The Indian G20 Presidency is organizing the third Employment Working Group (EWG) meeting from 31st – 2nd June 2023 at ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. It is a G20 tradition since the inception of the EWG, to organize an Employment Working Group at the side-lines of the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s annual International Labour Conference at Geneva.

78 delegates from 20 G20 member countries, 09 guest countries and 04 International Organizations are attending the meeting. The Ministry of Labour & Employment’s international knowledge partners i.e.  International Labour Organisation ILO), Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), International Social Security Association (ISSA), World Bank (WB) and a domestic knowledge partner i.e. Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India, are attending the meeting to provide their technical expertise to the Group.

This meeting of the EWG is a crucial step towards building consensus amongst the participating G20 countries on the outcomes of the 3 key priority areas for EWG 2023 selected by the Indian Presidency. These priority areas encompass three crucial topics including 1) Addressing global skill gaps 2) Gig and platform economy and social protection (3) Sustainable financing of social protection. These priority areas have broad relevance to all member and participating countries and beyond, as they reflect current challenges and opportunities in the global context. During the span of three days, participating countries will engage in discussions to draft the Ministerial declaration and outcome documents, which consist of recommendations of the EWG to the G20 Sherpas and the G20 Leaders, along with policy principles, options and deliverables with respect to the three priority areas

The meeting commenced with the opening remarks of Ms. Arti Ahuja, the Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. of India and the Chair- EWG, who urged the EWG to be mindful of its responsibilities and come out with concrete outcomes with clear deliverables for the sake of the countries’ populations and their prosperity. Shri Indra Mani Pandey, the Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of India to UN and other International Organizations welcomed the delegates.. The opening session was followed by the annual update shared an annual update on the progress made by the G20 countries towards the achievement of Bribane and Antalya goals by ILO and OECD.

These sessions were followed by exhaustive line by line negotiations by the participating countries on further refinement of the Ministerial Declaration and the outcome documents of the EWG under the Indian Presidency. The Indian Presidency had achieved significant success in the Guwahati EWG meeting by finalization of majority of the Ministerial Declaration. India is confident to build consensus on the Outcome Documents too in this meeting, before the ultimate EWG meeting and Labour & Employment Ministerial Meeting to be organized at Indore, India next month.

The MoL&E’s delegation representing India at the G20 EWG meeting is being led by the Secretary, MoL&E and includes Shri Rupesh Kumar Thakur, Joint Secretary, Shri Mahendra Kumar, Director, Shri Gaurav Bhatia, Director and Shri Rakesh Gaur, Dy. Director from MoL&E’s G20 Division. Ms. Sonal Mishra, Joint Secretary from the MSDE is attending the meeting to support India in the priority area of addressing skill gaps. The Business 20 and Labour 20 representatives from India are also participating in this meeting and providing their support to the Indian Presidency.

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MJPS