The ongoing challenge is to explore ways of incorporating these groups into current social protection schemes. This is a particularly sensitive area that has received little attention in the debate on social protection, in a region where formal sector employment is in short supply and there are many deep-seated problems in expanding it. This component of social protection encompasses a set of regulations and standards designed to promote and protect decent work, that is to say, work in conditions of freedom, social justice, security and human dignity (ILO, 2008d). This set of regulations includes those aimed at formalizing contractual relations, guaranteeing rights to form and join trade unions and to occupational safety, regulations and prohibitions on child and adolescent labour and regulations on employment and the minimum wage (World Bank, 2001b), as well as regulations to prevent discrimination at work, especially against women.