Decent work in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and future research agenda

Establishing ‘decent work and economic growth’ as one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has elevated the discourse of decent work beyond national level policy debate. For emerging economies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the literature, though limited, has sought to explore prospects for workers to find productive and decent work in conditions of human dignity, equity, freedom and security. In this paper, we provide a review of decent work research in SSA by mapping the core themes and discussing the challenges and opportunities for decent work in the region. Our review reveals the informal economy, economic policy and development programming, the rising gig economy and the nature of organisational climate as core themes surrounding ‘decent work deficit’ in SSA . We use the International Labour Organisation's decent work framework: social protection, social dialogue, workers’ rights and employment creation to highlight implications for (a) labour regulation (b) workers’ voice and representation and (c) employer's managerial prerogative. Our paper sets out future IR research to support the analysis and development of decent work in SSA.