ILO and ESCWA bring together world of work actors to explore growth-employment-poverty nexus in Arab region
The interagency expert meeting and training workshop was held at the ILO’s International Training Centre in Turin, Italy from 6-8 December.
19 December 2016
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ILO News - Twenty-three representatives of governments and workers’ and employers’ organizations from the Arab region explored new insights and developments relating to the growth-employment-poverty nexus, within the framework of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The interagency expert meeting and training workshop was organized by the ILO’s Regional Office for Arab States (ILO-ROAS), its International Training Centre in Turin (ITCILO) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA).
It was designed as an initial awareness-raising workshop and aimed to strengthen constituents’ capacity to engage in national sustainable development strategies, with a strong focus on linking decent work with inclusive growth.
The weak growth-employment-poverty relation lies at the heart of the challenges of human wellbeing for the Arab region. The relatively high average economic growth of the region in the years prior to the Arab uprisings did not significantly improve incomes of the poor, nor did it generate enough decent jobs for the educated labour force.
The 2030 Agenda, adopted in September 2015, has given new impetus to rethinking and re-engineering the growth-employment-poverty relation, by providing an analytical framework which underscores interrelation and network approaches.
ILO experts provided input on the decent work dimension of the 2030 Agenda, underlining the centrality of decent work and employment to achieve the 169 targets. They emphasized the importance of national employment policies, social protection frameworks and the importance of measuring decent work progress through selected Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators.
ESCWA shared insights, based upon latest reports and research, on the link between economic growth, employment and poverty, including multidimensional poverty. Lack of structural transformation toward raising productivity, and creating decent jobs, explains the weak links in the case of the Arab region.
Moreover, governance challenges in several countries remain a key barrier to addressing the weak links and to enhancing human development, which is supported by upcoming ESCWA research on analysis of governance adjusted human development index (GHDI).
The expert group meeting and training was completed successfully, with resulting action plans developed by the country delegations for deepening SDG engagement at the national level.
ESCWA: Mr Khalid Abu-Ismail, [email protected]
ITCILO: Mr Karl Pfeffer, [email protected]
The interagency expert meeting and training workshop was organized by the ILO’s Regional Office for Arab States (ILO-ROAS), its International Training Centre in Turin (ITCILO) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA).
It was designed as an initial awareness-raising workshop and aimed to strengthen constituents’ capacity to engage in national sustainable development strategies, with a strong focus on linking decent work with inclusive growth.
The weak growth-employment-poverty relation lies at the heart of the challenges of human wellbeing for the Arab region. The relatively high average economic growth of the region in the years prior to the Arab uprisings did not significantly improve incomes of the poor, nor did it generate enough decent jobs for the educated labour force.
The 2030 Agenda, adopted in September 2015, has given new impetus to rethinking and re-engineering the growth-employment-poverty relation, by providing an analytical framework which underscores interrelation and network approaches.
ILO experts provided input on the decent work dimension of the 2030 Agenda, underlining the centrality of decent work and employment to achieve the 169 targets. They emphasized the importance of national employment policies, social protection frameworks and the importance of measuring decent work progress through selected Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators.
ESCWA shared insights, based upon latest reports and research, on the link between economic growth, employment and poverty, including multidimensional poverty. Lack of structural transformation toward raising productivity, and creating decent jobs, explains the weak links in the case of the Arab region.
Moreover, governance challenges in several countries remain a key barrier to addressing the weak links and to enhancing human development, which is supported by upcoming ESCWA research on analysis of governance adjusted human development index (GHDI).
The expert group meeting and training was completed successfully, with resulting action plans developed by the country delegations for deepening SDG engagement at the national level.
For more information, please contact:
ILO Regional office Arab States: Ms Shaza Ghaleb Al Jondi, [email protected]ESCWA: Mr Khalid Abu-Ismail, [email protected]
ITCILO: Mr Karl Pfeffer, [email protected]