Thinking Ahead
on Societal CHANGE
(TASC) Platform
Bringing the future into focus
This session summary of the Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour, held during Geneva Trade Week 2026 as part of the WTO Public Forum, compiles key insights, questions and proposals emerging from the discussion. The Dialogue explored how trade and labour can be brought into closer alignment in practice, from labour adjustment and policy coherence to implementation and institutional cooperation, while revisiting the historical relationship between the two.
Read on for an overview of the main areas of convergence, tension and opportunity shaping the trade and labour debate, and the questions that remain for effective cooperation in transition.
In her intervention to the Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour, held during Geneva Trade Week 2026 as part of the WTO Public Forum, Maria Mexi, PhD, Senior Advisor, Labour and Social Policy, TASC Platform, Geneva Graduate Institute, draws on two years of research to examine a central governance question: how can institutions keep pace with economic transformation so that transitions are just?
Read on as Maria Mexi examines what the research reveals about policy coherence, sequencing and the governance capacity needed to manage economic transformation.
In her intervention to the Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour, held during Geneva Trade Week 2026 as part of the WTO Public Forum, Charlotte Sieber-Gasser, PD Dr. iur., Senior Researcher in International Law, Geneva Graduate Institute draws on four years of research to examine a central question: how can trade agreements better anticipate and manage labour adjustment?
Read on as Charlotte Sieber-Gasser sets out seven findings on what it takes to bring labour adjustment more directly into the design of trade agreements.
In her intervention to the Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour, held during Geneva Trade Week 2026 as part of the WTO Public Forum, Desirée LeClercq, Associate Professor and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Centre at the University of Georgia School of Law, challenges the conventional history of trade “and” labour policy. Revisiting the Havana Charter, and the proposed International Trade Organization, she brings an often overlooked history back into view: labour was not conceived as separate from trade policy, but as part of the original trade architecture, with safeguards against protectionist abuse.
Read on as Désirée LeClercq traces how labour became separated from mainstream trade policy, and why recovering that history matters for today’s debate.
In her intervention to the Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour, held during Geneva Trade Week 2026 as part of the WTO Public Forum, Marva Corley-Coulibaly, Senior Economist at the International Labour Organization (ILO), examines the growing role of labour provisions in trade agreements. She looks beyond their inclusion on paper to the policies, institutions and stakeholder engagement needed to translate trade opportunities into better jobs and decent work.
Read on as Marva Corley-Coulibaly explores what it takes to turn labour commitments in trade agreements into meaningful outcomes in practice.
In his opening intervention to the Geneva Dialogue on Trade and Labour, held during Geneva Trade Week 2026 as part of the WTO Public Forum, Matthew Wilson, Ambassador to Austria, Italy & Switzerland; Permanent Representative of Barbados to the UN, WTO & other International Organisations in Geneva, examines the increasingly urgent relationship between trade and labour. He highlights tensions around competitiveness, labour standards and protectionism, and the need for greater coherence as the world of work changes.
Read on as Ambassador Wilson sets out the key questions shaping the evolving relationship between trade and labour at the multilateral level.
In this address to the 2026 Annual Forum of the Global Coalition for Social Justice, Marie-Laure Salles, Director of the Geneva Graduate Institute, reflects on academia’s role in connecting rigorous research with policy and collective action. As the Geneva Graduate Institute approaches its centenary and concludes two years as the academic representative on the Coalition’s Coordinating Group, she returns to its founding conviction that scholarship, education and international public action must reinforce one another in advancing peace and social justice.
Read on for Marie Laure Salles’s full address, or watch it here.
Ahead of the 2026 Annual Forum of the ILO’s Global Coalition for Social Justice, academic partners gathered virtually on 3 September 2026 for their second Academic Meeting.
Co-hosted by the Geneva Graduate Institute, University of Panama and Stellenbosch University, the exchange explored how research, regional engagement and academic collaboration can translate knowledge into action for social justice.
Read on for perspectives from academic partners and ILO regional leaders on putting this commitment into practice.
These event highlights capture key governance insights from the TASC Platform's dialogue Use at Your Own Risk? Integrating Developers into AI Governance, convened alongside the first UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance.
Dr Maria Mexi examines the ILO's first international labour standard on platform work, explaining how Convention No. 193 establishes a global framework for rights, governance, and accountability, and what successful implementation will require at national level.
In this personal reflection, Katherine Kamedde of Uganda's Central Organisation of Free Trade Unions (COFTU) explores how the adoption of the Platform Economy Convention and lessons from the International Labour Conference can help strengthen governance readiness for platform work and just transitions in Uganda.
In this commentary, Konstantinos Papadakis, Special Adviser at the ILO, explores why governance, institutional readiness, and social dialogue, not technology alone, determine whether green and digital transitions deliver fair and inclusive outcomes.
In this reflection, Yasmeen Chaudhry explores how the debate surrounding the next United Nations Secretary-General is prompting a broader conversation about leadership, governance, and institutional renewal at a time of profound change for the multilateral system.
How can just transitions be delivered in practice? This article presents TASC Platform’s new Policy Guide as a governance-readiness framework for identifying risks early, closing accountability gaps, and building more coherent, inclusive, and actionable transition planning.
A new paper by the UN Economist Network, led by Richard Samans and co-authored with Chafik Ben Rouin, Tasneem Mirza, Stuart Davies, Uma Rani, and Sara Castro de Hallgren, proposes moving beyond GDP through a Multidimensional Living Standards Index (MLSI) and a new headline measure, Gross National Sustainable Development (GNSD), integrating economic output with lived experience to better guide policy on inequality, AI, climate, and inclusive growth.
Maria Mexi examines whether the EU’s regulatory leadership can translate into real influence over how AI is designed—and who it ultimately benefits in the workplace.
In this reflection, Andreas Oeschger, Policy Advisor at SECO International Labour Affairs, synthesises the key takeaways from the CSocD64 side event on reconnecting economic policy with social development. His overview highlights how green and digital transition policies are reshaping economic governance and what it will take to ensure these shifts translate into decent work and inclusive growth.
Claudine Haenni, with support of the TASC Platform, GCSP, and the Asian Institute of Hospitality Management at Les Roches, explores how leadership development in uncertain times drives change. Highlighting how participative training and partnerships equip leaders in Myanmar to navigate complexity and contribute to global dialogue.
Oliver Hoehne, Deputy Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations in New York, reflects on how economic policy and social development have become increasingly intertwined in today’s global economy. Tracing the evolution of policy thinking from the Copenhagen Declaration to current debates, he highlights how tools such as tariffs, industrial policy, and sustainability standards are now shaping not only markets but also social outcomes—underscoring the need for economic strategies that deliberately support inclusive and resilient development.
Dr. Maria Mexi, Senior Advisor on Labour and Social Policy at the TASC Platform, explores how trade and economic policies intersect with labour outcomes in an era of digital and green transitions. Drawing on case studies from Kenya’s digital economy and Indonesia’s nickel value chain, she highlights the growing challenge of aligning economic transformation with labour governance, showing why policy coherence and effective implementation are essential to ensure that global transitions deliver decent work and inclusive development.
Jason Judd, Executive Director of the ILR Global Labor Institute at Cornell University, sets the scene for the dialogue by tracing how trade policy has evolved over three decades, from NAFTA’s loosely attached labour provisions to more integrated approaches such as USMCA and emerging due diligence frameworks. Framing this evolution as a long process of incubating, testing, and refining ideas, he asks a central question: are these new tools truly delivering better outcomes for workers and social development?
From Kenya’s digital economy, Kitrhona Cerri and Maria Mexi unpack how platforms, data, and algorithms are redefining industrial policy and the risks of falling into digital dependency.
