Sustainable Development Goal 8 is to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all, often abbreviated as SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. The aim of this goal is to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including young people and people living with disabilities; as well as to sustain per capita economic growth and increase economic productivity through diversification; and to promote policies that support productive activities and access to financial services. Decent work is a particular concern for diverse SOGIESC communities as they are not only excluded from existing economic employment programming, but often face high rates of unemployment due to workplace discrimination.
SDG 8 is a diverse SOGIESC issue because people with diverse SOGIESC face particular hardships in finding decent and consistent employment. For instance, many people with diverse SOGIESC face high rates of unemployment as a result of workplace discrimination and discriminatory employers. Given that people with diverse SOGIESC have higher rates of poverty than cisgender and heterosexual people, ensuring that people with diverse SOGIESC have access to dignified labour is a critical development issue.
The resources available under SDG 8 cover a wide range of issues including: the economic cost of stigma against people with diverse SOGIE; the relationship between diverse SOGIE inclusion and economic development; sex work as a form of labour; and socioeconomic welfare among sexual and gender minority communities.
These resources have been compiled to enable development practitioners to develop and implement transformative economic empowerment and development programs that truly consider what ‘decent work for all means’, and to empower practitioners with the knowledge they need to better meet the targets of SDG 8.
