2006/116

ECOSOC TAKES UP GLOBAL ECONOMIC CHALLENGES,

AS ITS 2006 SESSION OPENS IN GENEVA

FOCUS ON FIGHTING POVERTY BY CREATING MORE, BETTER JOBS

TEHRAN, 3 July 2006 (UNIC)-- Possible solutions for the world’s employment crisis—more than half of the world’s workforce is unable to earn enough to lift themselves and their families above the $2 a day poverty line—will be assessed by the UN’s Economic and Social Council High-Level meeting that will take place from 3-5 July. The Council is the main UN body for coordinating and monitoring development policy and activities.

The meeting, which will be attended by leaders from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the UN, will also review the state of the world’s economic situation.  And at a time when the UN is implementing important reforms, the Council will consider new measures that will allow it to play a more aggressive role in addressing development issues, as well as determining whether the UN can, or should, restructure itself to better confront development challenges..

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will present keynote addresses on the employment problem, along with Tunisian Labour Minister Chadli Laroussi and Juan Somavía, Director General of the International Labour Organization.

UN Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown will deliver the message of Secretary-General Kofi Annan. UN Conference on Trade and Development Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi,World Trade Organization Deputy Director-General Valentine Rugwabiza, World Bank Chief Economist Francois Bourguignon, the Special Representative of the IMF to the United Nations, Reinhard Munzberg and UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Jose Antonio Ocampo will report on significant economic trends and challenges.

ECOSOC coordinates the work of the 14 UN specialized agencies, ten functional commissions and five regional commissions, receives reports from ten UN funds and programmes and issues policy recommendations to the UN system and to Member States. The 54 member Council meets every year, alternating between New York and Geneva. The President of this year’s Council is Ambassador Ali Hachani of Tunisia.

The issue of decent work—dignified work that allows people to properly support themselves and their families—has gained momentum since last year’s World Summit where world leaders resolved “to make full and productive employment and decent work” a central objective in national  and international policies.

Unable to work out of extreme poverty

At present, about half of the world’s work force lives in extreme poverty, is unable to earn enough to lift themselves and their families above the $2 a day poverty line.  Despite major economic growth in many regions, the total number of “working poor” has remained virtually unchanged over the last decade at 1.4 billion.

The high-level ECOSOC discussions are expected to result in a joint agreement outlining the steps that countries can take, individually and collectively, to create more productive employment opportunities.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his report to ECOSOC, said the number of unemployed, globally, is increasing and in 2005, about 192 million people were out of work.  But three times as many people are working at jobs that do not allow them to escape from extreme poverty of an income equivalent to $1 a day.  Most of the working poor, the report found, work in rural areas and in the urban informal sector which now comprises one-half to three-quarters of non-agricultural employment in developing countries.  Almost half of the world’s unemployed are young people, even though youth make up only a quarter of the working-age population.

The report found that countries face the difficult task of creating and upgrading jobs at a time when the effective supply of labor has grown due to globalization, the participation of more people in the labor force and growing populations, particularly in many developing countries.

While globalization has also helped fuel growth and employment in some places, the policy decisions of governments and international organizations have often failed to consider the impact on employment during the transition phase to more open global markets. Global competitive pressure, the report found, has not only led to a greater emphasis on wage flexibility, a reduction in regulations and taxes and a reduction in employment, these changes have occurred at a time when there has been a dilution of labor bargaining power and reduced government expenditures in areas that are vital to the poor, such as health, education and social protection systems.

The Secretary-General’s report suggests that countries make a political commitment to achieve full and productive employment and integrate this goal into national development and growth strategies. The international community, the report adds, must also adopt this goal and pursue it through macroeconomic and trade policies taken at the global level.

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