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  Why does it matter?

  Why does it matter?

  As noted by the International Labour Organisation, SDG8 is unique among the SDGs as it encompasses all three dimensions of sustainable development: ie it integrates strands of economic, social and environmental issues.

  Globally, securing sustained economic growth is crucial to underpin societal growth, and this is even more so for countries which are currently among the least developed. Increases in gross domestic product create wealth that filters back into society, leading to higher living standards, increased employment, and improved public services. Individually and collectively these should ultimately enhance the quality of life for individuals and society as a whole.

  Employment has long been considered a human right because of its fundamental role in enabling human dignity and societal contribution.  So much so that the right to work is embedded in international human rights law. Ensuring decent and productive work for all is key to providing individuals with the means to support themselves and contribute to society.

  Decent work for all and economic growth are inextricably linked and can help support a virtuous cycle – productive work contributes to Gross Domestic Product, which leads to economic growth, and economic growth increases wealth which in turn opens up further opportunities for gainful employment.

  
  
• SDG 8 targets

  SDG 8 targets

  SDG 8 is made up of 12 key targets. Full details on these targets can be found here. They can also be summarised as follows:

  1. Ensuring sustainable economic growth at a level which is appropriate to the circumstances of each country (for example, 7%p.a. is the target for the least developed countries)
  2. Diversify, innovate and upgrade to achieve higher levels of economic productivity, leveraging new technology and focusing on labour intensive sectors
  3. Promote policies to support job creation and growing enterprises - encouraging entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation
  4. Improve resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation with developed countries taking the lead
  5. Full employment and decent work with equal pay by 2030 including for young people and people with disabilities
  6. Promote youth employment, education and training, substantially reducing the proportion of youth classified as not in employment, education or training.
  7. End modern slavery, trafficking and child labour, with child labour eliminated in all its forms by 2025
  8. Protect labour rights and promote safe working environments for all workers, in particular migrant workers and those in precarious employment.
  9. Promote beneficial and sustainable tourism, encompassing both devising and implementing policies to promote sustainable tourism by 2030
  10. Universal access to banking, insurance and financial services, to be achieved by strengthening the capacity of domestic providers to enable financial services for all
  11. Increase aid for trade support for developing countries, in particular least developed countries
  12. Develop a global youth employment strategy, to be devised and implemented by 2020
      
      

  Progress against targets

  Recently, the 2025 meeting of the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development expert group provided a sombre message, noting that mounting evidence suggests progress toward SDG 8 is significantly off track. In particular the report notes that among the twelve targets under SDG 8, only one— access to financial services—is currently on a positive trajectory. The other targets have either remained stable or regressed in recent years. There has been particularly poor progress for employment related metrics such as labour productivity, youth employment, labour rights, and child labour. Many other reports support this conclusion including this paper from the International Labour Organisation and research published by the Our World in Data sustainability goal tracker.
• Supporting initiatives

  Supporting initiatives

  Despite ongoing challenges, significant work is already underway to achieve the targets, both domestically and internationally.

  Within the UK, Bond (a registered charity formed in 1993 to ‘connect, strengthen and champion a dynamic network of diverse civil society organisations to help eradicate global poverty, inequality and injustice’), has published progress report setting out a number of recommendations for the UK to support continued progress with SDG8. This includes promoting the growth of green jobs, and working to end modern slavery.

  Internationally, the UN Environment Programme works with governments and other stakeholders to identify and develop opportunities for inclusive and sustainable economic growth, encourage entrepreneurship  and improve access to financial services for all. This helps support the creation of green and sustainable jobs. 

  As noted by the ECOSOC Partnership forum a number of partnerships have been launched to advance SDG 8. This includes the following:  

  • The Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions which encourages decent work in the green, digital, and care industries
  • The Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work programme which seeks to address barriers to productivity growth and enable decent job creation.
  • The UNIDO Learning and Knowledge Development Facility (LKDF), which is a public-private development partnership that contributes to productive employment and economic growth through skills development targeting youth and women in developing countries.
  • The Global Coalition for Social Justice which unites over 300 partners to champion multilateral cooperation and accelerate SDG progress.

  However, it is clear that further urgent and co-ordinated action needed to turn around the current poor overall progress against SDG8 targets by 2030.

   

  
  
• Importance for actuarial practice

  Importance for actuarial practice

  Being able to understand and set financial assumptions – particularly over the long term – is a key facet of the actuarial skillset. Economic growth is an important assumption in many areas of actuarial practice, including pensions, investments and sustainability, not least as it acts as a driver for growth in financial and societal wealth.

  Climate change is a key source of uncertainty in economic growth and, particularly if we are unsuccessful in our goal of limited global temperature increases, climate driven damages may present a significant fiscal drag.

  The Office for Budget Responsibility’s 2025 Fiscal risks report acknowledges this, and has included scenarios which illustrate a material decline in UK long term GDP under higher temperature scenarios. Within the actuarial profession many have argued that this analysis does not go far enough, including widely published papers such as The Emperors New Climate Scenarios, Climate Scorpion and Planetary Solvency.  

  This is also often an area of debate and discussion within sustainability driven actuarial communities, for example this article in the actuarial professions 'The Actuary' magazine which considers whether we can have growth without harming the planet.

  Whilst many of the overlaps with actuarial practice relate to economic growth, it is also worth noting that ensuring decent work for all is key to facilitating financial security, which will in turn support individuals in society to afford pensions and insurance which may otherwise be outside of their means.

  
  
• Relationships to other goals

  Relationships to other goals

  Sustained economic growth is a significant enabler of many other goals. In turn our success at achieving other goals will be essential to create the correct mechanisms for economic growth to exist. Decent work will support lifting individuals out of poverty, and is also closely linked with gender equality, and universal education for all (which is a pre-requisite for positive employment growth).

  Some of the key overlapping goals are:

  • SDG 4 – Quality education
  • SDG5 – Gender equality
  • SDG9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure
  • SDG12 – Responsible consumption and production