Leveraging public financing through development cooperation on integrated employment and social protection policies for just transitions

Public finance is the main source of sustainable policies to create decent jobs and expand universal social protection for just transitions. Recent global commitments, including the Fourth Financing for Development Conference’s (FFD4) Compromiso de Sevilla outcome and the Second World Summit for Social Development’s (WSSD2) Doha Declaration, reaffirm that countries have the primary responsibility for their own economic and social development, while international cooperation must help expand, not replace, domestic public financing. Against a global SDG financing gap of around US$4 trillion annually, a social protection financing gap of US$1.4 trillion, declining ODA, and private finance that remains unevenly distributed across countries and sectors, it has become increasingly important that development cooperation supports governments to mobilize, allocate and manage public finances more effectively.

This note argues that technical assistance (TA) can be a catalytic form of development cooperation when it strengthens national capacity to finance integrated employment and social protection policies. Its value lies in supporting governments to make better use of existing resources, identify and expand fiscal space, strengthen contributory and tax-financed systems, and align public and private investment with decent work and social protection outcomes. Technical assistance should be grounded in government ownership, tripartite social dialogue, national priorities, and international labour standards, including the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102), Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122), and the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202).