ILO Online: There is a growing feeling worldwide
that the rich are becoming richer and the poor are
getting poorer. Do you share this view?
Juan Somavia: Nearly half of the
world's workers are unable to earn enough to
lift themselves and their family members above the
US$2 a day poverty line. This is roughly the same
total as in 1994 - but it now accounts for just
under half of the world's labour force,
compared to 57 per cent at that time. With the
exception of sub-Saharan Africa, all other
developing regions have seen a decline in the share
of working poverty in total employment. China and
its East Asian neighbours show the most dramatic
decline. This is welcome progress but, for example,
even if India's strong growth and poverty
reduction performance in 2000-2005 continues, it
will still take a century to catch up with
today's high income countries. On the other
hand, inequality within countries is increasing. Of
the 73 countries for which data are available, 53
representing more than 80 per cent of the
world's population have seen inequality rise,
while only nine have seen it narrow (
Note 1).
ILO Online: Is poverty only an issue in the
developing world?
Juan Somavia: No. The average poverty
rate, defined as less than half of median incomes,
for 20 OECD countries in 2000 was 10.6 per cent.
This is higher than the level in the mid-1990s when
the average was 10 per cent. Poverty rates were
above 15 per cent in Ireland, Japan, United States
and Turkey, and above 20 per cent in Mexico. Child
poverty was rising in the 1990s and progress in
reducing old-age poverty slowed.
ILO Online: Do increasing income inequalities go
hand in hand with rising wage inequalities?
Juan Somavia: Inequality has risen
dramatically in most transition economies and has
also grown sizeably in some Latin American
countries. The picture is mixed in Asia, where some
countries have managed to reduce income inequality;
but others, such as China and Sri Lanka, have
witnessed sharp increases. Gross earnings
inequality - measured over the employed population
- has increased on average in OECD countries, for
which data are available.
The widening dispersion of wages and concerns over poverty amongst more vulnerable workers has focused attention on minimum wage systems. A number of countries have made remarkable efforts to extend minimum wage protection to workers that were previously not covered. These include: South Africa's inclusion of domestic and farm workers in 2000-01; Bolivia's extension of the minimum wage to agricultural workers in 2005; and China's inclusion of domestic workers in 2003.
ILO Online: Still, many of the world's
poorest people live from subsistence farming. How
extensive is this sector and what can be done to
improve the situation?
Juan Somavia: With three-quarters of the
world's poorest people living in the rural
areas of developing countries, improved
productivity, incomes and working conditions in
farming are vital to development. Reducing extreme
poverty is thus to a large extent a question of
improving the earning power of agricultural workers
and small farmers, together with developing
non-farm employment opportunities in rural areas.
In addition to investment in infrastructure and
education, breaking rural poverty traps requires a
major effort to develop collective organizations of
workers and small farmers, such as cooperatives.
ILO Online: To what extent can social security
contribute to reducing poverty and inequality?
Juan Somavia: A number of developing
countries have in recent years introduced basic
pensions or child benefit schemes financed from the
general exchequer which are proving to be a
powerful means of combating poverty. Strong
evidence of positive experience comes from
countries as diverse as Brazil, Mauritius, Namibia,
Nepal and South Africa. Although these countries
show the way in combating poverty through social
security mechanisms, only one in five people in the
world has adequate social security coverage. The
other four need it too, but somehow must manage
without. This is why the ILO launched a
Global Campaign on Social Security and Coverage
for All to encourage the extension of social
security coverage as a means for combating poverty
and social exclusion.
ILO Online: What else can be done to reduce
poverty worldwide?
Juan Somavia: A major effort is needed
to improve productivity, earnings and working
conditions in order to reduce working poverty that
affects nearly half of all the workers in the
world. We live in a time of opportunity and
uncertainty in which some of the barriers that have
prevented women and men from fully realizing their
capabilities are coming down, but in which good
jobs that provide the foundation of security to
build better lives are increasingly difficult to
find. The need to reduce absolute poverty and
narrow income gaps is widely accepted in both
developed and developing countries as essential on
moral grounds, as well as a means to fight the
underlying causes of social, economic and political
instability. Elections in all parts of the world
are frequently won and lost on the issue of jobs.
ILO Online: How can we integrate the ILO's
Decent Work Agenda with strategies for poverty
reduction and a fair globalization?
Juan Somavia: Our organization has a
mandate to support governments, employers' and
workers' organizations in their efforts to
achieve the goal of decent work for all. And in a
world where the international influences on work
and labour markets are becoming ever stronger, the
ILO, through the engagement and commitment of its
constituents, could make an important difference to
the way the world of work changes in the future.
However, translating the goal of decent work for
all into practice requires a range of policies that
stretch beyond the main areas of expertise of the
ILO and its constituents. Decent work as a global
goal requires a concerted approach by the entire
multilateral system, with the ILO playing a major
role in facilitating the integration of the Decent
Work Agenda into strategies for poverty reduction
and a fair and inclusive globalization.
Note 1 - For more information, see Changing Patterns in the World of Work, Report of the Director-General to the International Labour Conference, 95th Session 2006, International Labour Office, Geneva, ISBN 92-2-116623-6; Working out of Poverty, Report of the Director-General to the International Labour Conference, 91st Session 2003, International Labour Office, Geneva, ISBN 92-2-112870-9. To order copies of these publications, please visit: www.ilo.org/publns.
Print
Email