Labour Migration and Development: ILO Moving Forward

[Excerpt] This document has been prepared for the Tripartite Technical Meeting on Labour Migration, to be held in Geneva from 4 to 8 November 2013. The goal of the Meeting, as identified by the ILO Governing Body in March 2013, is to enable the Organization “to assess the outcome of the United Nations General Assembly High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development … and consider possible areas for ILO follow-up”. This paper highlights the key challenges and opportunities in this regard, “bearing in mind the changing landscape of international labour migration and its implications for the world of work, and the findings of the assessment of the ILO’s response, including in respect of the Multilateral Framework”. It draws on research carried out within the ILO and elsewhere, and earlier policy guidance provided by the ILO’s tripartite constituency

Global Employment Trends 2014: Risk of a Jobless Recovery?

The global labour market situation remains uneven and fragile. True, there are encouraging signs of economic recovery in those advanced economies most affected by the global financial crisis which erupted in 2008. Also, a number of emerging and developing countries − including recently in Sub-Saharan Africa − are enjoying relatively robust economic growth. The world economy may thus be growing somewhat faster than over the past three years. However, the report finds that those economic improvements will not be sufficient to absorb the major labour market imbalances that built up in recent years. First, over the foreseeable future, the world economy will probably grow less than was the case before the global crisis. This complicates the task of generating the over 42 million jobs that are needed every year in order to meet the growing number of new entrants in the labour market. Second, and more fundamentally, the root causes of the global crisis have not been properly tackled. The financial system remains the Achilles heel of the world economy. The state of many banks is such that many sustainable enterprises, notably small ones, have limited access to credit, thereby affecting productive investment and job creation. Significant financial bubbles have re-appeared in a number of advanced and emerging economies, adding new uncertainties and affecting hiring decisions. Also, global labour incomes continue to increase at a slower pace than justified by observed productivity gains, thus affecting aggregate demand. Third − and this is an important new finding in view of the post-2015 development debate − little progress is being made in reducing working poverty and vulnerable forms of employment such as informal jobs and undeclared work. If confirmed, this trend would unambiguously delay the achievement of development goals. To ensure lasting job recovery, the report highlights the role of a strategy that combines short-term measures (job-friendly macroeconomic and labour market policies) with further action to tackle long-standing imbalances. Such a strategy would strengthen the economic recovery and pave the way for more and better jobs

Social Protection for Older Persons: Key Policy Trends and Statistics

This policy paper: (i) provides a global overview of the organization of pension systems, their coverage and benefits, as well as public expenditures on social security, in 178 countries; (ii) analyses trends and recent policies, e.g. extension of coverage in a large number of low- and middle-income countries; (iii) presents the negative impacts of fiscal consolidation and adjustment measures in a number of higher-income economies; and (iv) calls for the expansion of social protection in pursuit of crisis recovery, inclusive development and social justice

Report from Evaluation Mission: Coca Cola Bottling Plants in Colombia

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide.  Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.ILRF_ILO_CocaCola_Bottling_Colombia.pdf: 132 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

The Informal Economy and Decent Work: A Policy Resource Guide Supporting Transitions to Formality

Some forty years after the initiation of the concept of “informal sector”, informality represents a contemporary challenge for policy makers and labour market analysts. Informal employment characterizes half of the global labour force and is strongly associated with decent work deficits, quality of jobs, working poverty, low productivity, discrimination and exclusion, insecurity and vulnerabilities in the labour market. As the impacts of the global financial and economic crises, cut deep into communities around the world, and as ordinary women and men face greater insecurity and rising unemployment and inequality, it is evident that our attention must be drawn to addressing informality in all its forms and everywhere with renewed vigor. The destabilizing effects of informality go beyond the individuals and affect enterprises, state revenues and the adequate functioning of labour market insti- tutions and policies. In our objective to support member States and social partners to promote the transition to formality the ILO starts from a good point. We have gained a wealth of policy experience and evidence from country practices and research. We are also better capturing the phenomenon through improved data collection. Most importantly we have an historic tripartite consensus around a framework – gar- nered in the 2002 International Labour Conference Resolution – on the best ways to address informality in a comprehensive manner and anchored in the Decent Work Agenda. Since the adoption of that Resolution, we have seen continued strong demand for ILO support to its member states in reaching out to the informal economy in various technical fields. This practical Policy Resource Guide, initiated and completed by the Employment Policy Department, is the first initiative to bring together in one volume, a synthesis of knowledge, policy innovations and good practices facilitating transition to formality highlighting the multiple pathways and the indispensable synergies and coherence amongst the objectives of employment promotion, social protection and upholding rights

The role of health in development

The basic needs strategy of development is directed toward helping poor nations meet requirements for adequate food, shelter, sanitation, health, and education; thus, health becomes an objective of development. At the same time, a basic needs strategy is most effective when viewed as a means to increase individual and national productivity, not merely as a welfare services program. Expenditures on health are considered as an investment in human resources, contributing to productive capacity, but empirical studies on the contribution of health to per capita economic growth are largely anecdotal, marred by poor design and insufficient data. A similarly perplexing problem is the extent to which improved health is the result of specific health program interventions as compared to improved economic and social conditions. Both are important, but their relative importance differs from country to country and from era to era. Better data and analysis are necessary, not only to elucidate the interrelationships between health and development, but to measure the costs and benefits of specific health interventions.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23226/1/0000159.pd

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT IN AFRICA: NEW EVIDENCE AND POLICIES FROM SWAZILAND

Drawing on the 2007 and 2010 Swaziland Labor Force Surveys, this paper provides first systematic evidence on recent youth employment challenges in Swaziland, a small, land-locked, middle-income country with one of the highest youth unemployment rates in Africa. The paper first documents the various labor market disadvantages faced by the Swazi youth, such as high unemployment and discouragement, and how they changed from 2007 to 2010. A multinomial logit regression analysis is then carried out to analyze the socio-economic drivers of the unfavorable youth labor market outcomes on the supply side. Since many of the factors that can unlock the employment potential of the Swazi youth are on the demand side of the labor market, the paper examines the barriers to job creation and youth entrepreneurship. It concludes with experiences of other countries that could inform design of more effective interventions for youth employment in Swaziland.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133071/1/wp1052.pd

States and the political economy of unfree labour

A growing body of academic and policy research seeks to understand and address the problem of contemporary unfree labour. In this article, we argue that this literature could be strengthened by a stronger conceptualization of, and more systematic attention towards, the role of national states. In particular, we argue that there is a need to move beyond simplistic conceptualisations of states as simple agents of regulation and criminal justice enforcement who respond to the problem of unfree labour, and to recognize the causal and multifaceted role that national states play in creating the conditions in which unfree labour can flourish. We propose a framework to understand and compare the ways in which national states shape the political economy of unfree labour. Focusing on the United States, we outline three arenas of governance in which national states have been particularly central to enabling the conditions for unfree labour: the regulation of labour mobility, labour market regulation, and business regulation. We conclude by reflecting on the comparative political economy research that will be required to understand the role of different states in shaping the conditions in which unfree labour thrives or is eliminated