A Woman in Kisumu Changes Everything
Benter Bella Mboya didn't set out to become a symbol. But sitting in a technical working group on disability inclusion at Acacia Hotel in Kisumu, Kenya, she represented something quietly extraordinary: a worker with a disability, at the table, shaping the policies that govern her own life. Her story, reported by the ILO this April, is a small window into a much larger shift happening across the globe.
From the shores of Lake Victoria to the streets of Tashkent, from the garment factories of Dhaka to the trade union halls of Kuala Lumpur, 2026 is shaping up as a year when the architecture of workers' rights is being rebuilt — brick by brick, law by law, person by person.
Uzbekistan Builds a Floor
In December 2025, Uzbekistan did something its workers had been waiting decades for. The government adopted a new Law "On State Social Insurance," creating a comprehensive system covering maternity, sickness, and unemployment benefits. Then, in March 2026, officials, UN representatives, and development partners gathered in Tashkent under the ILO's Global Accelerator programme to formally launch it.
This isn't bureaucratic paperwork. It's a structural floor — the kind of guarantee that means a mother doesn't have to choose between her newborn and her income, that a sick worker doesn't spiral into poverty. For a country in rapid economic transition, it's a foundational bet on human dignity.
Equal Pay Gets a New Voice
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan stepped into the global conversation on gender equality in the workplace. In December 2026, the country joined the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC), signalling a commitment to closing the gender wage gap through international cooperation. The move, welcomed by the ILO, adds another country to a growing chorus of nations that have decided the pay gap is not an inevitability but a policy choice.
It's a choice with real stakes. Women worldwide still earn less than men for equivalent work — and the gap widens further for women in informal or precarious employment.
Bangladesh Seizes Its Moment
Across South Asia, Bangladesh's trade unions and civil society organisations are doing something strategically urgent: uniting. As the country develops its third National Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0) — its climate commitments under the Paris Agreement — workers' groups are aligning around a just transition agenda, reducing duplication and building a single, credible voice for labour in climate negotiations.
As the ILO reports, "the window is now." Climate policy is being written. Industrial transformation is already underway. And for the first time, Bangladeshi workers are organising not just to react to those changes, but to shape them.
Malaysia Rebuilds from the Inside
In Malaysia, the challenge is different but just as structural. Trade unions are working to become more representative — more inclusive of women and migrant workers, two groups historically left on the margins of organised labour. Capacity-building efforts are underway to help unions better understand and address the specific needs of these workers, according to ILO reporting from April 2026.
It matters because inclusion isn't just a moral argument. Unions that represent more of the workforce are simply more powerful. A trade union that speaks for migrant workers too is harder to ignore.
The Bigger Picture: A World Leaving Workers Behind
All of these stories sit inside a larger, more urgent frame. On April 9, 2026, the ILO released a landmark report calling for a decisive strengthening of social protection systems worldwide. The warning was stark: current gaps in coverage, adequacy, and financing are leaving millions of workers unprotected in an increasingly volatile global economy.
A companion ILO policy paper, Universal Social Protection in Changing Labour Markets, released the same day, made the challenge concrete — examining how gig workers, platform workers, part-time workers, and informal workers fall through the cracks of systems designed for a 20th-century model of full-time, formal employment.
The world of work has changed. The safety net hasn't kept up.
The Through Line
What connects Benter Bella in Kisumu, the lawmakers in Tashkent, the union organisers in Kuala Lumpur, and the climate advocates in Dhaka? They are all, in their own way, answering the same question: who does the economy work for?
The answer being built right now, across continents and legal systems and organising drives, is: everyone. Not as a utopian aspiration — but as a policy target, a legal framework, a seat at the table.
The work is incomplete. The gaps are real. But the direction, this April, is unmistakable.
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