Informal work in Asia: developing solutions to the uncertainty following COVID-19 based on case studies in Bhutan, Laos, Maldives, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam

According to the latest WESO report (ILO, 2020), more than 1.4 billion workers are in vulnerable jobs, and the effects of the coronavirus are expected to increase in 2020. Various activities have been implemented nationally and internationally to address these issues. Among other things, the sustainable development process (1) measures a specific statistical indicator - informal work (8.3.1), decent work (SDG8) and responsible industrialization (SDG9). The rate of implementation of sustainable development goals on youth issues and national policies varies considerably between countries and regions of the world. Although most countries have formally confirmed the importance of SDGs (including those characterized by precarious employment), there is little evidence that that developing regions have the capacity to systematically examine problems in their own situation of precarious employment and vulnerability. And with the output that solutions are development-friendly, concrete and robust. In our view, these are the two main challenges. First, although a number of approaches have been used in the European Union, they have not been adapted at all or have been adapted to a limited extent in other frameworks. Secondly, there has been no systematic review of anti-insecurity policies outside the European Union. LABOR is a research and training project to study the aforementioned bottlenecks and develop approaches, paying particular attention to the specificities of the region where the specific problem has arisen. In Asia, informal employment of the active population is estimated at 68.2%. In this project, we are forming a 14-member team of academic and non-academic partners working on the topic of precarious employment. Our aim is not only to train professionals in a particular area, but also to propose specific mitigation measures that decision-makers and development organizations can take as a basis.