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Tackling the "decent work deficit"

Government leaders, heads of international agencies and senior experts in economic and employment issues meet here on 3-5 July to highlight proposals for cutting poverty and providing new hope to the world's working poor. The meeting of the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) will focus on promoting decent work as the sustainable route out of poverty.

Article | 06 July 2006

GENEVA (ILO Online) - The meeting marks a watershed in the international efforts to find solutions to a growing "decent work deficit".

That prevents some 1.4 billion people from earning enough to lift their families above the $2 a day line and traps hundreds of millions more - including significant numbers of youth - in unemployment.

The high-level gathering includes leaders from the World Bank, IMF, WTO and the UN, including the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the ILO. Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will also address the gathering.

The meeting marks the first major international gathering to act on the recommendation of some 150 heads of and state who declared at the 2005 UN World Summit that they "strongly support a fair globalization and resolve to make the goals of full and productive employment and decent work for all, including for women and young people, a central objective of our national and international macro-economic policies as well as poverty reduction strategies".

ECOSOC coordinates the work of the 14 UN specialized agencies, 10 functional commissions and five regional commissions, receives reports from ten UN funds and programmes and issues policy recommendations to the UN system and to Member States. The 54 member Council meets every year, alternating between New York and Geneva. The President of this year's Council is Ambassador Ali Hachani of Tunisia.

Here is background information and detail on decent work:

What is decent work?

The goal of the ILO is to "promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity." Decent work is a strategic goal for development that acknowledges the central role of work in people's lives. This includes work that is productive and delivers a fair income; provides security in the workplace and social protection for families; and offers better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom to express concerns, opportunities to organize and participate in decision-making, and equal opportunity and treatment for all women and men.

According to the ILO, decent work is central to efforts to reduce poverty, and is a means for achieving equitable, inclusive and sustainable development.

The Decent Work Agenda is a practical agenda rooted in the real world and founded on the understanding that work is a source of personal dignity, family stability, peace in the community, democracies that deliver for people, and economic growth that expands opportunities for productive jobs and enterprise development. It is an integrated approach that makes connections among different policy areas.

(For a more extensive discussion on decent work and what it is, see feature Q and A " Making decent work a global goal" and ILO fact sheet " Facts on decent work".)

Decent work "deficits"

Decent Work deficits take the form of unemployment and underemployment, poor quality and unproductive jobs, unsafe work and insecure income, rights that are denied and gender inequality. Many migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, lack representation and voice, and inadequate protection from income loss during sickness, disability and old age.

Some indicators of decent work deficits include:

  • Half of the world's workers are unable to lift themselves and their families above the US$2 per day per person poverty line.
  • Much of the world has a significant "gender gap" in both quantity and quality of employment.
  • Women are more likely than men to work in the informal economy, with little or no social protection and a high degree of insecurity.
  • There are over 88 million unemployed youth (aged 15 to 24) around the world, comprising nearly half of the world's total unemployment, though this age group makes up only 25 per cent of the working age population.
  • Labour migration is on the rise. There are more than 86 million migrant workers in the world, 34 million of them in developing regions.
  • Global economic growth is increasingly failing to translate into new and better jobs that would lead to a reduction in poverty.

Making decent work a global goal and a national reality

The overall goal of decent work is to effect positive change in people's lives at the national and local levels. The ILO provides support through integrated decent work country programmes developed in coordination with ILO constituents. They define the priorities and targets within national development frameworks and aim to tackle major decent work deficits through efficient programmes that embrace each of the strategic objectives.

(For a background story on decent work country programmes, see feature " How country programmes help forge a path out of poverty".)

The ILO works with other partners within and beyond the UN family to provide in-depth expertise and key policy instruments for the design and implementation of these programmes. It also provides support for building the institutions needed to carry them forward and for measuring progress. The balance within these programmes differs from country to country, reflecting their needs, resources and priorities.

Progress also requires action at the global level. The Decent Work Agenda offers a basis for a more just and stable framework for global development. The ILO works to develop decent work-oriented approaches to economic and social policy in partnership with the principal institutions and actors of the multilateral system and the global economy.

The Decent Work Agenda

Putting the Decent Work Agenda into practice is achieved through the implementation of its four strategic objectives with gender equality as a crosscutting objective.

  • Creating Jobs - an economy that generates opportunities for investment, entrepreneurship, job creation and sustainable livelihoods.
  • Guaranteeing rights at work - obtain recognition and respect for the rights of workers. All workers, and in particular disadvantaged or poor workers need representation, participation, and good laws that are enforced and work for, not against, their interests.
  • Providing basic social protection - marginalization and poverty mean that those most in need do not have minimum protection against low or declining standards of living.
  • Promoting dialogue and conflict resolution - people in poverty understand the need to negotiate and know dialogue is the way to solve problems peacefully. Social dialogue, involving strong and independent worker's and employers' organizations, is central to increasing productivity and avoiding disputes at work, and to building cohesive societies.