Global Jobs Pact:
Way out of global recession
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark
said the ILO Global Jobs Pact "paves the way" for countries seeking a
"fair and just" way out of the global recession.
"It is not simply that we need to create millions of jobs each year
to keep pace with growth in the world's labour force," Ms. Clark told
the ILO's Governing Body meeting. "To have a chance of achieving the
first MDG (Millennium Development Goal) of halving extreme poverty and
hunger by 2015 in many countries, significantly more and better jobs
will need to be created", she said.
"For nations seeking to emerge from the recession in a way which is
fair and just, the Global Jobs Pact paves the way", she said.
Clark was addressing the "Working Party on the Social Dimension of
Globalization (WP/SDG) of the ILO Governing Body, which is considering
ways to recover and sustain growth and development, as well as analyzing
the contribution of the Global Jobs Pact adopted by ILO member States
during the International Labour Conference last year.
Earlier in the day, Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) President Dr.
Compton Bourne addressed the Working Party on the impact of the global
economic crisis on developing economies and the role of multilateral
development banks.
Clark said the recent decision of the UNDP Executive Board to
integrate the Global Jobs Pact into that organization's operational
activities in collaboration with the ILO was part of the UNDP's efforts
to "maintain traction on the MDGs in tough times."
ILO Director-General said, "We believe we could do more to get full
value out of this articulated approach if the UNDP and the ILO work even
more closely together".
Clark cited several joint UNDP-ILO initiatives, including the
promotion of sustainable employment in Bulgaria and Egypt, and support
to young unemployed workers in Bosnia, Costa Rica and Sudan.
Looking ahead, Clark said there were four areas were UNDP could step
up collaboration with the ILO, including opportunities created by the
recently adopted UN policy regarding post-conflict countries on
employment creation, income generation and reintegration; climate
change; increasing the knowledge base on the employment impacts of
policies and programmes; and work on the Global Social Protection Floor
initiative.
In his comments to the WP/SDG, Dr. Bourne said the global economic
crisis had affected developing countries through four main channels:
foreign trade, foreign direct investment, foreign financial capital
flows and migrant remittances. He said in the Caribbean sub-region
covered by the CDB the number of persons living below the national
poverty lines is around 6.8 million, of which approximately four million
are in Haiti.
"In such situations of high levels of poverty, crisis induced
unemployment and reductions in the flow of migrant remittances can
entail major material and social hardship", he said.
Dr. Bourne said that "Apart from its financial role, the CDB seeks to
lay a secure foundation for future employment and income by advocating
and helping to put in place fiscal and other financial economic policies
as well as regulatory, public administration and justice administration
frameworks conducive to private sector investment and development, and
to public trust and confidence in national governance systems". |