FANCOURT DECLARATION
G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Declaration
George, South Africa
Theme: ‘Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability: Living and Working in an Unequal World:
Ensuring Decent Work and Decent Lives’
We, the Labour and Employment Ministers of the G20 members who gathered with the invited countries in George, South Africa, on 30-31 July 2025, committed to building more prosperous economies by fostering a sustainable and resilient workforce, recognising the urgent need to address inequalities and foster fairness in the world of work and ensure decent work. Guided by South Africa’s G20 presidency and the overarching theme of Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability, we recall the Preamble of the ILO’s Constitution, and we reaffirm our commitment to advancing decent work policies that foster a future-ready workforce.
In the face of pervasive transformations and global challenges, brought about by, among others, technological, climate and demographic changes, coupled with geopolitical uncertainty and persistent inequalities, we reaffirm that economic growth and decent work are essential to building more just, inclusive and resilient societies. We emphasise the importance of protecting labour and human rights while promoting robust labour institutions, effective social dialogue, and international cooperation in shaping equitable labour markets.
In this regard, we recognise that promoting decent work, including creating full and productive employment, good quality jobs, and ensuring the adequacy and sustainability of social protection systems, are fundamental for reducing inequality, broadening economic participation and boosting economic growth. Governments, in consultation with social partners, play a central role in formulating and implementing policies in this regard. We reaffirm our commitment to the G20 Policy Priorities to Reduce Inequalities in the World of Work (Annex 1 of the 2024 Fortaleza Ministerial Declaration) and commit to regularly review relevant trends, policies and programmes.
Inclusive Growth, Job Creation and Youth Empowerment
Empowering youth through education, employment and engagement is essential for long-term social cohesion, sustainable economic growth and achieving decent work. While progress has been made since the adoption of the 2015 Antalya Youth Goal, over 267 million young people worldwide remain not in education, employment, or training (NEET), with early school leavers, young women, youth with disabilities, and those without relevant skills at heightened risk of longterm exclusion. We reaffirm our commitment to promoting policies offering quality jobs and access to technical and vocational education and training (TVET), targeting particularly young people facing structural barriers rooted in poverty, exclusion, forced displacement and limited access to opportunities.
In light of these persistent challenges and rapid labour market transformations, we recognise the urgency of stepping up efforts to promote quality youth training, create employment opportunities and prevent the marginalisation of a new generation. Building on the Antalya Goal, we commit to the Nelson Mandela Bay G20 Youth Target, to reduce NEET rates among 15–29 year-olds by a further 5% by 2030, with a special emphasis on supporting disadvantaged youth, including young women, youth with disabilities and other vulnerable groups at risk of exclusion. [Refer to Annex 1].
To achieve this, we will improve the quality, reach, and responsiveness of national youth employment strategies or initiatives. We will strengthen education-to-work transitions through investment in quality TVET, apprenticeships, in-work learning, and upskilling/reskilling aligned with evolving labour market needs, while preventing these transitions from causing a decrease in decent work for youth. We aim to close the gap between evolving labour market needs and young people’s skills, particularly in high-potential areas such as the green, digital and care economies. We recognise that the disproportionate responsibility of unpaid care work on young women leads to time poverty, contributing to keeping them inactive, and limits their earning potential, which is why we support expanding quality care, including child care and creating decent jobs in the care economy to foster increased labour market participation.
We will work with relevant agencies to improve the situation of young people in the labour market, including by increasing awareness, guidance and support to young people’s mental health and wellbeing, to enable them to start work, get back into work, stay and succeed in work.
Recognising the importance of empowering young people and fostering innovation, we will promote youth entrepreneurship as a viable pathway to decent work by seeking to remove barriers to finance, supporting and enabling ecosystems for start-ups and supporting young people to take up leadership responsibilities and seize entrepreneurial opportunities. We will work to ensure regular, orderly, safe and well-managed skill-based migration pathways. Furthermore, we will encourage engagement with youth organisations and social partners to ensure policies are grounded in lived realities and create an enabling environment for increasing youth employment opportunities. We aim to leverage and collaborate through the G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) and the Entrepreneurship Research Centre on G20 Economies. We encourage both initiatives to integrate youth employment activities into their implementation plans and look forward to the 2025 G20 Entrepreneurship Roundtable. Recognising demographic conditions, including those related to ageing populations, vary across countries, we note that the policies should be responsive to these diverse needs as well as their rapid changes.
We request that the ILO and OECD support the implementation and annual monitoring of the G20 Nelson Mandela Bay Youth Target through strengthened data systems, cross-country learning and the continued publication of the G20 Youth at Work reports. These reports will track progress, monitor NEET rates and auxiliary indicators based on national, disaggregated data and analyse dimensions of youth employment, including job quality, access to skills training, paid and unpaid care work and entrepreneurship, focusing on those at risk of exclusion.
Gender Equality in the Workforce
Almost all countries have narrowed the labour force participation gap between men and women since 2012, with approximately half of G20 countries on track to meet the 25% reduction goal by 2025, and with more countries on track to meet the 25% goal by 2030. Recalling our commitment to meet the goal our leaders agreed in Brisbane in 2014, “to reduce the gap in the participation rates between women and men in our countries by 25% by 2025,” and taking into account national circumstances, we adopt to the Brisbane–EThekwini Goal, which builds on the original ambition by extending our commitment to reduce the gender gaps in labour force participation by 25% by 2030 from 2012 levels. We recognise the underrepresentation of women in leadership and decision making roles and that participation alone is insufficient to ensure equality in employment quality and working conditions. The fast pace of technological advances, demographic changes and transition to sustainable economies make the goal of closing these gender gaps even more challenging and essential.
Recalling the Rio de Janeiro Declaration made by G20 Leaders in 2024, we recognise the importance of closing the gender pay gap and note that persistent pay inequality undermines economic inclusion, limits women’s lifetime earnings and retirement security, and holds back overall productivity and growth. Unequal pay for men and women for work of equal value remains a main obstacle for gender equality in the labour market. We commit to progressively reduce the gender wage gap and to advancing equal pay for work of equal value and encourage G20 countries to work towards reducing the unadjusted wage gap between men and women by 15 per cent by 2035 (based on 2022 levels). We will undertake our review after 5 years to consider increasing the target to 35 per cent by 2035.
To advance gender equality in the labour market, in line with Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 8, we will take steps to strengthen policy measures to tackle the multifaceted barriers that women face, including discriminatory social and cultural norms. These steps include implementing measures aimed at fostering women’s access to quality employment, leadership positions and to active labour market policies, supporting equal pay for work of equal value, expanding and improving access to social protection, promoting work–life balance, encouraging policies for the equal provision and sharing of parental leave and provision of care giving benefits and quality care services, including child and older person care and increasing access to education, lifelong learning, apprenticeships and entrepreneurial opportunities.
We will also intensify efforts to foster measures and policies to address educational and occupational segregation to reduce overrepresentation of women in low-earning, low quality and labour intensive and informal sectors. We are committed to advancing women’s full and equal participation across all sectors and all levels in the world of work, including in business leadership and roles in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), fully respecting their freedom to choose professional careers. We further recognise the importance of promoting decent jobs and investing in a quality care sector, including childcare, care for older persons and disability inclusive care, as this sector is dominated by underpaid women. These are key to empowering women with caring responsibilities, supporting inclusive growth and increasing the overall workforce participation. Furthermore, we recall our support for the ILO’s 5R Framework for Decent Care and the Resolution on Decent Work and the Care Economy.
We reiterate our commitment to eliminate violence and harassment in the world of work, including gender-based violence and harassment and to promote the principles of ILO Convention No. 190 and Recommendation No. 206. Creating a world of work free from violence and harassment is essential to ensuring dignity, safety and equality for all workers.
We will enhance the collection of disaggregated data, monitoring frameworks and transparent reporting to promote accountability and drive evidence-based policy. The annual G20 Women at Work reports, prepared by the ILO and OECD, will continue to track progress and support mutual learning on key indicators, including gender gaps in labour force participation, gender pay gaps, career progression, occupational sectoral representation, and the participation of women in paid and unpaid care work including domestic work.
We encourage countries to join the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) and accelerate progress towards achieving equal pay for work of equal value, a foundational step in eliminating inequalities in the world of work.
Addressing Inequality and Ensuring Fair Labour Income
We are concerned about the continued decline in the labour income share across some G20 members over the past two decades and a weakening of job quality for a significant proportion of the workforce. These trends have been also driven by the decoupling of wages from productivity, especially for lower-wage workers, and the enduring prevalence of informal and precarious work. They have disproportionately impacted vulnerable groups and persons in situations of vulnerability.
Recalling the G20 Policy Priorities on Labour Income Share and Inequalities (Annex 1 of Ankara Declaration, 2015) and the G20 Policy Priorities to Reduce Inequalities (Annex 1 of Fortaleza Declaration, 2024), we acknowledge that creating productive and decent jobs, including through formalisation of the informal economy and through an economy that encourages investment, is an important driver to stimulating aggregate demand. We also recognise that strengthening adequate social protection for all is critical for reducing inequalities and increasing worker resilience in the face of technological, climate and demographic changes. We recognise that many people face barriers to participating fully in the labour market, especially persons with disabilities and those with health conditions, caring responsibilities and in some countries low skill levels. In this regard, we recognise that targeted policies and programmes are needed to improve access to decent work and reduce inequalities. Further, we emphasise the importance of fostering a virtuous cycle of productivity growth and better employment through skilling, reskilling and upskilling, recalling the 2022 G20 Policy Recommendations for Sustainable Growth and Productivity and Human Capacity Development through strengthening Community Based Vocational Training (CBVT).
We commit to promoting wage-setting mechanisms and wage protection policies. Adequate statutory or collectively negotiated minimum wages, when supported by effective measures to ensure coverage and compliance, remain an essential tool for addressing inadequate pay and low wage. We recognise the importance of freedom of association, collective bargaining and tripartite social dialogue as, essential for ensuring workers receive a fair share of productivity gains, supporting equitable labour market outcomes, and improving the conditions of those who are informally employed and facilitating the transition from the informal to the formal economy.
We remain committed to the objectives of target 8.7 of the SDGs to taking immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers and continue our efforts to end child labour in all its forms. We reaffirm our commitment to supporting responsible business conduct and transparency in global supply chains, as well as to policies and legislation that promote due diligence efforts and protections for all workers, thereby contributing to fairer and more resilient global labour markets.
Social Protection and Digitalisation for an Inclusive Future of Work
We recognise the importance of strengthening labour market institutions and social protection systems to provide income security, reduce informality, and support career transitions across the life course. The G20 Social Policy Portal remains a useful platform for sharing experiences and good practices in this area.
Digital transformation presents significant opportunities for enhancing social protection for workers and the population, especially vulnerable groups, and is key to helping enterprises and workers navigate labour market transformations. As the digital economy continues to evolve, it is necessary to bridge digital divides between and within countries, including the gender digital divide through a human-centred approach to leveraging digitalisation, including by enhancing labour and social protections, in accordance with the G20 AI Principles (Annex of Tsukuba Ministerial Statement, 2019). In this regard, we note the potential benefits of emerging technologies to improve social protections as well as risks of exclusion for vulnerable groups including persons with disabilities. Reaffirming our prior commitments, we remain dedicated to improving working conditions and access to social protection for all workers, including those in non-standard forms of employment and on digital labour platforms in line with international labour standards, including the Social Protection (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) and the ILO
Recommendation No. 202 on Social Protection Floors (2012). We recognise the importance of skilling, reskilling and upskilling opportunities to allow workers to navigate the digital economy more effectively. We take note of the standard-setting discussions on decent work in the platform economy at the 113th and 114th Sessions of the International Labour Conference.
While acknowledging the related risks of digital technologies in terms of access to social protection for workers across different types of employment, including for categories of workers who often have lower coverage rates than others, the digital transformation can improve efficiency, accessibility and enhance transparency in social protection delivery.
Way Forward
We underscore the importance of accurate assessment and reporting of national and global social protection coverage in strengthening our efforts to attain SDG target 1.3.1 (social protection systems for all, including floors). In this context, we urge the ILO and other international organisations to continue strengthening the international framework for social security statistics.
As G20 Labour and Employment Ministers, we reaffirm our shared responsibility to promote a sustainable, resilient, inclusive, and prosperous future of work. We will continue coordinated implementation of the four priority areas we have discussed: (i) inclusive growth, job creation and youth empowerment; (ii) gender equality in the workforce; (iii) addressing inequality and ensuring fair labour income; and (iv) social protections and digitalisation for an inclusive future of work.
We commit to strengthening evidence-based policymaking using disaggregated labour market data, improved monitoring systems and effective tripartite social dialogue. We will strengthen collaboration within the G20 and with relevant international organisations, while continuing dialogue with the L20, B20 and other engagement groups to promote a shared agenda for economic growth and sustainable outcomes.
We also reaffirm the commitments made under previous presidencies, including the promotion of well-managed, regular, and skill-based migration pathways to address global skill gaps and support sustainable and inclusive global growth, acknowledging challenges in retaining skilled labour.
We recall our commitment to consider the development of an international reference classification of occupations by skill and qualification requirements towards promote optimal sharing of skills, benefiting both origin and destination countries alike. We call upon the ILO and the OECD to complete the feasibility study on the development of international reference classification, including a pilot in key sectors by 2027 and share a progress report in 2026.
We thank the ILO, OECD, World Bank Group, African Development Bank and ISSA for their technical contributions to the 2025 G20 Employment Working Group.
Finally, we express appreciation to South Africa for its guidance of the 2025 G20 Presidency and commit to presenting this Declaration to the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg for consideration. We look forward to advancing these priorities under the 2026 G20 Presidency of the United States.
Annex 1: Nelson Mandela Bay G20 Target on Youth Employment (2025–2030)
Building on the 2015 Antalya Goal, which sought to reduce the share of young people who are most at risk of being permanently left behind in the labour market by 15% by 20251, the Nelson Mandela Bay G20
Target on Youth Employment aims to enhance the integration of youth into labour markets through a holistic and forward-looking approach.
By 2030, G20 members will:
Reduce NEET Rates by a further 5%
Reduce the proportion of youth (ages 15–29) not in employment, education, or training (NEET) by a further 5% by 2030, compared with the rates observed in 2024.2 Acknowledging the significant progress made by some countries far exceeding the Antalya Goal, countries with NEET rates below 10% commit to maintaining momentum. Furthermore, track the NEET rate separately for men and women by its components, i.e. unemployed NEETs (those who are actively looking for a job) and inactive NEETs (those who are not actively looking for a job), and track the share of long-term NEETs (those who are in this situation for more than 6 or 12 months, depending on data availability).
Boost the effectiveness of Youth Employment Strategies or Initiatives
Accelerate the implementation of national and/or regional youth employment strategies based on the 2015 “Annex III: G20 Policy Principles for Promoting Better Youth Employment Outcome”, ensuring they align with economic and social development goals. This includes developing monitoring frameworks at the national level to assess and refine policies. This monitoring should identify actions to reach out to the most disadvantaged youth who are neither in employment, education or training or at risk of becoming so. Countries are encouraged to engage with the G20 Compact with Africa (CWA) to advance reforms and strategies conducive to the promotion of decent jobs for youth in the continent.
Strengthen Youth Skills for Future Work
Equip youth with skills demanded by the labour market by tackling school drop-out; expanding access to work-based learning opportunities, especially in technical and vocational education and training (TVET), internships, apprenticeships, and similar schemes; providing student orientation and career guidance; and promoting the mental wellbeing of both young women and men.
1 To this end, the focus was placed on young people with low skills and qualifications; those who are neither in employment, nor education or training (NEET); or the low-skilled individuals who are NEET or informally employed.
The NEET rate was used by the OECD and ILO as the primary indicator for monitoring progress towards this goal and related policy objectives.
2 The NEET rate is defined as the share of 15–29-year-olds not in employment, education, or training. The target is a 5% reduction over five years, equivalent to the same annual pace of the Antalya goal (15% over 15 years). For example, a country with a NEET rate of 10% in 2024 (reported in 2025), should aim at reducing it to 9.5% by 2029 (reported in 2030).
Strengthen Youth Entrepreneurship Promotion
Establish frameworks that facilitate private investment and create jobs for youth. Boost entrepreneurship and innovation as pathways to employment, for instance by enhancing young people’s access to affordable finance, business development services, counselling, and mentorship;
establishing incubation hubs in both urban and rural areas; and ensuring their inclusion in labour market policies and programmes. Countries are encouraged to take action under the G20 Entrepreneurship Action Plan and engage with the Entrepreneurship Research Centre on G20 Economies to support effective implementation.
Progress toward the Nelson Mandela Bay G20 Target will be monitored annually through the G20 Youth at Work Reports, produced with the technical assistance of the ILO and the OECD. All relevant data for monitoring the targets will be collected by the two International Organisations. Reports will also focus on relevant topics such as the quality of work and unpaid care work, among other topics.