The mandate of the ILO is to advance social and economic justice through setting international labour standards. With 187 Member States, 40 field offices and staff in 107 nations, the ILO promotes decent work for all workers, regardless of where they work. A healthy workforce is essential to achieving SDG 8. Promoting the health and safety of workers is thus an integral aspect of the ILO’s mandate.
The 2019 ILO strategy, ILO's response to HIV and AIDS: accelerating progress for 2030, applies the twin-track approach of HIV-focused efforts and the integration of HIV in the broader development mandate. The strategy promotes HIV integration across the areas of social protection, labour standards, labour migration, gender equality, occupational safety and health, diversity and inclusion, and in ILO training courses, among others. The ILO's HIV and AIDS recommendation, 2010 (No 200) also calls for HIV integration across national development policies and programmes.
In 2022-2023, the ILO achieved the following results and contributed to upholding human rights and gender equality, scaling up of HIV testing and expanding social protection coverage.
- Supported the country-level implementation of the recommendations of the ILO Global HIV Discrimination in the World Of Work. The recommendations which pertain to HIV non-discrimination policies and programmes was implemented in 25 countries during the biennium.
- Provided normative guidance for LGBTQI+ rights. To promote a more conducive and enabling environment for LGBTQI+ persons in the workplace, the ILO developed the “Inclusion of LGBTQI+ persons in the world of work” learning guide.
- Increased knowledge of HIV status among workers. The ILO focused on reaching underserved men in economic sectors where workers face elevated risk of acquiring HIV. The ILO’s VCT@WORK Initiative is aimed at identifying people living with HIV who have not taken an HIV test and linking them promptly to care services. Over the biennium, approximately 240 000 vulnerable people in 20 countries took an HIV test as a result of this initiative.
- Built capacity for strategic HIV testing initiatives. The ILO and WHO jointly developed a policy brief on HIV testing, titled “HIV self-testing at workplaces: approaches to implementation and sustainable financing”, which it disseminated through world-of-work structures in 20 countries. For capacity building, knowledge transfer and continuous learning on HIV testing, the ILO and the International Training Centre developed an online training course on HIV testing at the workplace.
- Continued implementation of the social protection flagship programme. The ILO launched the second phase (2021–2025) of its social protection flagship programme, “Building social protection floors for all”, covered 50 priority countries and contributed to many of the results achieved in countries during the biennium.
- Generated normative guidance on social protection. The "ILO-UNDP checklist on social protection for key populations", helped countries promote the inclusion of people living with HIV and key populations in social protection policies and programmes.
