Programme and budget

The Programme and Budget of the ILO, which sets out the strategic objectives and expected outcomes for the Organization’s work in the biennium, is approved every two years by the International Labour Conference.

The Programme and Budget establishes both a programme of work and a budget based on the priorities identified in the Strategic Plan. It describes what the ILO is expected to do and achieve within a specific biennium, specifies the strategies to achieve measurable results alongside the capacities and the resources required to deliver those results, and authorizes the relevant regular budget expenditure. The ILO’s biennial programme of work is delivered in member States mainly through Decent Work Country Programmes (DWCPs), aligned with national development plans and UN planning frameworks. 

The results and achievements of the ILO are financed through three main funding sources:  

• the Regular Budget, funded from assessed contributions by member States, based on the scale of assessments of the United Nations;
• the Regular Budget Supplementary Account, funded by voluntary core contributions from key resource partners that provide fully unearmarked resources; and
• Extra-Budgetary Technical Cooperation resources, funded by voluntary non-core contributions from over 100 different resource partners, including public and private organizations, IFIs and UN entities, in support of specific projects.

The close integration of the different budgetary resources available to the ILO to deliver an integrated results framework is central to its strategy to deliver successfully on priorities in countries, regionally and globally through outcome-based workplans.