About this webinar
The Global Accelerator for Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions was launched by the UN Secretary-General in September 2021, with the aim of helping countries recover from the unprecedented losses of jobs and livelihoods and cost-of-living crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Global Accelerator ambitions to fast-track global actions to create 400 million decent jobs, including in the green, digital and care economies, and to extend social protection to 4 billion people currently uncovered. It works through three inter-linked pillars, (i) support for integrated and coordinated national employment and social protections policies and strategies, (ii) integrated national financing frameworks combining domestic resources and international financial support, and (iii) multilateral cooperation on jobs and social protection.

To achieve its aims, the Global Accelerator is establishing a Technical Support Facility to assist countries in identifying priority entry points for policy integration that would leverage a human-centred climate resilient recovery and inclusive structural transformation of the economy. As it moves from inception to the implementation phase, this Knowledge Café will discuss the importance of integrated policy approaches, actions required at global, regional and country levels to operationalize the Global Accelerator, and the support that will be provided to UN Country Teams in pathfinder countries through the Technical Support Facility to achieve its objectives.

Agenda
This discussion will be moderated by Marta Calì, Chief of Policy a.i., UN Development Coordination Office (UNDCO), and will include presentations of concrete experiences from keynote speakers:

Nathalie Milbach-Bouché, Head OIC, Inclusive Growth Team, UN Development Programme (UNDP) 
Valérie Schmitt, Deputy Director, Social Protection Department, ILO
François Klein, Senior Administrator, Employment Policy Department, International Labour Organization (ILO) 
David Steward, Chief, Child Poverty and Social Protection, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) 
This will be followed by a Q&A and exchanges with the audience!

About the speakers
Nathalie Milbach-Bouché is Senior Strategic Advisor for the global Inclusive Growth team of UNDP Bureau for Policy and Program Support (BPPS), and Inclusive Growth team o.i.c. Ms. Milbach-Bouché is a development economist with over 20 years of experience in policy advice, research and programmatic support on poverty and inequality, inclusive growth, sustainable development and resilience. From 2013 to 2020, she led UNDP BDP/BPPS’s work on inclusive growth and SDG mainstreaming efforts in the Arab region. In 2020-2021, she also served as interim manager of UNDP Sub-Regional Facility for the Syria Crisis, supporting the resilience response under the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP). During her assignment in the region, she also coordinated the regional interagency working group on social protection with the International Labor Organization (ILO), and with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the regional Issue-Based Coalition on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus. Prior to this, she served as Poverty Practice Leader for UNDP in West and Central Africa (2010 to 2013), senior economist for the FAO Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Program in Bangladesh (2006 to 2009), policy specialist (transition economies) for UNDP in Asia-Pacific (2001-2005), based in Beijing, China, as well as team leader for the EU TACIS Economic Trends program in Uzbekistan (1999-2000). Nathalie holds a PhD. in Development Economics and a master’s degree in Project Analysis from the University of Auvergne, France.

Valérie Schmitt is the Deputy Director, Social Protection Department, International Labour Organization, Geneva. She is also leading ILO’s Flagship programme on building social protection floors for all. Ms. Schmitt holds a Master of Advanced Studies in quantitative economics from Paris Sciences Economiques (Laboratoire du Delta) and a Master of Business Administration with honours from HEC. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Paris IV – La Sorbonne. Ms. Schmitt joined the ILO in 2003. She has 25 years of progressively responsible professional experience in the field of social protection, combining both headquarters and field experience in various types of organizations: ILO headquarters, ILO in Africa and Asia, consulting groups in France, and an NGO in West Africa.

Jean-François Klein is Senior Administrator at the Employment Policy Department of the ILO where he looks after the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for just Transitions. He started his career in the NGOs sector in the Balkans, worked as employment advisor in the Swiss public administration and spent several years at UNFPA in field assignments. He joined the ILO in 2007 as Chief of Programme at the Regional Office for the Arab States in Beirut, where he developed his expertise for employment in fragile situations and crisis affected countries. His substantial experience includes employment policies, programme development and management, resource mobilization, evaluation, development financing and training. He holds a Master of Arts from the University of Geneva.

David Stewart began his career at the Global Human Development Report of UNDP where he spent 6 years working on the Human Development Reports and indices and researched, wrote and presented Reports on Human Rights, Democracy, the Millennium Development Goals, New Technologies, Cultural Freedom and Development Assistance. Between 2005 and 2010 he worked with UNICEF in New York working initially on State of the World’s Children, and subsequently led the organisation’s work on Policy Advocacy. David spent 4 years as Chief of Social Policy and Evaluation for UNICEF Uganda where he has worked on a range of social policy issues including child poverty, social protection, and public finance for children. He is currently the Chief of the Child Poverty and Social Protection Section for UNICEF in New York, where he works on measurement, technical support to country and regional offices and global advocacy in the areas of social protection and child poverty. He co-chairs the Global Coalition to End Child Poverty, and holds a degree in Economics from the University of Sussex and a Masters in Development Economics from the University of Oxford.

Watch the recording of the webinar