ILO supported knowledge exchange on formalisation between BRICS and CIS

From 2 November 2021 to 9 December 2021, tripartite constituents and academic partners from the BRICS and the CIS countries exchanged experiences in transitioning to formality organised by the International Labour Organization (ILO), with the participation of the International Training Centre in Turin (ITC-ILO).

News | 09 December 2021
For six consecutive weeks, more than 100 representatives of Governments, trade unions and employer and business membership organisations as well as academia from the BRICS and the CIS states were exploring opportunities in pursuing an integrated approach to formalisation, including by leveraging South-South and triangular cooperation (SSTC).


The BRICS-CIS dialogue blended the discussions of the research papers on formalisation in the BRICS and the CIS, commissioned by the ILO, namely “Towards integrated strategy for the transition to formality: road maps for Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan” and “Informality and the Potential for South-South Cooperation between BRICS”, with the deliberations of successes, challenges and lessons learned from building integrated strategies on formalisation in both regions.


The knowledge-exchange series climaxed in inviting the participants to develop action points to leverage the SSTC approach to facilitate formalisation. The recommendations encompassed suggestions to expand the pool of knowledge on different aspects of informality in both regions, practical solutions on how to encourage formalisation in different sectors of the economy as well as pathways for knowledge exchange between the BRICS, the CIS countries and other emerging partners on complying with provisions of the ILO Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy Recommendation No. 204.


These action points are expected to feed the continued efforts to facilitate SSTC cooperation and knowledge exchange on the transition to formality between the BRICS and the CIS countries under the Chinese BRICS Presidency in 2022.


The knowledge-exchange series capitalised on the results of the project “Towards integrated strategy for the transition to formality: road maps for Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan”, launched by the ILO Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ILO Moscow) in 2020, and the knowledge development series on formalization in BRICS countries organized from 12 July 2021 to 20 August 2021 under the aegis of BRICS Indian Presidency by the ILO Office in Delhi, ILO PARDEV and ITC-ILO, with the ILO Moscow support.