ECONOMIES SHOULD BE GEARED TOWARDS PEOPLE’S WELL-BEING, NOT VICE VERSA, BRUSSELS CONFERENCE TOLD, DURING THEMATIC SESSION ON EMPLOYMENT

Third UN Conference on LDCs
18 May 2001



BRUSSELS, 18 May -- Economies should be geared towards the well-being of people, and not vice versa, the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries was told this afternoon, as it held a thematic session on “Human Resources Development and Employment”.

One of the session’s keynote speakers, Mamounata Cissé, Assistant Secretary-General, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, said that structural adjustment programmes too often threatened social protection, with little respect for the people. Also, with the liberalization of the world market, governments did not hesitate to question basic labour rights. Working conditions in factories were more like cattle pens, in some cases, and workers in many countries were unable to organize. While in favour of job creation, she opposed the policies adopted in many countries.

The theme of the afternoon session was on the role of human resources development and employment in stimulating growth and reducing poverty in the least developed countries (LDCs). Debate focused on three issues: the role of human resources development for accelerating economic growth, enhancing competitiveness and empowering the poor; the role of employment creation in poverty reduction; and the role of securing decent jobs for women and men in the overall development of LDC economies.

S. Radwan, International Labour Office (ILO), introduced eight ILO “deliverables” to the LDCs, which were also presented in an issues paper circulated to the Conference. The programmes concern: job creation; local development and international trade development; micro-health insurance; re-insurance for community-funded health insurance schemes; minimum income for school attendance; integrating ILO’s “Decent Work” agenda into poverty-reduction strategies; combating HIV/AIDS in the workplace; and the eradication of the worst forms of child labour.

Most of the 27 speakers who participated the session’s interactive debate agreed that by providing jobs, countries could improve living conditions and find a way out of the vicious circle of poverty. Sharing their national experiences, speakers also expressed support for the ILO employment-generation programme and the deliverables introduced today. Some said that employment should have a more prominent place in the Conference’s plan of action, and that the LDCs should not underestimate the issues of equal remuneration and equitable wages. Also high on the agenda were training programmes and the issue of child labour.

Charles Josselin, Minister of Development Cooperation of France, and a co-Chair, said today’s meeting was characterized by the acute necessity of making essential investments in human resources. The role of the State needed to be reinstated in that respect, as did social dialogue, to ensure that major socio-economic choices could be sustained in the long term. The role of the State must go beyond the political. The industrial countries must also start to think beyond market shares and shortfalls.

Also co-chairing this afternoon’s session was Girma Birru, Minister of Economic Development and Cooperation, Ethiopia .

François Trémeaud, Executive Director, International Labour Office, presented an issue paper by his organization, while other keynote speakers were Zéphirin Diabré, Associate Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Youssoufa Wade, President of Employers National Council of Senegal.

The Conference will meet again tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. to hold an interactive thematic session on “Infrastructure Development”.



Thematic Session

Issues Paper

A paper issued today for the session by the International Labour Office (ILO), entitled Decent Work for Poverty Reduction: An Agenda for Development in the Least Developing Countries, views employment creation as key to the reduction of poverty and states that the primary goal of the Office is the promotion of opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. That “decent work” agenda was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly when it conducted a five-year review of the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995).

Decent work provides an integrated perspective to employment-intensive growth as the most effective way of making a significant impact on poverty reduction, the paper states. At work, it allows safety and health, social protection and fundamental rights. “Poverty is about income, but it is also about rights and capabilities”, it states. Tackling poverty requires a coherent approach shared by least developed countries (LDCs), the multilateral system and the donor community. The failure of many development efforts must be assessed in terms of the failure to adopt such an integrated approach to the problems of people in poverty.

In separate chapters, the paper goes on to describe the nature of the poverty problem in the LDCs, some of their special employment characteristics, the role of decent work for poverty reduction, successes and failures in poverty reduction, employment policies for poverty reduction and, finally, “The Role of the ILO: Decent work as a Development Agenda”.

An accompanying paper, entitled ILO Deliverables, has also been circulated. It describes proposals for action in the categories of human resources development and employment, social protection, social dialogue and vulnerable groups. The first category, for example, contains a national job creation programme for selected LDCs, and programme for local economic development and international trade development in Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe. Under the second category, among others, is a micro-health insurance programme for some 30 LDCs in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

Opening Statements

CHARLES JOSSELIN, Minister of Development Cooperation of France, said that according to a sixteenth century French saying, “the only wealth was man”. In that light, the current session on human resource development was fitting. The main element that allowed hope to be sustained in the world was human beings. Therefore, investments in basic education or health care could not be postponed, since there was no second chance.

He said the consequences of the tragic lack of investment in human capital in the 1980S and 1990s would be felt well into the current century and evidenced in stunted growth, deterioration and loss -- common features of LDCs. Investment in humans was long term and arduous. It went beyond the financial potential of LDCs and demanded a sustained effort. It was a thankless but noble task that would benefit society, even though the resources to address it were scant and even though there seemed to be more obviously urgent needs. There were always many questions raised on that type of investment, simply because the benefits were not immediate or apparent. Teacher training, for example, was expensive and one area of public spending where cuts came first and frequently.

He said that only official development assistance (ODA) over the long term would help investment in human capital. Was there anything new today that might bring about greater public support and opinion change, when so many had turned their backs on the issue? he asked. Today’s meeting was characterized by the acute necessity of making essential investments in human resources. There was need for reassertion of the role of the State in that respect, and of reinstating social dialogue to ensure that major socio-economic choices could be sustained in the long term. The role of the State, he asserted, must go beyond the political. Success was possible if the industrial countries started to think beyond the acquisition of market shares and shortfalls.

GIRMA BIRRU, Minister of Economic Development and Cooperation of Ethiopia, said that consistent with various global initiatives in the 1990s, the Conference was expressing solidarity with poor people worldwide. Poverty, as the World Bank had put it in its 2000 report, was a pronounced deprivation in well-being. The ultimate goal of poverty eradication was to allow people to live long, healthy and creative lives.

Human resources development and employment stood as the most powerful instrument for sustained growth and development, he continued. It was becoming a widely recognized conventional wisdom that successes in the globalization process depended on the ability to build a knowledge-based economy. Despite the rhetoric that globalization provided an opportunity to raise income through increased specialization and trade, the income gap between the poor and the rich was widening. Any anti-poverty strategy should take into account the characteristics of the LDCs and reverse the sluggish growth of their economies, improving their human resources. Growth should be employment-intensive.

Many in the LDCs were employed in agriculture and in the informal economy, he said. The employment strategy should aim at improving the productivity and creating a decent work atmosphere. The first priority should be the expansion of employment itself. Skill development must be viewed as a dynamic process that required continuous updating of the investment. The potential assets of the LDCs’ women, men and children, as both agents and beneficiaries of development, must be fully realized. To that end, the LDCs and their development partners should work together for the realization of various human resources development and employment goals, and leading international institutions, including the ILO, should augment the LDCs’ effort in harmonizing poverty-reduction strategies and human development and employment programmes.

RUBENS RICUPERO, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said the session should be interactive, leading to practical solutions, not repetitions of general policy. “We need something tangible and concrete to present to audiences and LDCs”, he said. One example of that was the ILO deliverable -- minimum pay for school attendance. Developed by Brazil, that gets children who were breadwinners to go back to school instead, while paying the families a minimum salary as an incentive to keep them in school.

Mr. Josselin said the ILO had developed important concepts such as the need to promote decent work. The whole concept was to look at work holistically -- through the lens of employment, quality, satisfaction, and working time. Decent employment would assume that workers would also have a say in the conditions in which they worked.

FRANÇOIS TREMEAUD, Executive Director of the ILO, presenting the ILO issues paper, said that human resources and employment were the key issues of concern to his organization, and human resources were the main capital available to the LDCs. In reality, however, with the problems of poverty, they were often a handicap. In that respect, it was necessary to ask how to reduce the handicap.

The LDCs were experiencing rapid population growth, and families had to support a large number of children, he continued. As a result, there were problems of child labour, disease and poverty. The majority of the population was occupied in low-salaried work under terrible conditions, working up to 18 hours a day just to feed their families. To cut poverty by half by 2015, an enormous growth of revenues would be required. To improve the situation, a number of measures were needed. First the legal, economic and social situation must be improved. Respect for fundamental human rights, social protection and social dialogue were also needed. It was also important to ensure peace, good governance, access to markets and elimination of debt.

For its part, the ILO could provide assistance to governments in developing economic policies to encourage employment, he said. Among the measures that could be taken here: providing access to land; improving infrastructure; education; and giving preference to intensive work methods. The experience in Cambodia, for example, showed positive results with creation of infrastructure, maximized use of local labour and people’s involvement in decision-making. The LDCs deserved financing, for they had high capabilities and a great potential. The ILO “decent work as a development agenda” includes measures to strengthen national capacity, design decent work strategies, harness migration as a force for poverty reduction, and create partnerships for social progress.

Keynote Speakers

ZÉPHIRIN DIABRÉ, Associate Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said the challenges of overcoming human poverty through decent work and economic growth were formidable in the LDCs. The issues paper had presented an impressive list of strategies and recommendations. First, the phenomena of jobless growth or growthless jobs must be avoided, as neither of them contributed to poverty reduction. A high growth rate did not automatically translate into higher employment -- resulting in jobless growth. Similarly, jobs were often created only for the sake of employment. That was a scenario of growthless jobs, but without any potential for generating or sustaining economic growth. Thus, both the nature of growth and the characteristics of employment needed to be carefully examined.

A growth process that benefited poor people must be pursued, he continued. “Pro-poor” growth would require greater access by poor people to basic public social services. Also, employment generation and poverty reduction were too large a risk to be left to one development actor. They required an alliance among major actors, the government, the private sector, civil society and international development partners. In addition, the diversities among the LDCs must be recognized and taken into account in policy formulation, institution-building and their implementation.

MAMOUNATA CISSÉ, Assistant Secretary-General, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), said that the economy should be geared towards the well-being of people, and not vice-versa. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural adjustment programmes were all to often a threat to social protection, and the people’s wishes were not respected. Communities and workers were impotent and unable to understand the situation. With the liberalization of the world market, governments did not hesitate to put basic labour rights in question. Working conditions in factories were more like cattle pens, in some cases, and workers in many countries were unable to organize.

While in favour of job creation, she opposed the policies adopted in many countries. Implementing sustainable development objectives depended on the respect of ILO health and safety standards for worker protection, she said. Experiments in the field had demonstrated it was possible to create work without jeopardizing workers’ rights. Presenting the example of Burkina Faso, she said that in the 1990s projects for job creation had been introduced in that country. The idea was to create jobs for women and young people in the informal economy. Several cooperatives had been set up, including those in embroidery and making bread. A support fund provided loans to members under favourable conditions.

Returning to general labour problems, she said that the role of workers and their trade unions was decisive in establishing decent working conditions. The establishment of micro-projects for insurance and health should be encouraged. Consultation with the World Bank and the IMF was also required in order to avoid the negative consequences of restructuring programmes. However, creation of jobs at any cost could not be supported.

YOUSSOUFA WADE, President, Employers’ National Council of Senegal, said educational training in the LDCs was a decisive factor for development and fighting poverty. That was why many developing countries devoted many of their scant resources to education. The scant nature of resources was further enforced by the brain drain to the North. Today’s world, characterized by globalization and rapid technological changes, meant that LDCs had to draw up better strategies to make sure that they were integrated into the international arena.

What could firms and employers do to counter the scourge of unemployment, underemployment and poverty? he asked. It was imperative for all to ensure that everyone had access to decent work with dignity and acceptable remuneration. Unemployment would not be resolved by either reducing production, which was the core of the economy, or hampering investment. Employment and investment dovetailed and complemented each other. The task today should involve action to adopt a framework to reconcile the changes in the world, job creation and better lives. In addition, it should be noted that training was not only a tool for generating skills and crafts, but also for building businesses.

Announcement of ‘Deliverables’

S. RADMAN, ILO, stressed the need to avoid providing recipes for the poor that did nothing for them. What had emerged this afternoon, he said, was the agreement that within the LDCs there were low per capita growth rates, low levels of skills endowment, low competitiveness in international markets and weak institutions.

In light of that, he said the ILO had come up with eight deliverables, divided into four categories. The first deliverable, which addressed human resources development and employment, aimed to provide a methodology for job creation for the poor. The second deliverable was directed at the Portuguese-speaking countries, to be executed jointly by the ILO and UNCTAD, and proposed to contribute to poverty alleviation and economic development through a combination of local economic development and training for international trade.

He said that under social protection there were three deliverables. The first would support micro-health insurance. The second would provide re-insurance for community-funded health insurance schemes. The third would provide minimum income for school attendance, as mentioned by Mr. Ricupero in his opening remarks. Under social dialogue, the overall goal would be to ensure that employment and the Decent Work Agenda were integrated into the national poverty-reduction strategies of participating countries.

Turning to vulnerable groups, he said there were two final deliverables. The first addressed the eradication of child labour (under ILO Convention 182) in a gradual way, starting with the most hazardous types of child labour. The second addressed victims of HIV/AIDS. It would target the work place and try to introduce a methodology there that both prevented infection and discrimination against those who were suffering from the disease. A code of conduct would be applied to support those efforts.

Interactive Dialogue

“Employment is the crux of social cohesion”, a speaker said, reading from a brochure. Were countries poor because they were unstable, or were they unstable because they were poor? That was a question for sociologists to ponder. His country was trying to overcome poverty, conflict and underdevelopment, and it required assistance in stabilizing the situation and improving working and living conditions.

Another speaker pointed out that large-scale migration meant that LDCs were losing their human capacities. Africa had lost to developed countries up to one third of its managers between 1960 and 1987. Migrants were a potential source of development, however. If regulated, migration could help the LDCs take advantage of people’s skills and knowledge. It could also help to fill labour market gaps.

It was pointed out that strengthening training capacities in the LDCs was a priority for several international organizations, and relevant programmes were being implemented in many areas. Least developed countries were ready to commit to an international partnership. A speaker suggested that the most effective way would be for international agencies to help LDCs create jobs in an integrated manner, for example, by implementing various ILO programmes in the same country simultaneously -- “in a single package”.

Poverty was a global phenomenon, a speaker said, and strict measures were needed to eradicate it. By providing jobs, countries could reduce poverty; and by reducing poverty, they could reduce unemployment. The fundamental labour standards and freedoms should be respected in such a process. Least developed countries needed support to increase productivity, while ensuring access to education and health services.

Also, support was expressed for the ILO employment generation programme and the deliverables introduced today. Several countries shared their national experiences and expressed their particular concerns. Speakers supported education programmes to reduce child labour and allow children to go to school by providing minimal income to families, as had been done in Brazil.

Employment should have a more prominent place in the Conference’s plan of action, a speaker said. Measures should be taken to guarantee decent jobs for all. The LDCs should not underestimate the issues of equal remuneration and equitable wages. Programmes for LDCs needed to respect social culture, they needed to be authentic, and they should involve participation from all levels of society. The role of the State was also underscored in creating jobs, promoting social dialogue and ensuring that social rights were extended to the workers.

A common theme was the need to enhance production capacity and create jobs, a delegate observed, adding that industrial relations needed to be fostered to achieve those goals. For better results, it was important to share best practices and experiences, and the ILO had a major role in that respect. Also highlighted in the discussion were the issues of: workers’ health; work accidents; small-scale health insurance schemes; the effective use of mining and agricultural capabilities to create jobs; the role of trade unions; the problems of rural population; and the role of local banks in providing credit.

In his closing remarks, Mr. BIRRU said that many speakers had transmitted powerful messages, which, he hoped, would be incorporated in the outcome document.

Also in closing, Mr. JOSSELIN said that, apart from panellists, 27 speakers had participated in the debate. A few points should be targeted, including training in commercial and social negotiations. A global vision was needed when talking about employment. The deliverables suggested by the ILO had found support from many speakers, and it would be important to put them into practice. Also, at the root of concern was the question of child labour. Human rights and development went hand in hand.




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