Dashboard map for 2022 SDG Index Goal #8 ratings. Data source: sdgindex.org
Adjusted GDP growth (%)
This indicator measures the annual growth of GDP (gross domestic product), the total of everything produced (products and services) within a country.
Rather than economic growth being a filthy term, we need to take measures to ensure it's coupled with environmental care and social inclusion. Sustainable development aims for economic growth in harmony with ensuring the other two pillars i.e., economic growth which is inclusive and sustainable.
We’re trying to adopt a macroeconomic concept to the scale of the individual reader here. Rather than the average individual having their hands on the levers of economic policymaking at the national level, let’s keep it simple, without putting onerous responsibilities on your shoulders. If you live in a country scoring red for the indicator, aim to increase your annual income by 5%. There will be so many factors at play out of your control, bearing down on you, but aim for 5% annual income growth. Figure out how much income you made in the past year, multiply it by 5%, and aim for this amount in the coming year. Divide the increase by 52 weeks or 12 months, if you think you’ll find it easier to set smaller targets, rather than a big one for year-end. How you go about increasing your income is up to you - the main thing is we set the intention to go out after the goal.
Summary:
For OECD country readers, affirm your annual commitment to give 0.7% of your gross income as aid.
For readers in countries off-track, attempt to increase your annual income by 5% a year.
Victims of modern slavery (per 1,000 population)
It’s unbelievable a practice such as slavery can continue to prevail in the 21st century, least of all ever occurred at all. Treating humans as property takes many forms, including:
human trafficking for forced labour
sexual slavery and forced prostitution
conscription in national military service
penal labour
debt bondage
bride buying
some conditions experienced by migrant workers
The definition of modern slavery for this indicator counts as forced labour or forced marriage, aiming for elimination by 2030.
The results for this indicator in the 2022 SDG Index are ugly. Due to what we can agree is a heinous practice, even the yellow scores are grotesque. For each of these countries, the reasons for high rates of forced labour and marriage are particular to each society. Some instances of forced labour may even entail state sanction of law, as in the case of conscription. Let’s instead focus on the instance of the individual reader. Rather than imposing responsibility on the victim of slavery, instead it ought to be on the enslaving person, whether ‘employer’, husband in forced matrimony, or parents of a bride in a forced marriage.
Summary: End forced labour and forced marriage by 2030.
Adults with an account at a bank or other financial institution or with a mobile-money-service provider (% of population aged 15 or over)
This indicator aims for 100% of a population, aged 15 and over, to have an account at a bank or other financial institution, either by themselves, or shared with someone else, or to have used mobile payments in the past year. In 2021, 76% of the world population owned such an account.
The beauty of mobile banking is in the unexpected ubiquity of mobile devices in low-income countries. There’s little incentive for a bank to open a branch in a far-flung, rural part of a low-income country. Populations in low-income countries can instead use a mobile app to transact, whether they own a device themselves, or share within a family or community.
Depending on the country and mobile payment service, this could rely on SMS technology, or more advanced mobile apps. Kenya is the success story, due to the success of M-Pesa, which also features a micro-financing function. M-Pesa has since expanded to more countries, but looking at the 2022 scores for this indicator, with unequal success as its native Kenya. When a survey asked respondents why they were yet to open a bank account, the most common answers were a dearth of funds to deposit, as well as cost and distance. If someone has only a couple of dollars to rub together, it’s only going to compound the issue of opening a bank account if this comes with account fees.
Summary: For readers in countries off-track, open an account at a bank, or a mobile-money-service provider, if affordable and available, aiming for all to have such accounts.
Fundamental labour rights are effectively guaranteed (worst 0 - 1 best)
This indicator measures the effective enforcement of fundamental labour rights, including:
freedom of association
right to collective bargaining
absence of discrimination related to employment
freedom from forced labour and child labour
The data source for this indicator is one of the factors of the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index. A score of 1 is the best score, with 0 the worst. In the context of this indicator, countries are aiming for a score of 0.85.
Depending on the country you live in, you may be familiar with the presence of trade unions and would have experienced the relationship between employers and employees and contracts. Your national government may have an agency upholding employment standards. In some countries, there’s a very prominent history of labour law in different guises, dating back to the cotton mills and factory systems of northern England at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and in other forms before industrialisation.
What should be the legal price floor for the exchange of payment for work, otherwise known as the minimum wage? What is the threshold of a living wage? What framework exists to ensure occupational health and safety? Are anti-discrimination laws applicable and enforced in workplaces? What are the grounds for unfair dismissal in terminating employment? What prohibitions exist around the use of child labour? Is freedom of association permitted, allowing groups to form a club and take collective action, such as a trade union?
Some countries have developed a tradition of co-determination, a model of corporate governance representing workers among the board of directors. The intention of this is to ease a more harmonious process of collective bargaining in negotiation, mitigating the risk of strike action.
The impacts of globalisation put a lot of pressure upon labour, and the UN has a body to oversee this field, the International Labour Organization, which brokers international labour law - both as it relates to international law, but also the conflict of laws between countries in dispute.
Summary: For readers in countries off-track:
as an employer:
ensure freedom of association
ensure collective bargaining
desist using forced or child labour
as employers and colleagues, ensure workplaces are free of discrimination
Fatal work-related accidents embodied in imports (per 100,000 population)
If we cast our minds back to the concept of something being embodied in an import, as we did with the earlier indicator about scarce water, a similar principle applies here. Developed countries import goods from countries with lower labour costs, by extension meaning lower labour standards, heightening the risk of accidents in the exporting country. Developed countries have robust health and safety standards in workplaces across all industries, enjoyed at the expense of importing from other countries, where standards may be so low that they risk fatalities. The 2030 aim for this indicator is to end fatal work-related accidents embodied in imports.
The indicator’s data source is an academic journal article titled Trade in occupational safety and health, looking at the role of labour conditions in developing countries for export markets, exploring the harms embodied in the global supply chain.
Only a handful of countries have scored red, including Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius and Singapore. Referring to data you can explore in the SDSN website which tracks bilateral spillover effects, we can identify which imports from which countries are contributing to fatal work-related accidents. Based on this information, readers from countries off-track can identify imports from certain countries they should find alternative sources for, lest they create demand for fatal work accidents.
For Kuwait and UAE, most of these fatal accidents are being exported from India, and for Mauritius, from Madagascar.
Summary: For readers from countries off-track:
research the countries from which the accidents are embedded in imports at https://environmentalimpact.global/spillovers/
seek alternative sources for these imports without embedded fatal work-related accidents, aiming to end global fatal work-related accidents embedded in imports by 2030
Unemployment rate (% of total labour force)
This indicator is an estimate of how much of the labour force is unemployed, yet is free to work, and looking for work. The indicator speaks to an economy-wide issue, often beyond the scope of the individual.
This indicator excludes OECD countries, with an aim by 2030 of 0.5% unemployment in the total labour force. The 2020 world unemployment rate was 6.5%, a modest improvement from the 2015 estimate of 5.6%.
Any government knows the importance of employment, both to ensure they stay in power, as well as the more benevolent consideration of ensuring the wellbeing and prosperity of the populace. Unemployment, whether acute or chronic, is detrimental to one’s sense of security and identity, with knock-on effects to mental health, as well as standard of living from lack of income. Evidence also suggests the effects of high unemployment rates on the rest of the workforce in employment can be negative, undermining their own sense of security. Individuals in the economy may feel they are bit players, far from the levers of the economic engine of the national and global economy. This can lead to a sense of powerlessness, bordering on despair when confronting periods of severe recession.
Technology and innovation have always played a disruptive role in labour economics, even though we also experience the boons of technological advances and inventions. Each of us has a tacit understanding of the role the increasing shift toward a digital economy will have on our employment prospects, even if one of the potential effects allows us more leisure time. Many of those looking for work, but unable to find any, may feel aggrieved toward the trends of globalisation. Globalisation has little consideration for, or consent of the individual - such grievances are often given full-throated voice at the ballot box. Competition defines the system of international trade i.e., labour markets abroad may be able to offer the lowest labour costs.
Governments are entrusted to attempt to remedy this, as though the government were a synonym for a guarantee of as close to possible full employment. Governments use whatever policies and regulations they have at their disposal to fulfil this brief. Yet whatever our perceptions of what politicians owe us as a populace, they are fallible humans, at the mercy of markets. Sometimes governments are unable or unwilling to impose themselves on economic markets to effect maximal change. Still, governments have fiscal policy tools in their kit. Central banks often have a degree of independence from the government, and can exercise monetary policy to target an ideal employment rate. We may finance the government as taxpayers, but in realistic terms, this is less than a guarantee of full employment in the economy.
If the solution to unemployment was commonplace, a lot of politicians and citizens would be a lot happier and relieved. Because this indicator calls upon an economy-wide matter, it’s impractical to offer an individual-scale solution. If an individual in a country off-track wants to work, though is unable to find employment in their home country, we can’t ask any more of them. Nor is it practical to ask their compatriots to create jobs on behalf of the unemployed. Aid and investments from OECD readers help build the foundation for an economy in the form of education and infrastructure, which could help lead to jobs. The fundamental reasons for unemployment are macroeconomic, therefore the best level to boost employment lies at the scale of national government policy and international labour and trade.
Employment-to-population ratio (%) *
This measure is the proportion of a population of working age (between ages 15 and 64) in employment or self-employment, aiming for a ratio of 77.8%.
Only Turkey - a middle-income OECD country - has scored red. Because of the widespread satisfactory progress on this indicator, we’ll move ahead.
Youth not in employment, education or training (NEET) (% of population aged 15 to 29) *
Only a handful of high-income OECD countries have scored red in the 2022 SDG Index for this measure, aiming for less than 8.1% of young people neither employed or studying. Those countries are Spain, France, Italy and Greece, as well as the middle-income OECD countries.
For those falling in this category, we need to find paid employment or formal education for you. The latter can be either part-time or full-time, and can include vocational education, but excludes short courses. The threshold of ‘paid work’ for the purpose of this measure is one hour or more for the reference week, so to home in on a target of 8.1% of youth NEET, this can be a first step.
One of the beauties of the EU - of which each of the above are member states - is the right of freedom of movement for workers, whereby one can work with ease in any EU country. Likewise, educational opportunities are available across the EU for citizens at low-cost or no-cost.
Summary:
For readers aged 18 to 29, enrol yourself in a part-time or full-time educational course, or seek a minimum of one hour's paid work per week.
For readers with children under 18, enrol your child in a part-time or full-time educational course, or help them seek a minimum of one hour paid work per week.