The ILO report further...

The ILO report further concluded that while accelerated growth was the first prerequisite of progress, un- and under-employment, including low-productivity employment yielding inadequate incomes, was 'at the heart of the problem of poverty'. It projected that these factors would reach 'increasingly intolerable proportions' as a result of the rapid growth of the labour force unless 'present patterns of growth are changed and much more determined efforts are made to ensure that all members of the active population are able to contribute to sustained growth and development through their productive efforts and thereby receive a share of its fruits'.

It was therefore imperative to pursue resolutely the implementation of the Programme of Action adopted at the 1976 World Employment Conference, which defined the main lines of an approach designed to promote employment and achieve the satisfaction of basic needs in a context of growth and international co-operation.

Concerning elaboration of the employment and basic-needs approach to development, the ILO report showed that while the approach placed stress on the employment and higher productivity of millions of small producers at work in rural and urban informal activities, it also recognized the importance of industrialization and a better balance in development and the creation of linkages between industry and agriculture.

The fear that concentration on employment generation might slow growth might also have be based on the notion that rapid growth was a function of the assimilation of new technology and that this required primary emphasis on the modern sector embodying the latest techniques. Raising productivity was in effect the continuous application of improved technology in all branches of economic activity.

Emphasis on rural development would result in increased food production. And with a greater and more stable access to overseas markets, the scope for productive employment in export production would grow. But the proposed approach to development also stressed the need for participation at all levels of the economy.

Clearly, designing and implementing the development strategies and policies that would promote simultaneously economic growth, employment of poverty alleviation, leading to the satisfaction of basic needs, was no simple task and the difficulties should not be underestimated. But experience had established certain basic facts. First, the formulation of basic-needs targets and strategies was essentially a matter for each country. Second, a multipronged attack was required in which many policy elements must be reconciled. And third, provided there is political will, basic-needs policies could be successfully carried out in countries with widely differing social and political systems.

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