Working Paper No. 8 - Poverty initiatives in the ILO: a review of past and present approaches

This paper provides an overview of the International Labour Organization's efforts in poverty reduction through its Decent Work Agenda. It emphasizes the important role decent work plays in poverty reduction when applying the appropriate policies, which contributes to the Millennium Development Goals overall. The ILO promotes policies that involve participation, inclusion, and obligations that can create productive work and employment. Suggestions include the shift from small-scale projects to more coordinated and coherent policy and programming efforts, which can be obtained through more national and international cooperation. With a worldwide concern in poverty reduction, the ILO is urged to act more actively in relation to this cause by providing data and evidence showing how decent work contributes to poverty reduction, illustrating more clearly the role of the different ILO sectors, having the technical staff become more competent with development related skills, and finally continue advocating and training constituents to deal with issues concerning poverty reduction.