This roundtable probes the persistent gap between what development policies promise and what interventions actually measure when it comes to “decent work.” Although global and national agendas now reference to job quality and take gender equality into consideration, many programmes still privilege employment quantity—counting jobs created—over whether those jobs are fair, safe, and dignified. This imbalance is mirrored in monitoring frameworks that too often overlook basic, ground‑level insights into working conditions, especially in contexts with high informality and precariousness. Establishing conducive environments for social dialogue to strengthen decent work dynamics bottom-up, are equally important yet hardly ever included in these measurements. 

Building on lessons from the Decent Work Assessment (DWA) tool, developed by HIVA-KU Leuven in collaboration with Enabel, and other innovative instruments, the session examines how multidimensional approaches—combining quantitative indicators with qualitative narratives—can better capture workers’ lived realities across sectors and value chains. We will explore methodological challenges such as parameter selection, trade‑offs between composite indices and qualitative assessment, comparability across countries and sectors, sampling in low‑data settings, and the complexity of research-development agency partnerships. Attention will be given to sectoral variations (e.g., agriculture, construction, mining, hospitality), gendered and generational disparities, and the specificities of informal and subcontracted work.

Beyond methods, the roundtable foregrounds alternatives and practical pathways for improvement: worker‑centred audits, social‑dialogue‑based monitoring, rapid and high‑frequency data collection, and integration of job‑quality metrics into programme logframes and policy cycles. 

A key theme is translation—how measurement findings can inform social dialogue and policy reform, moving from diagnostic to action. Contributors will reflect on how donors, governments, trade unions, employers, and researchers can co‑produce evidence that is rigorous, comparable, and usable.

Participants will engage in a critical debate on making metrics more meaningful so that economic growth is assessed not only by the number of jobs but by their quality—advancing fair, secure, and inclusive employment. The session aims to surface concrete design principles, common pitfalls, and exemplar practices that attendees can apply in research, programming, and policy.

Speakers:

• Huib Huyse - HIVA-KU Leuven
• Tom De Herdt - Universiteit Antwerpen
• Sara Geenen - Universiteit Antwerpen
• Prof. Felly Kiziunga - Université de Kinshasa, DRC
• Dr. Kassim Assouma - Freelance researcher, Bénin
• (to be confirmed) Géraldine Ladriëre - Enabel
• (to be confirmed) - ILO
• (to be confirmed) - CNV International

Moderator:

• Evelien Storme - HIVA-KU Leuven