High level panel: "The role of decent work in a fairer, greener and more sustainable globalization"
Video Highlights of the Panel
Tuesday 14 June, 15:00-16:30 - Geneva, Palais des Nations, Assembly Hall
The World Summit for Social Development (WSSD) in 1995 put forward a comprehensive framework for the UN System’s contribution to a more balanced and inclusive growth path based on social justice, and has formed the basis for several subsequent Summits, the Millennium Development Goals and the Decent Work Agenda. As articulated by the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization and the related work by the ILO and the Regional Economic Commissions there is growing concern about a model of globalization and a pattern of growth which has emerged over the last 30 years that has without doubt stimulated global economic growth, but which has also led to growing income and other inequalities within countries, failed to dent high levels of informal employment, with the generation of decent work trailing the increase in the labour force, as well as persistently high levels of youth unemployment and underemployment in all regions. This is what the Director General of the ILO in his report to the International Labour Conference, A New Era of Social Justice, called “inefficient” growth.
These trends have been well documented by the work of the five Regional Economic Commissions. Their Executive Secretaries which make up this eminent panel are therefore particularly well placed to address these concerns in an integrated fashion and contribute to a global vision based on their regional experiences.
The World Summit for Social Development (WSSD) in 1995 put forward a comprehensive framework for the UN System’s contribution to a more balanced and inclusive growth path based on social justice, and has formed the basis for several subsequent Summits, the Millennium Development Goals and the Decent Work Agenda. As articulated by the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization and the related work by the ILO and the Regional Economic Commissions there is growing concern about a model of globalization and a pattern of growth which has emerged over the last 30 years that has without doubt stimulated global economic growth, but which has also led to growing income and other inequalities within countries, failed to dent high levels of informal employment, with the generation of decent work trailing the increase in the labour force, as well as persistently high levels of youth unemployment and underemployment in all regions. This is what the Director General of the ILO in his report to the International Labour Conference, A New Era of Social Justice, called “inefficient” growth.
These trends have been well documented by the work of the five Regional Economic Commissions. Their Executive Secretaries which make up this eminent panel are therefore particularly well placed to address these concerns in an integrated fashion and contribute to a global vision based on their regional experiences.
The panel will address the following issues:
- How can we define an “efficient”’ growth pattern that distributes benefits and opportunities in a balanced way and leads to a fairer, greener and more sustainable globalization?
- What progress is being made in each region in this respect?
- What changes are needed in regional institutions and their cooperation, including those of the UN, to achieve greater policy coherence and improved governance around Decent Work at regional, but also global levels?
Panellists:
- Ms. Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary, U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
- Ms. Rima Khalaf, Executive Secretary, U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA)
- Mr. Jan Kubiš, Executive Secretary, U.N. Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
- Ms. Jennifer Kargbo, Deputy Secretary-General, U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
- Mr. Antonio Prado, Deputy Executive Secretary, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)