Promoting rural jobs to reduce poverty - an interview with Michael Henriques

With three quarters of the world's poor living in rural areas, strategies to promote rural jobs are key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty and hunger by 50 per cent before the year 2015. 'Rural labour markets have changed,' says Michael Henriques, Director of the ILO's Job Creation and Enterprise Development Department in an interview with ILO TV. 'Globalization has had a major impact on the conditions of rural areas. The benefits of globalization are not spread equally.' Delegates at the 97th International Labour Conference will discuss the promotion of rural employment for poverty reduction and produce a plan of action for the ILO to implement.