In this short paper, we outline what decent work means to us, why it is important, and how we measure progress towards creating “good jobs”.

Regardless of what is enshrined in legal requirements on formal or informal businesses, we believe there are certain minimum standards that all enterprises should strive for with regards to promoting “good jobs”. These fall under four areas:

1. Protection of human rights at work
2. Conditions of employment
3. Health and safety at work
4. Training and development
5. Business registration

This is a complicated and continuously evolving process and so the document represents our current (rather than final) thinking on the matter.

We have drawn inspiration from the ISO 26000 (social responsibility), and the United Nations Global Compact. Whereas these tools were aspirational in changing the conceptual understanding of what ‘good jobs’ should look like, this document is aspirational in a practice sense. Our focus is narrower, based on our experience with informal sector entrepreneurs in Kenya and Uganda. It is describes what we see as attainable goals to move the needle in attempting to change attitudes, behaviours and outcomes.

We will use and develop this document to build a framework and set of standards by which to evaluate and support the businesses that we fund.