Global Centre on Digital Wages for Decent Work

The Global Centre on Digital Wages for Decent Work promotes the transition from cash to responsible digital wage payments. It seeks to enable millions of women and men workers around the world to have better control over their wages and benefits. By empowering workers to access digital financial services that respond to their needs the Global Centre aims to improve their resilience and economic opportunities. With a focus on gender equality, the Global Centre seeks to enable enterprises in various economic sectors to better respect workers’ rights and formalize employment, to become more productive and to grow.

The Global Centre is based at the ILO’s Social Finance Programme in Geneva. It addresses the challenges of cash wages and informality through interventions in Cambodia, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Peru and the Philippines and global activities. It is structured around three main components:
  • Country interventions at macro, meso and micro levels to promote the transition to responsible digital wage payments. Initial diagnostics and consultations will define the details of the interventions.
  • Research and knowledge management that cover the impact of digital wages on financial inclusion, the productivity of enterprises, and respect of labour rights and the creation of a knowledge hub of evidence, technical and policy guidance tools.
  • Advocacy to raise the profile of digital wage payments among governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, as well as experts, financial service providers, global supply chain key actors and development agencies.
The Global Centre engages with:
  • Government and regulatory bodies
  • Employers’ and workers’ organizations at national, regional and global levels
  • Financial service providers, including digital payment providers
  • Technical experts, researchers and like-minded organizations at national and international levels, including the UN-based Better Than Cash Alliance
  • Relevant ILO programmes including Better Work
The initial set-up phase of the Global Centre is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Find the latest updates on digital wage payments on the official Global Centre website.