COMMISSION FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT TO HOLD THIRTY-FIFTH SESSION AT HEADQUARTERS, 25 FEBRUARY - 6 MARCH

SOC/4413

21 February 1997

Press Release
SOC/4413

COMMISSION FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT TO HOLD THIRTY-FIFTH SESSION AT HEADQUARTERS, 25 FEBRUARY - 6 MARCH

19970221 Background Release 'Productive Employment' Major Theme to Be Discussed; 1997 Report on World Social Situation, Issued Every Four Years, to Be Presented

"Productive employment and sustainable livelihoods" will be the priority theme of the upcoming session of the Commission for Social Development -- to be held at Headquarters from 25 February to 6 March -- as it continues its review of progress made in the implementation of the outcome of the 1995 World Summit for Social Development.

A report of the Secretary-General before the session notes the growing strand of scepticism over the feasibility of attaining the goal of full employment. It cites as sources for the scepticism ideas such as: high unemployment represents a voluntary economic equilibrium that is impossible to reduce without triggering off accelerating inflation; rapid labour-saving technological change has ushered in an era of "jobless growth" and "the end of work"; and heightened economic competition in the wake of the globalization of the world economy has emasculated the capacity of governments to influence the level and quality of employment.

However, a critical examination of the empirical bases for such claims found them to be seriously wanting, the report states citing a recent study on world employment by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The study argued that, with sufficient political will and the sustained implementation of a comprehensive set of policies, full employment remains an attainable objective.

The 46-member Commission has the primary responsibility for monitoring the follow-up to the Social Summit. It has been doing so through a multi-year programme of work leading to the year 2000 and focusing on major themes of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action. At a special session last year, it discussed the goal of poverty eradication. The last theme of the five-year programme will be the Commission's contribution to the 2000 special session of the General Assembly to review the implementation of the Social Summit outcome.

Other issues before the session include the fourth review and appraisal of the implementation of the International Plan of Action on Ageing, adopted by the Assembly's thirty-seventh session. The Commission is also scheduled to

review the preparations for the observance of the International Year of Older Persons (1999), and should convene an informal in-session ad hoc working group to deal with the matter.

In addition, the Commission will review several plans and programmes of action pertaining to the situation of social groups, including follow-up arrangements for the International Year of the Family, the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty and implementation of the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.

The Commission is also expected to review relevant activities of the Secretariat, including budgetary matters, and receive reports from the regional commissions on their social development and social welfare activities. It is also scheduled to nominate five new members of the Board of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development to replace those who are not eligible for renomination.

Highlights of documents before the Commission follow.

A major document before the Commission is the 1997 Report on the World Social Situation, issued every four years, which provides a detailed assessment of global social issues and policy options. The 1997 edition is intended as a comprehensive analytical tool for policy-makers, experts and citizens involved in developing strategies to implement the agreements reached at the Social Summit, the first such global meeting to focus on social development issues.

The report consists of two major parts. Part I provides an overview of social issues, with an emphasis on living conditions. It starts with a presentation of economic patterns at the global and regional levels. It further appraises population trends both globally and regionally along with the demographic components of fertility, mortality and international migration that determine those trends.

Part II of the report addresses the core themes of the 1995 Social Summit Programme of Action: eradication of poverty; expansion of productive employment; and social integration. Each chapter discusses policy issues and options, domestic approaches and international instruments. The chapter on poverty examines major trends in absolute and relative poverty worldwide and its relationship to world economic growth. The chapter on employment and unemployment assesses the situation in developing, transitional and developed economies. The chapter on discrimination focuses on the structure and patterns of gender and minority discrimination.

On employment, the report notes that solving the problem of unemployment appears more difficult today than it did 50 years ago. Policy-makers confront

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the difficulty of devising policies that address equity concerns, while simultaneously preserving the structure of incentives needed to obtain efficient outcomes. The report describes in detail the structural changes in labour markets (in particular the segments of women and youth) and the employment situations and policies of developed, developing and transitional economies.

Despite the re-emergence of unemployment as a policy focus, the report concludes that the world economy is absorbing the bulk of a rapidly rising global labour force, which is better educated, possesses greater skills and is more mobile than ever before. As a result, it proposes employment policies that conform with rapid changes in economic conditions.

On the Secretary-General's report on the priority theme of productive employment and sustainable livelihoods (document E/CN.5/1997/3), attention is drawn to some interlocking themes. They are: (a) full employment is well established in the goals and objectives of the United Nations system; (b) policy-makers generally agree that to increase employment opportunities, savings and investment levels -- hence, economic growth -- have to be raised worldwide; and (c) promoting full employment globally will require strengthened international economic cooperation.

In its introduction, the report notes that the Social Summit's Copenhagen Declaration urged the promotion of the goal of full employment as a basic priority of economic and social policies (commitment 3). Analysing the overall framework for employment policy, it states that all economic and social policies assume meaning only in relation to their objectives, and those objectives have to be defined as clearly as possible. Regarding employment policy, the objective should be the attainment of full employment, around which policies can be formulated for raising both the volume and the quality of employment, thereby ensuring that economic growth is equitable and poverty- reducing. With the political will and the sustained implementation of a comprehensive set of policies, full employment is attainable.

Some of those policies common to countries at all levels include, at the international level, sustaining progress towards a more open and rules-based world economy; creating a stable political, economic and social environment; creating a policy environment that provides incentives for productive investment, for structural change and for increased competitiveness; and developing tripartite forms of social dialogue among governments, workers' and employers' organizations in support of employment generation as a priority issue. It also says that policies and programmes to expand employment opportunities for the poor in developing countries should also be environmentally sustainable, with emphasis on the dimensions of women, social groups with specific needs, child labour and older workers.

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The report makes suggestions on promoting growth and job creation in developing countries. They include: a return to higher growth rate; macroeconomic stability; an outward-oriented policy regime; and the successful attraction of foreign direct investment. It also contains suggestions on the informal sector and rural employment, as well as the controversial issue of extensive deregulation of labour markets. In the section on transition economies, it suggests measures to reduce unemployment through sustaining economic recovery, promoting private enterprise, building efficient labour market institutions and the use of transitional employment subsidies.

Concerning the industrialized countries, the report notes that the lack of consensus on the causes of the high unemployment and increasing wage inequalities made it impossible to prescribe a common approach. It suggests, however, three areas for policy action: policies to achieve a sustained increase in the rate of economic growth; how to deal with a major constraint to sustaining higher growth arising from the danger of a resurgence of inflation as labour markets tighten; and the reform of labour-market policies.

The Secretary-General report on the International Plan of Action on Ageing (document E/CN/1997/4) recalls that the findings of the earlier review and appraisals suggested that translating the growing awareness of ageing into action-oriented policies and programmes remained difficult. The fourth, taking place in the context of preparations for the 1999 International Year of Older Persons, is no different: while the population over 60 has grown dramatically, the response has been minimal.

The report recommends that in view of the similar findings of each of the first four reviews and the inherent weakness of a review that is self- reporting and voluntary, it might be advisable to consider complementing it in the future by conducting sample household surveys in each region, and/or by elaborating a global ageing index based on already available information. It also suggests that a longer-range vision supplants the current four-year appraisal, owing to the speed of ageing in developing countries, and the age- old dependency ratio in developed economies.

COMMISSION FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT TO HOLD THIRTY-FIFTH SESSION AT HEADQUARTERS, 25 FEBRUARY - 6 MARCH

Press ReleaseSOC/4413

COMMISSION FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT TO HOLD THIRTY-FIFTH SESSION AT HEADQUARTERS, 25 FEBRUARY - 6 MARCH

Press Release
SOC/4413