Protect and Invest in the Filipino Workforce

The Protect and Invest in the Filipino Workforce Joint Programme (JP) leverages social protection and employment programmes to address vulnerabilities across population groups. A balanced combination of social assistance for poor and vulnerable households, social insurance to buffer against unemployment, old age, and other shocks, and labour market interventions to enhance earning opportunities, is essential to ensure comprehensive protection and facilitate a just transition. This involves providing access to skills development, employment facilitation, and social insurance for workers and those outside the labour force. Expanding social security access to workers in the informal economy, including the gig economy and non-traditional sectors, alongside improving healthcare coverage and ensuring old-age income security, promotes income stability and strengthens the overall social protection system. Reviewing the targeting and monitoring mechanisms of existing labour market interventions that support workforce upskilling and income security also improves labour market outcomes. The JP includes the following solutions: (1) promoting increased government financing for jobs and social protection; (2) providing inputs to legislative policy reform to expand unemployment protection coverage and access, particularly to women, the informal economy, and young workers; (3) linking skills development to employment outcomes to address skills gaps in emerging occupations, with emphasis on the greener economy and the changing nature of work driven by digital technology; and (4) strengthening policy advocacy and dialogue, including among stakeholders in the priority sectors of construction and transportation. The JP supports activities that contribute to policy dialogue specifically on amendments to expand the unemployment insurance provision under the Social Security System (SSS) charter and on the gradual implementation of social protection floor guarantees more broadly. It also focuses on improving access to enterprise-based training and employment opportunities for selected disadvantaged groups. The activities supported under this JP align with the Philippine government’s development objectives to strengthen social protection systems, including access to unemployment insurance and related services; reinvigorate job creation and improve the quality of employment; accelerate poverty reduction; increase the workforce’s income-earning ability; support the reskilling and resilience of workers to shocks and crises; reduce gender gaps in the labor market; and promote social dialogue.

Project symbol

PHL/25/50/UND

Admin unit

CO-Manila

Start date

15/01/2025

End date

20/01/2027

Total allocation

125000

Total expenditure

Status

Active

24638

Development Partners

Multi Partner Trust Fund Office, UNDP

Country/Countries

Philippines

Outcomes

Output 9.1. Improved coherence in multilateral support for the development and financing of integrated policy responses for social justice through decent work