ILO Director-General Juan Somavia, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christina LaGarde and others of the world's multilateral and regional institutions came together in January to issue a full-page "call to action" in Financial Times with the shared objective of “strengthening growth, employment and quality of life in every part of the world.”

The authors, collectively known as the Global Issues Group, noted they are worried about lagging economic growth, high unemployment—especially among youth, and the potential of governments adopting austerity measures to counter the global economic situation.

The statement was released shortly before the World Economic Forum’s 2012 meeting in Davos from January 25-29, and called on leaders to “devote the necessary political energy to deliver concrete actions to exit the crisis and boost growth”. It also detailed both short- and long-term recommendations designed to encourage growth and job creation worldwide. Among the main themes of the recommendations, the ILO Director-General Somavia is particularly passionate about addressing world youth unemployment issues—the problem having been declared a major focus of the ILO in 2012 and to be heavily discussed in the International Labor Conference in June.

The statement also calls for the following:

Short-term

• Restoring confidence in financial institutions
• Stemming financial contagion and stabilizing fiscal frameworks in Europe
• Managing fiscal consolidation to promote prospects for growth and employment
• Pursuing public-private partnerships to help countries finance investments without adding to future deficits

Medium to Long-Term

• Support open markets for trade and investment
• Tackle high levels of unemployment
• Enable green growth
• Support reforms to unleash growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
• Protect the most vulnerable

To read the full call to action, which includes methods to achieve the above goals, visit http://www.weforum.org/content/pages/call-action.