The FutureWORKS Collective was officially launched at an inception workshop organised by the JustJobs Network on March 6-9, 2024 in Negombo, Sri Lanka. The workshop was the first in-person convening of the five regional hubs that will form the Global South research network. The FutureWORKS Collective seeks to foster innovation that advances skills for the future of work and promote decent work globally. It will do this through Southern-led interdisciplinary research, network consolidation, and collaboration in public policy processes. This network, the FutureWORKS Collective is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada.
LIRNEasia is leading in the building of the Asian network of the initiative—FutureWORKS Asia—over a period of five years. Similar networks are being built in Africa by the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Ghana; in the MENA region by the American University of Beirut; and in Latin America and the Caribbean by Red Sudamericana de Economía Aplicada. The JustJobs Network will play the role of a global knowledge mobilisation hub that will facilitate synergy building, peer learning, knowledge synthesis and mobilisation across the five regional hubs.
As the Asia regional hub over the project period, we will be working toward the objective of developing and leading a regional research network to advance skills and policies for an inclusive and sustainable future of work in Asia. The network will engage in shared, interdisciplinary, and Southern-led research, as well as peer-to-peer learning, and collaboration in public policy processes. This will include the award of approximately 12 research grants for organisations and institutions across the Asian region. The grants will be to conduct and disseminate high-quality, policy-relevant research which addresses the challenges of ensuring decent work in the Global South, in light of the challenges brought about by technological change, climate change and the climate transition, as well as other demographic shifts that are taking place.
Throughout the three days, the regional partners presented their plans in detail, and collectively worked toward a cross-regional theory of change that integrates the research priorities of all partners, as well as a common monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) framework with relevant indicators. The five regional hubs also discussed potential areas of collaboration across regions.
Grant opportunities
LIRNEasia plans to issue the first call for proposals, with more details on the grant opportunities in the coming month. We will post details and updates on all our official communication platforms. Alternatively, register here to receive email updates including notification of the upcoming call for proposals and other related content and events.
Photo: Courtesy of JustJobs Network
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