Economic and Social Council DEBATES ROLE OF UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM

IN PROMOTING FULL EMPLOYMENT, DECENT WORK FOR ALL

 

Members Discuss Secretary-General’s Report

On Integrated, Coordinated Implementation of Major Conferences

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 9 July (UN Information Service) -- The Economic and Social Council this afternoon held a general discussion on the reports of the Secretary-General on the role of the United Nations system in promoting full and productive employment and decent work for all and on the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the major United Nations conferences and summits.

Nikhil Seth, Director of the Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination, presenting the Secretary-General’s report on the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the major United Nations conferences and summits, said during the past year, once more progress had been made in enhancing architectural coherence by promoting closer cooperation between the Council and its subsidiary bodies.  The report of the Secretary-General reviewed efforts made at the regional and country levels.  While there were some areas where progress had been made in advancing architectural coherence, however there was far less success in promoting substantive integration, and to make headway, efforts should therefore focus on advancing substantive integration.  The two new major functions of the Council, the Annual Ministerial Review and the Development Cooperation Forum, could serve as powerful vehicles to make a big leap forward in promoting substantive integration by strengthening the Council’s system to better work in sync.

The Secretary-General’s report on the role of the United Nations system in promoting full and productive employment and decent work for all was presented last week.

During the general debate, speakers said, among other things, that full and productive employment and decent work for all was important both at the national and international levels, and would help in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and reducing poverty.  A speaker said that in view of the strengthened role of ECOSOC in overseeing system-wide coordination of economic and social aspects of the United Nations policies and programmes, its deliberations during this segment should provide an opportunity to review progress made by the United Nations system in promoting the goals of full employment and decent work.

It was necessary to grapple with the inequalities that globalization had brought, and the international community must support the role of the United Nations to this end, speakers said.  Full employment, decent work and social justice were key to economic development, security, stability and inclusive societies, a speaker said.  Sound macroeconomic policies, accompanied by a balanced national development agenda, could create conditions for high economic growth rates and social development needed to promote full employment, poverty reduction and social integration, said another representative.

There were suggestions that the Council should be strengthened, as it was the main body responsible for the coordination of the work of the United Nations in a wide number of spheres.  The strengthening of its role, as well as its new structures, would enhance its status and adjust the work of the coordination segment, translating the work of the high-level segment into procedures and guidelines for the rest of the United Nations system.  The plans and strategies of achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all could only be done through international cooperation and partnership.  The concrete commitment for implementation should come from the Member States if these objectives and the best results were truly to be obtained.

Speaking this afternoon were the representatives of Pakistan on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, Portugal on behalf of the European Union, Switzerland, Russian Federation, Chile, Kazakhstan, El Salvador, Iraq, Belarus, Indonesia, Kenya, Colombia, Cuba, Malawi, Brazil, United States and Bolivia.  Also speaking were representatives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the International Labour Organization.

The next meeting of the Council will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 10 July, when it will hold a panel discussion with the Chairpersons of the functional commissions on working together to promote the goals of decent work and full employment for all.

Documents

The Council has before it the report of the Secretary-General on the role of the United Nations system in promoting full and productive employment and decent work for all (E/2007/49), which gives an overview of UN system initiatives both at the policy and operational levels on promoting full and productive employment and decent work for all.  The report also highlights emerging challenges in pursuing those objectives.  The report concludes that the Ministerial Declaration adopted by the Council in 2006 has added new impetus to the work of the UN system in making the goal of full and productive employment and decent work for all a priority.  It has also helped to take this goal beyond the International Labour Organization constituencies and into the mainstream.  However, this recognition needs to be translated into policy frameworks and internalized in the work of the UN system.  Among others, that will require strengthening the analytical and programmatic support of the UN system to countries to help them in translating these goals into national development priorities and strategies.  Finally, the Secretary-General makes recommendations that stress action that can be taken at the policy level by the United Nations functional and regional commissions; inter-agency collaboration that would enhance system capacity to promote the employment and decent work objectives; and partnerships with all relevant actors to facilitate an effective realization of those goals.

The Council has before it the report of the Secretary-General on the role of the Economic and Social Council in the integrated and coordinated implementation of the outcomes of and follow-up to the major United Nations conferences and summits, in the light of General Assembly resolutions 50/227, 52/12 B, 57/270 B and 60/265 (A/62/89-E/2007/76), which provides an overview of the major areas of progress and continuing challenges in the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits at the global, regional and country level and proposes steps that could be taken to address them.  It highlights, in particular, the opportunities that the new functions of the Economic and Social Council, notably the Annual Ministerial Review, the biennial Development Cooperation Forum and the specific event of the General Assembly on development, provide for advancing the integrated and coordinated follow-up of conferences.

Introduction of the Secretary-General’s Report

NIKHIL SETH, Director of the Office of ECOSOC Support and Coordination, introducing the report of the Secretary-General on the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the major United Nations conferences and summits, said that, for over 10 years, the Council had sought to foster a comprehensive United Nations development agenda – a holistic approach to economic and social development, which took into account interrelationships and aimed to advance synergies, among the different goals of the major United Nations Conferences and Summits, including the Millennium Development Goals.  The Secretary-General’s report provided an overview of the major areas of progress at the global, regional and national level in promoting the integrated and coordinated follow-up of conferences.

During the past year, once more progress had been made in enhancing architectural coherence by promoting closer cooperation between the Council and its subsidiary bodies, Mr. Seth noted.  The Council system as a whole addressed the broad range of the United Nations development agenda.  The report of the Secretary-General reviewed efforts made at the regional and country levels.  While there were some areas where progress had been made in advancing architectural coherence, however, there was far less success in promoting substantive integration, and to make headway efforts should therefore focus on advancing substantive integration.  The two new major functions of the Council, the Annual Ministerial Review and the Development Cooperation Forum, could serve as powerful vehicles to make a big leap forward in promoting substantive integration by strengthening the Council’s system to better work in sync.

To have real impact on people’s livelihoods, progress made in the United Nations system’s conceptual and standard-setting work aimed at advancing integrated and coordinated follow-up to major conferences and summits should be translated into progress at the country level.  While each country had primary responsibility for its own development, those efforts had to be supported by the international community, based on the global partnership.  There were many different options to strengthen the Council’s role as a central mechanism of the United Nations system coordination in the economic, social and related fields, and to ensure that the Council and its subsidiary bodies worked better together as a system.  The elements for a new ECOSOC architecture for the follow-up of conferences presented in the report were hence only a set of options, for consideration.  It was hoped that those elements would provide some food for thought and give an overview of issues that Members might want to consider in their discussions on that issue.

General Discussion on Reports of Secretary-General

THEMINA JANJUA (Pakistan), speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, said the Ministerial Declaration of the high-level segment of the Economic and Social Council of 2006 had recognized full and productive employment and decent work for all as key elements of sustainable development for all countries and, therefore, as a priority for international cooperation.  The Declaration had stressed the urgent need for creating an environment at the national and international level that supported investments, growth and entrepreneurship for the creation of opportunities for men and women to obtain productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.  The developing countries had demonstrated dedication to implement their part of those commitments – to devise national development strategies, improve governance, and create a macroeconomic climate conducive for growth, trade and investment.  Unfortunately, their development partners had not demonstrated a similar readiness in implementing their part of the commitments, whether in development assistance and financing, trade, technology transfer and other areas of cooperation.  The G-77 and China believed that the UN system, particularly its funds, programmes and specialized agencies, as well as the financial institutions, should keep their part of the bargain and support the efforts of the developing countries.

The implementation of the International Labour Organization Toolkit to mainstream employment and decent work in the policies and programmes of the UN system would help in that regard, the G-77 and China felt.  Establishing small and medium enterprises through microfinance and microcredit initiatives, and specifically targeting such enterprises on building supply-side trade productive capacities in the developing countries could also be particularly helpful.  The achievement of full and productive employment and decent work for all hinged critically upon the promotion of an enabling overall macroeconomic environment based on the implementation of an integrated and coherent set of policies both at the national and international levels.  It was, therefore, imperative that macroeconomic policies had to endeavour to incorporate employment creation as an integral component.  The G-77 and China proposed some specific actions for effective follow-up to the major United Nations summits on the theme of full employment and decent work for all, including a substantial increase in resources for operational activities of the United Nations on a predictable, continuous and assured basis, a deepening of the interaction of international organizations such as the Bretton Woods institutions with the United Nations, and the promotion of the exchange of information on best practices amongst the United Nations system, among others.

FRANCISCO XAVIER ESTEVES (Portugal), speaking on behalf of the European Union, said achieving the Millennium Development Goals was not only a moral imperative, but was also vital for all mankind.  Full and productive employment and decent work for all was important both at a national and international level, and would help in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and to reduce poverty.  Full and productive employment and decent work for all could make a significant contribution to reaching the internationally agreed development goals, and help reduce the negative impact of globalization.  Decent work was a key factor in improving the living and working conditions of millions of people, and could help poor people to improve those, and the European Union was taking initiatives to promoting decent work internally while supporting cooperation with the relevant international organizations to promote decent work for all.

In the context of decent work, good practice was important with regard to its implementation, and therefore good practices should be identified and recorded in order to be implemented in a holistic and widespread manner, keeping regional needs in mind.  Attention should be also be devoted to the informal economy, as many working in that sector were confronted with a wide range of challenges, including limited social protection.  The United Nations provided a platform for the mobilization of all actors involved, as full and productive employment and decent work for all was germane to the United Nations’ broad development vision and operations.  The report combined the progress made in implementing the Ministerial Declaration with an overview of the progress made in the United Nations system to implementing those goals.  National ownership was vital in that process.

THOMAS GASS ( Switzerland) said ECOSOC must ensure that there was better coherence between the political work and the operational activities of the United Nations system.  That way, UN agencies, funds and programmes would be able to ensure the better integration of the goal of full productive employment and decent work for all in their policies, programmes and activities.  The concept of decent work developed by the International Labour Organization (ILO) was by nature multidimensional.  It influenced the work of numerous United Nations agencies and programmes.  Switzerland welcomed the collaboration between the World Health Organization, the ILO and the United Nations Development Programme within the Global Plan of Action on Workers’ Health and the Labour and Environment initiative.  However, collaboration and coordination did not mean giving up one’s specificity.  Each actor must contribute to the achievement of the goal of full and productive employment and decent work within its mandate, goals and strategies.

Switzerland invited Member States to participate actively in the political segment of the forty-sixth session of the Social Development Commission devoted to decent work, with the aim of developing and then adopting operational recommendations to implement the contents of the 2006 ECOSOC Ministerial Declaration.  The ILO was to be commended for its efforts to help Governments include the decent work agenda in national policies.  To implement the commitments made at the 2006 high-level segment of ECOSOC, the ILO, which was the main promoter of decent work, must also improve its external and internal governance.  It must focus on priority fields of action to implement decent work, namely tripartism, strengthening collective bargain, employment policy, social protection and social dialogue.  By improving its expertise in its own spheres of competence, the ILO could help them all to achieve those objectives at the national and international levels in the context of globalization.

MIKHAIL SAVOSTYANOV ( Russian Federation) said employment objectives should be a powerful catalyst in achieving the macroeconomic situation for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals.  Member States should institute effective national policies to rule out discrimination based on gender, language, ethnicity and other factors, as well as implement policies impacting on the poorer people of the country in order to improve their situation.  The report of the Secretary-General, and its conclusions and recommendations formed a sufficient basis for the work of the Council and the General Assembly at its next session on this question.

The Russian Federation said the Council should be strengthened, as it was the main body responsible for the coordination of the work of the United Nations in a wide number of spheres.  The strengthening of its role, as well as its new structures, would enhance its status and adjust the work of the coordination segment, translating the work of the high-level segment into procedures and guidelines for the rest of the United Nations system.  Thus, all decisions of the international conferences should be considered during the coordination segment.  That approach was in full keeping with the task of boosting the coordination functions of the new form of the Council.  It would also help to enhance the effectiveness of subsequent activities regarding United Nations conferences and summits.

JUAN EDUARDO EGUIGUREN ( Chile) said the role of the United Nations in promoting decent work for all was directly related to that of poverty eradication and enforcement of social rights in Chile.  It should be a priority.  The Council’s Ministerial Declaration of 2006 had highlighted the importance of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) decent work agenda in achieving the goal of full and productive employment and decent work for all and, by extension, the importance of that instrument in eradicating poverty and achieving other development objectives.  One was not only dealing with employment, but with decent work, as defined by the ILO – that is, decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.  The United Nations system was currently focused on promoting employment and decent work for all.  In doing so, it was necessary to grapple with the inequalities globalization had brought.  The international community had to support the role of the United Nations in that end.  Decent work and social justice were key to economic development.  Social and economic development had to be seen as two factors strengthening each other.  The equality of all human beings was fundamental; policies and programme geared to providing women with equal access to work were important, and equal pay for equal work also had to be ensured.

In Chile, economic growth had been combined with social justice.  That could be seen domestically and abroad.  It could be seen abroad, for example, in the trade agreements Chile had signed.  Domestically, decent work involved a system of social protection for all.  The Government had begun an overhaul of the pensions system – replacing the current system that was based almost exclusively on individual capitalization, to a mixed system including elements of private capitalization, a voluntary savings fund, and a solidarity fund to ensure coverage for all Chileans.  Chile had also achieved considerable progress in reducing poverty through a number of targeted programmes.  In parallel to the reduction of unemployment, the Government sought to cover workers better.  Although Chile still had much to do, and there was a deficit in decent work, progress had been made.  Chile supported the recommendations for inter-institutional efforts in the Secretary-General’s report.  Likewise, Chile supported the integration of the gender perspective in such efforts.

BARLYBAY SADYKOV ( Kazakhstan) said the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document and the ECOSOC Ministerial Declaration of 2006 had established the challenge of productive employment and decent work for all as a key element of poverty reduction strategies and strategies to achieve the international development agenda.  The initiative of the International Labour Organization with other United Nations system agencies, the “Policy Coherence on Growth, Investment and Job Initiative”, would provide better knowledge bases and methodological approaches for research relating to the growth, investment and employment nexus, and thus serve the goal of achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all.

Full employment, decent work and social justice were key to economic development, security, stability and inclusive societies, Kazakhstan said.  Sound macroeconomic policies, accompanied by a balanced national development agenda, could create conditions for high economic growth rates, and social development needed to promote full employment, poverty reduction and social integration.  The United Nations system played an important role in promoting full and productive employment and decent work for all and initiatives aimed at enhancing national capacities for promotion of productive employment and decent work should be fully supported by all.

CARMEN MARIA GALLARDO HERNANDEZ ( El Salvador) acknowledged the work of the International Labour Organization and its vision with regard to decent work for all.  El Salvador also endorsed what Pakistan had said.  El Salvador was very pleased with the progress achieved since the adoption of the Ministerial Declaration last year.  Renewed efforts to assign priority to the issue of full and productive employment and decent work for all had been noted in a cross-cutting manner across the United Nations system, and many agencies had strengthened existing activities for the goal of creating decent work.  Generating full and productive employment with a proper gender balance was key in the fight against poverty and in making progress towards sustainable development.  Decent work also facilitated the social integration of a person and provided social cohesion.  El Salvador wanted to achieve those goals, and its 2004-2009 national plan was helping to transform the production sector by identifying productive activities and helping to create desirable jobs.  The significant contribution of women was also recognized in the plan, and for that reason anti-discrimination policies and training had been put in place to provide more opportunities on the labour market.

Forty per cent of Salvadorians resided outside of the country.  Therefore, policies maximizing the benefit of labour migration were needed, both for the remitting and the receiving countries.  Preparations had begun to develop national programmes in all the countries of the region.  That was being done with the collaboration of the tripartite partners.  El Salvador supported the Secretary-General’s recommendations in his report on full and productive employment and decent work for all, in particular that ILO’s three-phased approach to promote the goals of full and productive employment and decent work for all should be further developed, and that a system-wide, time-bound action plan should be adopted for 2010-2015 to achieve the international commitments regarding the promotion of those goals. El Salvador hoped that the United Nations system’s institutions would work together to provide guidelines.  Multilateral and bilateral aid should ensure that joint programmes were implemented coherently.

MOHAMMAD SAHIB MAJID ( Iraq) said the Council’s efforts towards the noble goals and objectives enshrined in the UN Charter and the Annual Ministerial Declaration were to be applauded, as those were the goals of humanity at large.  It was desirable that all programmes, plans and activities contained practical means for their implementation.  It was time to mainstream and centralize the objectives of full and productive employment and decent work for all, and to make those central objectives in the national and international strategies for the reduction of poverty, hunger and morbidity.  Governments should commit the necessary resources and abilities to that end.

Every effort towards full and productive employment and decent work for all in Iraq was hampered by the worsening security situation, which was impeding the development of plans and activities, leading to higher levels of unemployment.  That had led to a downturn in the economy and in development, with the Government impelled to dedicate a major part of its resources to security needs and the rule of law, with negative effects on plans and projects for employment.  The plans and strategies of achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all could only be done through international cooperation and partnership.  The concrete commitment for implementation should come from the Member States if those objectives and the best result were truly to be obtained.

TAMARA KHARASHUN ( Belarus) agreed with the recommendations contained in the report of the Secretary-General.  They were essential for poverty reduction in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.  Cooperation between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations system was welcomed.  The Council, by virtue of its mandate, was the appropriate body to ensure coordinated work to form an international structure providing effective assistance in achieving full and productive employment and decent work.  The Council had the potential to develop further ideas and mechanisms.  Liberal models had not always taken into account the need for social justice in a country.  The solution to that problem should be multifaceted.  In Belarus, the wage difference between the richest and the poorest was 1 to 5.  The Government was paying attention to improving salaries.  Belarus was bothered by the question of the politicization of providing aid.

In the United Nations system and ILO efforts had to be made to provide unconditional assistance without discrimination, Belarus said.  The ILO country programmes to ensure decent work were a good example of what could be done.  So far, however, many countries that wanted to take part in the programmes had faced difficulties.  Belarus believed that interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches were important.  It was essential for that work to be conducted on the understanding that there were many ways of countries of achieving the goal of full and productive employment and decent work for all.  Freedom of choice was important.  The situation of each country needed to be taken into account individually.  In that connection, the role of the regional commissions should be strengthened, as they knew best the situation on the ground.

YUSRA KHAN ( Indonesia) said full and productive employment and decent work for all were key elements of sustainable development, as had been emphasised in the 2005 World Summit Outcome, and in ECOSOC’s 2006 Ministerial Declaration.  The goals of full and productive employment and decent work for all should be made a central objective of national and international policies; and policies should support the creation of an enabling environment both at the international and national level.  The funds and programmes as well as agencies of the United Nations system, regional economic commissions, and international financial institutions should continue their efforts to mainstream the goals of full and productive employment and decent work for all in their policies, programmes and activities.  A well-coordinated follow-up of the Ministerial Declaration was important in this regard.

With three quarters of the world’s poor living in rural and agricultural regions, mostly in developing countries, there was an urgent need to improve productivity and raise incomes in rural farm and non-farm sectors, Indonesia stressed.  That should be coupled with several measures aimed at the fulfilment of official development assistance commitments, improved market access for developing countries, reduction and phasing out of all forms of export subsidies, and increased foreign direct investment.  Issues such as a reformed international financial and trade architecture, and a comprehensive solution to the external debt problem should also be seriously addressed by the international community.

MARIA NZOMO ( Kenya) welcomed the reports of the Secretary-General.  The theme of the role of the United Nations system in promoting full and productive employment and decent work for all was significant, considering that it was through decent employment that basic needs for all workers could be achieved.  Global and regional approaches in policy and strategy formulation provided nations with an opportunity to share their successes and challenges, and to strive together to find solutions that benefited their expectations.  Because of Africa’s many faces, different histories and diverse needs, the continent had now collectively embarked on a path of political, economic and cultural integration.  The efforts and strategies had crystallized in the regional integration efforts promoted by Africa’s Regional Economic Communities and initiatives of the African Union through the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.

Kenya supported the Ministerial Declaration that called on the United Nations to encourage national efforts to achieve the goals of full and productive employment and decent work for all, as envisaged in the four International Labour Organization (ILO) strategic objectives.  Kenya welcomed the efforts of ILO and partner agencies in the United Nations for developing a Toolkit that mainstreamed productive employment and decent work.  The global financial institutions, that is, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), needed to review their strategies, policies and programmes in working towards empowering Africa to cope with globalization challenges, including the actualization of the ILO strategic objectives and the Millennium Development Goals.  The objective of full employment was shared by the IMF and the ILO, and needed to be pursued in the light of the Decent Work Agenda.  Finally, Kenya called upon the international donor community and financial institutions to provide support to African countries to harness the great hydroelectric energy potential that was essential for the establishment of enterprises that would create employment and hence contribute towards poverty reduction.

CLEMENCIA FORERO UCROS ( Colombia) said the Secretary-General’s report on promoting full and productive employment and decent work for all provided an overview of the various initiatives undertaken in both the regulatory and operational frameworks.  The International Labour Organization (ILO) played an important role in working towards the objectives set forwards on a regional, national and global level, implementing mechanisms to promote and raise the awareness of all parties on the importance of including employment when formulating economic and development policies.  Taking into account the significance of capacity-building for developing and less-advanced countries, the agencies within the system should continue to support activities that supported strategies that fought poverty, with emphasis on programmes that supported the policies on the rural level.

Colombia was grateful to the ILO.  Decent work programmes, as understood and promoted by the ILO, could not obey a general formula, and rather should attend to the specific natures of each country.  In Colombia, the decent work programme was based on the ILO four core objectives in the field of technical cooperation, and aimed to promote policies and programmes to create employment and to back small and medium-sized businesses, in particular for young people, displaced persons, and women heads of family, among others.  The Development of the Tripartite Agreement had led the Government to allocate resources to implementing the project to encourage decent work at a national level.  There had been a permanent representative of the ILO in Colombia since 2006, and that had been very important in implementing the sub-projects under the Tripartite Agreement.

PEDRO LUIS PEDROSO ( Cuba) said that Cuba fully endorsed the statement made by Pakistan on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.  According to the report “Global Employment Trends 2007”, almost 200 million people around the world were unemployed and over 1.3 billion lived in poverty.  Economic growth in the last five years had only served to increase the wealth of the rich and the differences between developed and developing countries.  Large multinational companies were duping the world.  They were increasing poverty throughout the world.  More fair and equitable values, as well as another economic model, were needed.  Wealth could be shared equitably.  Things had not changed.  Without economic development, it was not possible to promote full and productive employment and decent work for all.

The United Nations and developed countries should increase their actions and contributions to developing countries.  Cuba, a small island nation which had been subject to all kinds of restrictions for more than four decades now, was able to show how much could be achieved for mankind.  Gender equality, and social security were guaranteed for all, and a growing contribution to the development of health, education and sports programmes in Cuba were evidence of the fact that one could do better.

JANE ASARI-NDELEMANI ( Malawi) said the Secretary-General’s report ably highlighted the work that had been undertaken by the United Nations system at the global and regional levels to advance the agenda of full and productive employment and decent work for all.  Clearly, the mandate of the World Summit for Social Development of 1995 – to create a world of decent work and full employment as a crucial path to poverty reduction and social integration – to date remained an unfulfilled global challenge.  However, the nexus between economic growth, employment and poverty reduction had been increasingly gaining recognition.  Full and productive employment and decent work for all was an instrument for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, in particular poverty reduction.  Inadequate attention had been paid to the role of employment in poverty reduction at all levels.

The United Nations system at the national level had a critical role in assisting Malawi to realize full and productive employment and decent work for all its people.  The process of translating the goal of decent work as a global goal required a concerted approach by the entire multilateral system, with the International Labour Organization (ILO) playing a major role in facilitating the integration of decent work agendas into strategies for poverty reduction and the Common Country Assessment (CCA)/United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) processes.  The Toolkit for Mainstreaming Employment and Decent Work would be even more useful when adapted for use by the United Nations Country Teams as part of the annual and midterm reviews of the UNDAF.  The efforts of the United Nations system to find ways of harnessing the experience and knowledge of the ILO in cases where it had no field presence at national level were also welcome.

LUCIA MAIERA (Brazil), associating herself with the Group of 77 and China, said Brazil defined decent jobs as an employment adequately compensated, exercised under free, equal, and safe conditions, capable to ensure a dignified standard of living.  Brazil had incorporated the four strategic pillars of the International Labour Organization (ILO), namely respect for international labour law, especially where fundamental principles and rights were concerned; promotion of quality jobs; extension of social security; and social dialogue.  Within the current globalization process, technological advances offered new opportunities, as well as new challenges related to use of human resources.  The challenges for developing countries were twofold: they had to deal with unresolved issues linked to previous development patterns as they coped with well-known issues emerging from new development patterns.  For example, developing countries had to simultaneously combat illiteracy as they trained highly qualified personnel; they met social security needs of workers inserted in the international labour market as they extended basic social security coverage to workers excluded from the domestic formal labour market.

Brazil had actively participated in conferences and international meetings on the issue of decent jobs.  Brazil firmly believed that decent work was a fundamental prerequisite for poverty reduction, to decrease social inequalities and to ensure sustainable development.  For that reason, decent jobs constituted a political priority.  Brazil had signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a special programme of technical cooperation focusing on the promotion of the national policy on decent work.  The Memorandum of Understanding set four priority areas: job creation, microfinance, and human resources capacity-building, especially among youth; improvement and enlargement of the social security system; strengthening of the tripartite social dialogue; and combating child labour and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, forced labour and discrimination in employment.

RICHARD T. MILLER ( United States) said promoting employment was a key ingredient to poverty eradication.  The Secretary-General’s report had repeated several times that rapid economic growth alone could not generate employment.  Governments needed to intervene to make the benefits of growth widely shared in some instances.  The best intervention combined support to small and medium-sized enterprises with anti-corruption efforts and trade liberalization.  The expansion of the formal economy and job-skills training were also very important.  National Governments were responsible for creating an economic environment that was conducive to growth and job creation, including free and flexible markets, transparent and accountable institutions and the rule of law.

With respect to the report of the Secretary-General, the United States did not agree that the different goals and targets could be achieved only if they were pursued together – they could be achieved by Member States at any time, with or without coordination through the various United Nations programmes.  The implementation of the pilot programmes on decent work should be monitored closely, and the regional Commissions were well-placed to do that.  The statement by the representative of Pakistan included the assertion that the developing countries had done all they needed to in the global partnership for development, and that the developed countries had not lived up to their commitments.  That assertion, which had been repeated by other delegations, was not backed up with facts and data, which did not support that conclusion.

ALICIA MUNOZ ALI ( Bolivia) said it was a tangible fact that the current economic model condemned millions to live in poverty.  While that model continued to exist, many developing nations could not move forward towards achieving full and decent work.  Bolivia was pleased with the joint action plans within the United Nations system to develop policies for decent work for all.  Bolivia had adopted a different economic model, based on the development of an economic and social development programme.  According to that plan, full employment and decent work were fundamental.  The country projected zero illiteracy for 2011.  Programmes for boys and girls at school had been established to keep them in school and to prevent them from working.  Preschool, sports and housing for poor workers as well as development of infrastructure, was also being undertaken.

In Bolivia, many women occupied ministerial posts, for example in the ministry of agriculture, the ministry of health, the ministry of education and the ministry of justice.  That showed that profound changes had taken place in the field of gender equality in Bolivia.  The Government was also working to stop child labour with the assistance of United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund and the International Labour Organization.  While gender inequality and discrimination were being fought, more in-depth analysis of the structural causes were still needed.

INGEBORG BREINES, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said education was a critical determinant of whether or not any nation or region of the world met the objective of full employment.  Fulfilment of the right to education was often a prerequisite for realizing the right to work, and also for attaining the other Millennium Development Goals, in particular Goal One, on poverty alleviation.  Education brought enormous benefits to the quality of work and of employment.  However, ensuring the right to education and developing relevant quality education programmes could pose complex challenges, which could only be overcome with careful planning, adequate resources and pragmatic and efficient governance.

UNESCO was promoting the integration of livelihood skills development in basic education programmes, particularly in the least developed countries, and supporting the integration of pre-vocational and vocational programmes at secondary level.  Education and training increased an individual’s chance of getting a decent job, of being able to choose a career path, and of improving performance and satisfaction.  Decent work for all, as defined by the International Labour Organization, was of a multifaceted nature, which required not only the action of the United Nations system as a whole, the engagement and commitment of Governments, private sectors, trade unions, and non-governmental organizations in fostering that basic need, but mostly necessitated the willingness, contribution and the competence of both women and men who had been given the possibility to develop their talents, creativity and full potential.

DJANKOU NDJONKOU, International Labour Organization (ILO), thanked all the representatives that mentioned the ILO in their statements, as well as the representatives from many countries who mentioned the cooperation with the ILO at country level.  The need expressed by Member States for having Toolkit presentations had been noted.  That request would be brought to the attention of Director-General of the ILO in order to respond adequately.

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