Economics at Work: Trade Unions Building Forward Better

The four-week online course is part of a series of ILO ACTRAV-ACFTU South-South Cooperation Project-supported capacity building activities that focus on building and enhancing the core capacities of workers’ organizations in the Asia and Pacific region to effectively participate and take action on issues of common interest to support the achievement of the SDGs, define and undertake strategies to build the future of work and influence policy agendas on social, economic and environmental issues. The course -Economics at Work Trade Unons Building Forward Better -looked at the impact of macro-economic policy and legislation on workers and what trade unions can do to better participate and represent their members needs and priorites. This included strengthening the knowledge of organisations on how to discuss the macro-economic frameworks and labour markets. It benefitted participants with a strong understanding of core concepts and commonly used economic data points (inflation rates, consumer spending, productivity gains) or indicators released by governments to better interpret, engage others, and advocate for public accounting and transparency. OBJECTIVES The training aimed to provide trade union learners with general knowledge and understanding of how fiscal policies, taxes, social spending and development financing take place. Following the course, trade unions should feel empowered to seek public accountability and transparency in development processes. Trade unions should also be able to use the knowledge and expertise shared during the course to strengthen their lobbying and campaigning on social spending for critical needs. By completing the training programme, participants whould be able to correctly (a) explain the purpose of economic policies and frameworks; (b) identify the main actors involved in economic policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation; (c) compare and contrast the decisions taken by various policymakers to alleviate the impact of the pandemic; (d) distinguish between fiscal and monetary policies; (e) describe the ways in which economic policies impact the lives of workers; (f) interpret basic economic data; (and g) identify the actions that trade unions can take to participate more effectively in economic policy in their respective countries. CONTENT The course covered four learning modules: 1. Ecnomics basics and concepts for trade unions, 2. COVID-19 and the economy: from crisis to recovery, 3. Economics for workers and the world of work, and 4. Trade unions building forward better. The course consisted of an estimated 30 hours of synchronous and asynchronous online learning, which included 21 tasks such as participation in webinars, completion of self-guided learning modules, online interaction and collaboration, submission of assignments, and ‘application of learning plans’, among others. ECAMPUS The activity was delivered via the E-campus, the education platform of the International Training Centre of the ILO. The platform was used for the distribution of course information, training material, learning tasks, exchanges of good practices and experiences, feedback and multimedia content.