The International Labour Organization (ILO) is advancing technological transformation for labour inspectorates with the roll-out of the Labour Inspectorates and the Future of Technology (LIFT) tool, a cloud-based electronic case management system designed to replace paper-based planning, monitoring and reporting with fully digital workflows.
A core innovation of LIFT is its ability to link related enterprises across supply chains, extending oversight beyond individual worksites and helping labour inspectorates identify systemic compliance risks across the entire chain. As LIFT connects contractors, subcontractors and suppliers within a single digital database, allowing the inspectorate to classify economic units by size, sector, inspection history and other risk indicators, and to detect non-compliance patterns across different tiers of the supply chain.
Inspectors now have full oversight of the establishments in their regions.
Kingdom Mbuso M. Mamba, Acting Commissioner of Labour, Ministry of Labour and Social Security in Eswatini
In 2024-2025, Madagascar, Eswatini, Lesotho, Zambia and Zanzibar piloted the LIFT system to digitize inspection activities. This enabled the inspectorates to build their first ever digital and centralized repository of inspection and enterprise data covering more than 3,900 economic units across various sectors including construction, manufacturing and agriculture.
"The LIFT System has helped us to maintain a registry of all establishments in Eswatini, categorized according to their sectors, sizes and physical locations. Inspectors now have full oversight of the establishments in their regions, as locating enterprises operating across multiple areas has become easier. The system has significantly reduced the time previously spent searching for files in the registry when preparing for labour inspections, since all the information is now at our fingertips," said Mr. Kingdom Mbuso M. Mamba, the Acting Commissioner of Labour, Ministry of Labour and Social Security in Eswatini.
LIFTs rollout in Eswatini and Madagascar
The pilots are already generating valuable data on enterprise composition and their workforces, including the distribution of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and gender representation within economic units. In Eswatini and Madagascar, over 70 per cent of economic units registered in LIFT are micro or small enterprises, a segment often underrepresented in national inspection coverage.
The system additionally captured data demonstrating that women make up just 20 per cent of the workforce in micro and small enterprises but represent 60 per cent in large enterprises, often in manufacturing. These findings provide an evidence base for targeted policies to promote gender equality and decent work in supply chains.
As rollout progresses and data entry expands, labour inspectorates will be able to generate detailed labour inspection statistics in line with the ILO Guide on the Harmonization of Labour Inspection Statistics, including indicators on inspection coverage, detected violations, corrective actions and compliance trends across sectors and supply chains.
Next Steps
Building on the early results, discussions are under way to expand implementation in the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific and Africa in 2026-27. This expansion aims to further strengthen international labour inspection capacities, enhancing visibility in supply chains and advancing decent work globally.
