Abstract
Greening the rural economy is central to increasing decent employment opportunities, enhancing resource and labour productivity, and fostering poverty eradication and social inclusion. Through its Green Jobs Programme, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has a growing track record in policy advice, project implementation and institutional development to support its constituents in efforts to turn environmental challenges facing rural economies - including natural resource degradation, growing resource scarcity, and the negative impacts of climate change on productive assets, livelihoods and populations - into opportunities for sustainable development. Yet knowledge, policy and implementation gaps remain in moving towards a more systematic and comprehensive strategy that links environmental sustainability issues with all dimensions of the Decent Work Agenda. With its technical expertise, tools and means of action, the ILO is well placed to advocate for and promote greater integration of the principles of decent work and environmental sustainability into rural development strategies.