the informal to the formal economy, push for the inclusion of a genuine gender perspective in social protection and take into consideration demographic changes and the climate crisis, which aggravates health risks and the risk of income loss.
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Labour laws are a set of standards and regulations which govern the relationship between an employer and the workers to ensure better work, safety and health at the workplace, freedom of association, right to collective bargaining, contract regulation, rules regarding working hours, protection of the salary, maternity protection, life-long learning,... Labour rights are demands which workers can enforce with their employer and which the latter must respect. As a result, labour rights constitute the game rules which are needed to allow workers to work in dignity and be completely fulfilled. The effective enjoyment of these rights prevents workers fro being treated like tools and their labour as a commodity.
Labour rights need to be respected, promoted and enforced in a more and more complex international labour context. We need to ensure that all workers and their environment are protected wherever the companies are located. The state bears the duty to protect human rights, the corporate the responsibility to respect human rights and access to remedy for victims of business-related abuses. Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) is a central concept and captures the process to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how it addresses the impacts on human rights.
In a context where climate change disproportionately affects the most marginalized, threatening poverty reduction, with a high risk for women who are extra vulnerable for climate change, a just transition needs to be engaged. A just transition is a transition towards a future which ensures climate action, sustainable development and decent work for all in its process as well as its outcome. To be sustainable and democratically implemented, the transition must not only be green but also socially just.
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