It is essential that social security institutions engaged in the design, delivery, promotion, advocacy and support of effective employment programmes include a broad range of institutional and individual stakeholders in the process. While they are often constrained through their respective legislative frameworks, this should not prevent them from seeking to improve access to employment and to obtain better retention or return-to-work outcomes by learning from a broad range of national and international experiences. Many social security institutions are succeeding in strategically influencing outcomes by influencing legislative structures within their jurisdictions.

This section deals with stakeholders, the legal and policy framework, and international professional standards and good practices in the domain of access to employment, worker retention, return to work after unemployment and sustainable employability.

In cooperation with various stakeholders, the competent institutions – which are managed in accordance with the ISSA Guidelines on Good Governance – assess the policies, programmes and services provided.

The specific guidelines in this section are:

• The stakeholders
• Legal and policy framework
• Learning from international best practices
• Cooperation and partnerships
• Assessing policies, programmes and services
• Encouraging accountability of stakeholders