Working Out of Poverty:
A Decent Work Approach to Development and the MDGs
A High-Level Forum
22 September 2008
UN Millennium Plaza Hotel, New York
Background Note
The International Labour Office (ILO) and Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative (RR/EGI) are co-convening this High Level Forum in order to strengthen commitment to the Decent Work Agenda during the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, particularly within the High Level Meeting on Africa’s Development Needs and Challenges, and at the High Level Event on the MDGs. 1
Realizing Rights President Mary Robinson, ILO Director General Juan Somavia, and SEWA Founder and Elder Ela Bhatt will join with Presidents and Ministers, international organizations, workers and employers associations, companies and civil society organizations, to build the political will, multi-stakeholder dialogue and technical support that can create innovative employment and decent work policies and programmes needed to achieve development and poverty reduction outcomes that are sustainable and inclusive.
The High Level Forum will draw on the outcomes of two related events convened in the preceding weeks, one in Liberia on a Decent Work approach to growth and development in Africa, and the other in Oslo on policy coherence for social justice and a fair globalization. The discussion in New York will be of special importance in light of the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization that was adopted at the June 2008 session of the International Labour Conference2.
At the 2005 United Nations World Summit, Heads of State and Government resolved to make the goal of “full and productive employment and decent work for all” a central policy objective at national and international levels - a goal which has since been introduced as a new target in meeting MDG 1 on halving poverty and hunger. This goal is all the more urgent given newly revised estimates suggesting that the developing world outside China will not meet the MDGs by 2015 without achieving higher rates of poverty reduction.3 This calls for a thorough rethink and a change in policy direction which the Forum will address.
The strategic goals articulated in the Decent Work approach to development spearheaded by the International Labour Organization (ILO) are a main component of the human rights imperatives enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which marks its 60th anniversary in 20084. Decent Work emphasizes the need to promote employment for all, but not any kind of employment. People need jobs and livelihoods that offer just remuneration, ensure that their basic rights at work are respected, including the right to organize and collective bargaining, provide for basic levels of social protection, including against injury and ill-health, and encompass the organizational capacity to negotiate and participate in workplace and work-related policies through social dialogue. This approach is needed now more than ever because of the challenges facing poor working people due to the food crisis, environmental pressures, and other trends beyond their control.
Issues to be discussed at the Forum include:
Decent Work for a Fair Globalization – What new strategies are needed to make global trade and financial policies more consistent with full and productive employment and decent work objectives?
Coherent policies for employment and economic growth – How can employment and decent work objectives be mainstreamed across ministerial portfolios and among international partners to ensure that growth is not “jobless”?
Support to sustainable enterprises – What lessons can be drawn from existing efforts to improve the business environment in poor countries? How can producers in the informal economy be more effectively supported?
Gender equality and Decent Work - What are specific strategies to ensure gender-sensitive analysis and implementation that support working women within decent work programmes?
Economic growth and employment-intensive investment approaches - How can synergies between labour-intensive methods, local enterprise development and institutional strengthening create more inclusive and sustainable patterns of post-conflict reconstruction and economic development5?
Sustainable agricultural livelihoods and decent work - How can the Decent Work Agenda be adapted to the special conditions and needs of smallholders, farm workers and subsistence farmers who constitute the overwhelming majority of the working population in Africa?
Social protection and social safety nets – What mechanisms should be put in place to reduce vulnerabilities due to ill-health, injury, job loss, old age and high food prices?
Improved labour market governance and social dialogue - How can the capacities within government and social partners be strengthened to engage more effectively in social dialogue? What more can be done to ensure that the commitments made in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work are respected?
The High Level Forum is an official side event to the High Level Event on the MDGs being convened by the United Nations on September 25th. It also contributes to the Every Human Has Rights Campaign of The Elders to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights during 2008.
The highlights of presentations and discussions during the Forum will be summarized and included in the official documentation contributed to the High Level Event on the MDGs. The Forum convenors will track commitments and partnerships that arise during the meeting for follow up later in 2008 and beyond. The Forum is also expected to provide inputs to other relevant processes and events such as the Doha Financing for Development Review Conference.
1 UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on Africa's Development Needs and Challenges, 22 September 2008, New York, and a High Level Event on the MDGs co-convened by the UN Secretary-General and the President of the UN General Assembly on 25 September 2008, New York.
2 ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, International labour Conference, June 2008.
3 Chen and Ravallion, “The Developing World Is Poorer Than We Thought, But No Less Successful in the Fight against Poverty”, Policy Research Working Paper 4703, World Bank August 2008. The new estimates do not take into account the effects of the recent sharp increase in the prices of food and fuel.
4 Article 23 of UDHR states that:
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
5 This is underlined in the UN system-wide policy to deal with crises and post conflict situations: UN Policy Paper for “Employment Creation, Income Generation and Reintegration in Post-Conflict Settings”, May 2008.
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