The current global economic crisis has rendered governments, employers and workers concerned about the effects on people, enterprises and employment. Prepared in the context of the Paris Declaration for AID Effectiveness, this guide systematically addresses all relevant aspects that value chain facilitators need to take into account. It highlights the need to address underlying causes rather than symptoms in individual chains, and it focuses on organizational details, strategic human resources management and action research, whereby value chain mapping and research can contribute to finding solutions on a participatory basis. Prepared for use in promoting growth in selected sectors and based on national priorities led by governments, employers and workers, this guide can be tailored to specific situations and used by both public and private sector entrepreneurs to facilitate and promote broad based sustainable growth.

According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the private sector plays a key role in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). After all, sustainable and inclusive economic growth is essential to enable more people to participate in global prosperity. Encouraging entrepreneurship and job creation are key to SDG 8, as are effective measures to eradicate forced labor, slavery, and human trafficking. Since more than 90 percent of jobs are created by the private sector, more attention must be paid to entrepreneurs that help create dynamic and responsible enterprises that often generate positive externalities for society and the environment through investments in scalable innovations and a commitment to local embeddedness. As such, they help lift people out of poverty through new and relatively well-paid jobs and enable local economies to become more sustainable through global value chain integration. Transitioning to Decent Work and Economic Growth explores the prospects for SDG 8 in the Global South as well as the Global North. It especially considers the positive role the private sector may play as an enabler of human rights, creator of decent work and engine for inclusive development in different contexts. Further, it examines how the institutional environment can facilitate economic change, which may lead to social empowerment and enhanced economic opportunities. A key question the volume explores, is how—in an entrepreneurial context—innovation and scientific knowledge contribute to the creation of scalable innovation that help to de-couple economic growth from the use of natural resources. Transitioning to Decent Work and Economic Growth is part of MDPI's new Open Access book series Transitioning to Sustainability. With this series, MDPI pursues environmentally and socially relevant research which contributes to efforts toward a sustainable world. Transitioning to Sustainability aims to add to the conversation about regional and global sustainable development according to the 17 SDGs. The book series is intended to reach beyond disciplinary, even academic boundaries. For use of the SDG logos and design, please see the according Guidelines for the use of the SDG logo, color wheel, and 17 icons.

The co-ordination of global production and trade within value chains has amplified debates concerning the impact of globalisation on labour, especially for developing countries. Whilst many development agencies argue for value chain insertion and upgrading as optimistic development pathways, many studies suggest a nuanced, conditional evaluation of the potential impacts on labour. One fundamental aspect of labour rights and conditions concerns representation and representational processes: that is, as encapsulated by the social dialogue component of Decent Work, whether representation is both effective and autonomous. This paper uses a model of organisational identity to deepen our understanding of the impacts of value chain insertion and upgrading on labour. It uses three studies of labour conditions in value chains in one country (Brazil) to evaluate the effectiveness and challenges to representation at the local level. These studies come from the food production (tomatoes), fruit collection/processing (passion fruit) and metals (refrigeration/washer) sectors and encompass industrial unions, rural unions and cooperatives. Whilst further work is required on the local, national and international contexts surrounding these studies, the analysis does suggest amplified and new complications for organisational identity as a result of value chain engagement. This adds another component to recent (but general) conceptual-empirical considerations of labour in value chains (Knorringa & Pegler, 2006). Responding to this, and the re-juvenation of representation, requires not only well linked strategies at local and international levels (thus substantial resources) but that representative organisations confront many developments which, potentially, also hold out promising opportunities for labour (e.g. Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Resource Management strategies).

Value chains are an integral part of today's globalised economies, and can determine the way resources are distributed across communities. By considering gender dynamics in sector selection, value chain analysis and design and implementation, value chain development interventions can contribute to redressing gender-based inequalities and increasing women's economic and labour inclusion. With this Guide, the ILO's Women's Entrepreneurship Development Programme (www.ilo.org/wed) seeks to help development practitioners to understand the significance of a gender-sensitive approach, and provide practical advice and examples for adopting gender-sensitive approaches to the different stages of value chain development and development programming more broadly. While it serves as a complementary guide intended to be used in tandem with the ILO's Value Chain Development for Decent Work Guide, the Guide can also be a source of inspiration, ideas and tools for practitioners aiming to integrate gender dimensions in their work for the benefit of all.

This guide outlines a framework for integrating the conventional market-focused approach to value chain development with an assessment of the environmental and social outcomes generated by a given sector. The aim is to promote employment that is environmentally, socially and economically sustainable, and is particularly focused on the challenges and opportunities for green jobs promotion in the Asia-Pacific region. Central to the green jobs intervention design process is the identification and promotion of co-benefits; interventions that promote positive outcomes in more than one of the green jobs focus areas (e.g. global environmental impacts, local environmental impacts, decent work and sustainable livelihoods). The methodology emphasises the importance of engaging with the underlying structural factors and advocates the use of a systems-based approach which involves engagement not only with enterprises but also with government bodies and worker's organizations. Reducing the environmental and social externalities generated by the value chain therefore requires not just a firm-level cost or competitiveness analysis, but also an engagement with the wider business enabling environment.

Governments, nongovernmental organizations, donors, and the private sector have increasingly embraced value-chain development (VCD) for stimulating economic growth and combating rural poverty. Innovation for Inclusive Value-Chain Development: Successes and Challenges helps to fill the current gap in systematic knowledge about how well VCD has performed, related trade-offs or undesired effects, and which combinations of VCD elements are most likely to reduce poverty and deliver on overall development goals. This book uses case studies to examine a range of VCD experiences. Approaching the subject from various angles, it looks at new linkages to markets and the role of farmer organizations and contract farming in raising productivity and access to markets, the minimum assets requirement to participate in VCD, the role of multi-stakeholder platforms in VCD, and how to measure and identify successful VCD interventions. The book also explores the challenges livestock-dependent people face; how urbanization and advancing technologies affect linkages; ways to increase gender inclusion and economic growth; and the different roles various types of platforms play in VCD.

This guide provides further practical tools and guidance to assist in the implementation of green jobs value chain development initiatives. These are intended to outline the key steps specific to the green jobs value chain development approach, and should be used in conjunction with internal project management systems and processes, and other external value chain development methodologies and tools. The aim is to promote employment that is environmentally, socially and economically sustainable, and is particularly focused on the challenges and opportunities for green jobs promotion in the Asia-Pacific region. Central to the green jobs intervention design process is the identification and promotion of co-benefits; interventions that promote positive outcomes in more than one of the green jobs focus areas (e.g. global environmental impacts, local environmental impacts, decent work and sustainable livelihoods). The methodology emphasises the importance of engaging with the underlying structural factors and advocates the use of a systems-based approach which involves engagement not only with enterprises but also with government bodies and worker's organizations. Reducing the environmental and social externalities generated by the value chain therefore requires not just a firm-level cost or competitiveness analysis, but also an engagement with the wider business enabling environment.

Attaining the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal of Decent Work and Economic Growth examines family businesses in Brazil, UK, Australia, and Algeria, analysing how the SDG8 translates into family business and providing insights into how businesses can promote sustainable economic growth and productive employment.

Value chain development can make significant contributions to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) because it is a powerful approach to address root causes and binding constraints that impede the sustainable development of food value chains. The first step in value chain development is selecting those value chains that, when upgraded, can have the biggest SDG impact. This publication provides practical guidelines on how to select value chains for which upgrading is feasible and impactful in terms of the potential for generating positive economic, social and environmental outcomes. The handbook describes a step-by-step process that helps to assess, compare and select value chains in a participatory and evidence-based manner. It presents a toolbox that can be customized to projects with different budgets, scopes and objectives. This publication forms part of a set of FAO handbooks on Sustainable Food Value Chain (SFVC) development, which together provide hands-on guidance for development practitioners, including international organizations, NGOs, regional bodies and national governments seeking to achieve sustainability objectives through agrifood value chain development projects.