A from a summary of the historical construction process and the criticism of the modern concept of development, as disseminated in the field of international cooperation, the article seeks to reflect on how the assumptions of critical post-developmental and decolonial thinking can apply to the work of the International Labour Organisation, in particular as regards the promotion of decent work – conception based on theory and aspirations that are strongly linked to the current notion of sustainable development – to then address the following problem: is the design of Decent Work susceptible to decolonial ownership? The positive response is the result of a theoretical exploratory study, with propositive points, built using a methodological procedure for qualitative literature analysis.