The Social Summit in Copenhagen put people and social development back on the political radar screen.

Five years later, how far have we come?

Basically, the notions of the Social Summit have permeated policy talk, have had some influence on policymaking and very little effect on policy action.

• It is now widely agreed that there must be a social pillar to the global economy.
  
• Poverty eradication has become a legitimate political objective.
  
• The critical role of social policy is generally accepted in international and national policy debates, including in the Bretton Woods institutions.
  
• Gender issues are becoming more prominent.

Yet, the benefits of the global economy have not reached enough people, and for many, there is greater inequality and insecurity. Poverty has risen in absolute terms. Central and Eastern Europe continue to suffer; Latin American unemployment grew in the 90's; East Asia has undergone great social trauma; and Africa continues to be largely excluded. Notwithstanding, personal responsibility, entrepreneurship and appropriate government policies have yielded some success stories.

• But still we listen to the voices that would have us believe that poverty is the fault of the poor, that exclusion is the responsibility of the excluded.
  
• The knowledge economy is creating enormous opportunities, but also growing fears of a digital divide.
  
• The State is often weaker, less able to intervene to support social goals.

So we have a growing gap between discourse and deeds. Why? Because those with the power to change policies have not done so.

What needs to change?

• We need to reassert solidarity. The north has become more inward looking because public opinion wants governments to concentrate on their own problems. The south has become more defensive because it sees conditionality growing. We need to reestablish a basic sense of common purpose and security for all: people, families, communities and countries.
  
• The real impact on people must become the driving factor in the design of economic policies.
  
• The private sector, more and more influential, must increasingly assume its social responsibilities. Beyond the bottom line, enterprise must be accountable to stakeholders and community.
  
• The State must perform its function of ensuring a balance between the force of the market and the needs of society. Yes to a market economy, no to a market society. We need to globalize social progress.

The Social Summit concluded that employment is the principal means to overcome poverty and exclusion. In the ILO we have expressed this goal as decent work.

Why decent work? Well, that's what people aspire to. It's not a straitjacket, a one-size fits all solution. On the contrary, it's a way of expressing the reasonable, diverse goals of individuals, cultures and societies in different development realities.

Some people have said to me "we need work, any type of work, let us worry about how decent it is later".

Yet, this is what we have been doing for the last 30 years with the result that informal and precarious work has grown worldwide and half of the world population lives in poverty. Neoliberal economic policies that underlie the present global economy have failed to deliver what people need: a basic sense of security.

That trickle-down approach is not working for too many. You end up with child labour, with discrimination, highly dangerous jobs, intolerable practices of all sorts and outright exploitation.

We need decent work for all workers, women and men, formal and informal, waged and self-employed. They all need work where basic rights are respected, people are protected and represented and where economic and social efficiency are pursued hand in hand. That's the real development goal.

To achieve decent work, the policies guiding and shaping the global economy must change. They must generate productive employment and greater personal opportunity since this is the key to poverty reduction and to economic and social inclusion for the millions who have been bypassed or hurt by globalization.

They must support an enabling environment for investment, initiative and enterprise, especially small ones, since enterprises will be the main engine of employment growth.

They must promote greater socioeconomic security and improved labour standards since this is what matters most to people. People want dignity in their lives.

This is why I congratulate you on your agreement to call for the elaboration of 'a coherent and coordinated international strategy on employment' as one of the further initiatives under Commitment 3.

These policies will lead to viable solutions. They are part of a challenge we are all facing, that of developing a new paradigm that harnesses the power of an integrated and coherent approach to economic, social and environmental policies.

To do so, we must strengthen the regulatory frameworks at the global level to tame the excesses of the market, to protect the basic rights of people and to realize the right to development of developing countries. From this perspective, the adoption of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in 1998 is a significant step forward since the Social Summit. Successfully realised, this Declaration will provide a badly needed social floor to the global economy.

We must also respect the self-empowerment of those that we now call the voiceless and vulnerable and support their struggles to attain social justice. Freedom of association and the right to collectively defend their interests are vital for building countervailing power. Yet, as seen in the ILO's recent global report on the subject, workers in many parts of the world are still denied the basic rights to organize.

These are not actions which any organization or state can take alone. They call for a new global coalition, bringing together around common values and goals the key actors in the new global environment: governments, business, representatives of workers, parliamentarians, local authorities, voices representative of civil society, the international system. Together they have the power to change policies. If all work in partnership the goals of the Social Summit can be reached.

But as the Prime Minister of Denmark reminded us this morning, above all, it is necessary for politics and political leadership to assume its responsibilities.

He told us: "But one thing is for sure: by themselves, the global forces leading to economic expansion and better standards of living are not sufficient to create a harmonious world community. Their contribution to the improvement of human conditions will remain limited to a few - individuals, social classes and countries - unless controlled and directed to the benefit of all by appropriate public authorities and institutions."

Assuming that responsibility is the challenge of Copenhagen +5.

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