ILO Launches New Diploma to Strengthen Evidence-Based Policy for Decent Work

The programme was officially unveiled during a virtual open house on 23 January 2026, bringing together participants from more than 40 countries.

The International Labour Organization (ILO), in partnership with its International Training Centre, has launched a new Diploma in Evidence-Based Public Policy for Decent Work and Social Justice, responding to growing global demand for data-driven, transparent and accountable policymaking in a rapidly changing world of work.

The programme was officially unveiled during a virtual open house on 23 January 2026, bringing together participants from more than 40 countries. It is aimed at policymakers, government officials, employers’ and workers’ organisations, development partners and academic institutions seeking to strengthen the link between research, policy design and real-world outcomes.

The ILO said the initiative comes at a time when labour markets and social systems are under increasing pressure from climate change, widening inequality, conflict, economic volatility and rapid technological transformation.

Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ILO Research Department, said the Diploma addresses a critical gap between knowledge and action.

She said strong ideas alone are not enough to deliver change, and that decision-makers need the skills and confidence to translate evidence into effective policy. The programme, she said, is designed to help practitioners move from research to results with clarity, integrity and purpose.

The launch event featured a keynote address by leading economist Professor Jayati Ghosh of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who examined the “uses, misuses and politics of numbers” in public policy. She called for greater accountability in how data is produced, interpreted and deployed in shaping policies that directly affect people’s lives.

Running from January to December 2026, the Diploma is structured around five modular courses delivered online and in hybrid formats. The curriculum covers the policy–evidence relationship, research methods for labour and social policies, communicating evidence for impact, labour market data and statistics, and an international training component linking research to policy practice, including in-person sessions in Turin and Geneva.

Participants will develop real-world policy briefs, engage in peer learning and receive mentoring from global experts. The programme builds on the ILO’s long-standing mandate to advance decent work, labour standards and social justice, as well as more than a decade of experience training over 1,000 policymakers across more than 60 countries.

ILO officials said the Diploma is designed to equip early adopters within governments, social partners and institutions with practical tools to improve policy quality, strengthen trust in public decision-making and ensure labour and social policies are grounded in credible evidence.

As one speaker noted during the launch, policymaking remains the art of the possible—but one that must be guided by the discipline of evidence in order to deliver fair, inclusive and sustainable outcomes.