Decent Work and the MDG's: Update from New York

Mr. Somavia, emphasizing that the employment issue could not simply be left to the market since it was central to society’s structure and individual dignity, said decent employment for all should be a matter of policy. A multi-stakeholder approach was needed, including the empowerment of workers. “We want the MDGs to work and the MDGs are not working.” They could work if there was a significantly increased focus on the work component of poverty-reduction policies. It was unacceptable that core poverty figures had not changed since the 1980s, given that so much wealth had been created since then.

Ms. Bhatt, who has organized more than a million women workers in India, underscored that it was important not to separate hunger, mortality and suffering from the need for decent work. Almost all poor people worked, but most were engaged in the informal sector in developing countries, which meant they lacked access to services and had no rights over employment conditions.

An important immediate step is to include the informal sector in economic statistics, she said. Subsistence farmers, microenterprises and home workers all contributed to gross domestic product, and must be tracked. Governments must then help empower workers to gain the security and social services that would allow their work to pull them out of poverty.

Mr. Svanberg, emphasizing the need for business to play a proactive role in human rights and decent work, said the Ericsson corporation, a co-founder of the United Nations Global Compact, had been in a position to do that owing to the burgeoning use of mobile communications in developing countries, the important role of communications in development and the tens of thousands of Ericsson employees in poor countries. Respect for employees and diversity was essential in that regard.

Mr. Ocampo added that decent work must be a central objective not only of economic policy, but fiscal and trade policy as well in order to achieve the Millennium Goals. Informal workers must be incorporated into social protections, and it could not be assumed that increased trade produced decent jobs. Those objectives must be mainstreamed into the work of the international financial institutions.

Asked how the decent work initiative related to her work in human rights, Ms. Robinson said the connection was profound since it related to the basic empowerment of people to gain the necessary goods from their labour. It was shocking that 4 billion people are working in an unstable system without basic legal protections. In addition, women formed the vast majority of informal-sector workers and the lack of rights in their employment situation was of great concern... (read more)

Kumi Naidoo opened the Hearing remarking that "the testimonies and stories from people leaving in poverty should be heard inside of the UN building, not just across the road from it", but that "it is important that these voices and the messages to end poverty and inequality and meet and exceed the Millennium Development Goals should be heard".

The hearing saw witnesses from Africa, Asia and Latin America and advocates Mary Robinson, Ela Bhatt, Archbishop Ndugane and Serigne Mansour Sy, speak on three main issues: poverty and hunger, addressing education and environmental sustainability... (read more)

Bhatt, founder of India’s million-strong Self-Employed Women’s Association, told the assembled heads of government: “Poverty is powerlessness. Poverty cannot be removed unless the poor have power to make decisions that affect their lives. So yes, poverty is a political issue.”

Bhatt told the UN meeting that basic rights to work, food, health and education are still not being addressed by governments as part of the development process.

“Let us remind ourselves that in committing to the Millennium Development Goals, we are in fact pledging to become partners with the poor. It is time for the state to get in partnership with its own people,” said Bhatt.

In the 60th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Elders have joined partner organisations in Every Human Has Rights, a global campaign to embrace the values and goals of the Declaration. This month the campaign highlights the right to decent work.

“A word that is largely absent from the Millennium Development Goals is ‘work’. In my experience, the link between poverty and growth is decent work. This means full employment at the household level; it builds the local economy and strengthens a community,” said Bhatt... (read more)