Working out of poverty. Report 91 I (A)

The report analyses poverty in developing countries from the perspective of the lack of opportunities for decent work and social inclusion. Highlighting the barriers people living and working in poverty face in finding and keeping income generating activities that would allow them to earn a decent living, the report sets out a strategy for ensuring that employment is accorded higher priority in national and international efforts to realise the Millennium Development Goals. It details the ILO’s portfolio of community-based programmes for job creation and social inclusion. Addressing the challenge of scaling-up these activities, it calls for much greater attention to the governance of the labour market based on fundamental principles and rights at work. Stressing that rights are both an end and means of development, it emphasizes that the political, social and economic empowerment of people living in poverty is essential to raising income levels above the $2 a day level. 

As well as focusing on national actions it draws attention to the international poverty trap that locks many of the least developed countries, and thus the majority of their populations, into survival activities. Debt reduction, export market opening, improved aid, investment in the infrastructure for foreign direct investment are identified as key elements in creating an enabling environment for pro-jobs and pro-poor growth. The report concludes that the tripartite network of employers' and workers' organisations and governments represented by the ILO is an under used force for development and calls on the Organisation’s constituents to mount a major drive to promote decent work for all as a vital element in putting the world back on track for halving world poverty by 2015.