Employment, enterprise creation and entrepreneurship lie at the heart of sustainable development and therefore at the heart of efforts by the ILO to achieve Decent Work. The IOE works to ensure that the ILO remains focussed on these areas of keen interest to employers and in particular supports and promotes:

• the adoption at national level of the ILO Global Employment Agenda through national employment policies which support the needs of the SME sector and target youth employment;
  
  
• the macroeconomic environment necessary to create and sustain business, including the creation of and support for market supporting institutions;
  
  
• good governance, the rule of law, recognition of private property rights and political, economic and institutional stability as necessary prerequisites for economic development;
  
  
• policies that support productivity and competitiveness of business;
  
  
• sound, fair and appropriate regulatory and tax regimes which encourage sustained growth and employment creation;
  
  
• the reduction of barriers to economic activity including government spending, non-wage labour costs, over-prescriptive standard setting, over-regulation of employer activity;
  
  
• the creation of a supporting environment for attracting FDI, generating and providing access to domestic capital and promoting entrepreneurship;
  
  
• Human Resources Development and skills development that link skills to the needs of enterprises;
  
  
• efforts to formalize the informal economy through measures designed to preserve its economic contribution.