at this.Joint Meeting.
Thank
you-SCA/ECWA/ILO/JM/Rev.2
Annex IV
Joint ECA/ECWA Regional Meeting in
Preparation for ILO Tripartite World Conference on Employment, Income Distribution and Social Progress and the International Division of Labour, Tunis, 4 - 7 May 1976
Address to the Opening Session by
Dr# S» Burgan
Assistant Director-General International Labour Office
The Honourable Prime Minister, His Excellency Mr* El Hedi Nouira, Mr» Chairman, ladies.and gentlemen:
It is a great privilege and pleasure for me to address this distinguished
gathering., On "behalf of the Director-General, I would like to express Q,ur . '
great appreciation to the Government of Tunisia and to the United Nations Economic 1 Commissions for Africa and Ilest Asia for having convened this meeting in
preparation for the forthcoming Tripartite T7orld Conference on Employment,
Income Distribution and Social Progress and the International Division of Labour.
We are greatly indebted to the Government of Tunisia for their generous hospitality in providing the facilities for this Conference and for the excellent arrangements made.to ensure its success. The importance attached to this meeting by the
Government of Tunisia is underlined by the presence amidst us this morning of
His Excellency the Prime Minister. ■ ,
. Your Excellency, the central problem of our age is the continued persistence of widespread poverty in many parts of the world. As the document prepared for ..'the World Employment Conference entitled "Employment, Growth and Basic Needs:
A One-World Problem" indicates, more than 700 million people in this world,, live in acute poverty and are destitute, Lt least 460 mi Hi <■_■;.! persons were estimated to suffer from a severe degree of proteins-energy malnutrition even before the recent world food crisis. Scores of millions live constantly under a threat of starvation. Countless millions suffer from habilitating diseases of various
sorts and lack access to the most basic medical services. The number of illiterate adults has grown from 700 million in 1950 to 760 million towards 1970* The
tragic waste of human resources in the Third World is symbolized by nearly 300 million persons unemployed in the mid-1970so
The World Employment Conference will address itself directly to these
problems of poverty and unemployment. The main theme of the Conference document is that the satisfaction of the basic needs of the masses by the year 2000 should
BCA/BCWA/ ILO/ JM/:<ev *2
Annex IV Page 2
become the principal objective of national and international, development efforts.
The basic needs are defined.to include minimum requirements, of a family for ] personal consumption; food, shelter., clothingr access to essential services,
such as safe dririkir,.g--rater, sanitation, transport, health and education, provision of adequately remunerated employment for each person available for and willing to work; a healthy; humans and satisf/ing environment, ^nd popular participation in the making of decisions that1 affect the lives and livelihood of the people
and individual freedomso
The achievement of the basic needs targets over the next quarter of the century will call for wide-ranging changes in national and international policies* At the national level, policies of income redistribution will need to be pursued vigorc-asiyy Greater resources must be allocated to increase employment, incomes and productive capacity in the traditional agricultural and urban informal "sectorr,; Government services in fields such as education, .health, housing, trraisportairion, water etco need to be reorganized to make them; t
accessible to al.U New technologies must bs invented to create productive employment opportunities for one billion persons between now and the end of the century« New. institutions n-ust be devised, to harness tho energies of the people and to ensure :their £ull participation in the development process^
While the pa jor. responsibility for formulating and implementing basic needs oriented-sirs.tegivi will and mu^t.continue to rest with national authorities, external, factors play a crucial rolee Reforms at the national level must: be accompanied and "reinforced fay" appropriate structural changes' at 'the international level. These have been set out; in the International Development Strategy for the Second Decade They have now been supplemented by tho Conclusions of the Sixth and Seventh Special Sessions of the United Nations.General Assembly,' and particularly by the resolution concerning development and international" economic co-operation-.adopted .unanimously by the Seventh Special Session in September 1975-They, call for i-rids^-ranging changes in vhs structures of the world trading and
monetary systems; in rRECurq^ flows to developing countries; in the policies
■ relating to science ar,d teynuology. industrialization' and food production arid economic co-cDeration "ai2oyi§. developing countries.-; Ths purpose of these reforms .is to increase the*..resources available ,to "developing countries and to ensure an equitable disti ibuticn of "benefits from :the growth in v.ho world economy. They will contribute t° the".relief of the world poverty and employment problems, to
;the extent -':tz.?, -.-.atxonal. strategies are focussed en thes3 objectivesa
. The World Ec^loyKSn"!: Conference, will be concerned both with national and international development strategies-. It is different from other world
conferences whioh have been conveiied in' recent years both because of its ■
tripartite nature - con sitting of repres^iitative;.; of govenwier.t, trade unions and employer.-3j_>- .and bscau^o'it vill concern itself with problems in'developing
countries as well j.s developed' market and socialist countries^ At the international level- specific proposals will be discussed in four areas:
international migration, technologies for productive employment, the role of multinational enterprises in employment creation, and active manpower policies and adjustment assistance in developed countries* These subjects are of special interest to the countries in Africa and West Asia& International migration to
ECA/ECWA/H0/jM/9ev.2
Annex IV Page 3
high-income countries is a subject of special interest to several West Asian, North African, Central and Southern African countries. Is it possible to
reach agreement on proposals designed to increase the social welfare and economic security of migrants from these countries and to ensure greater benefits to the sending countries? Can some arrangements be made to meet the manpower demands of the rapidly growing, oil exporting countries in this region? How can more resources be mobilized for research and development in :he field of appropriate technology, and what institutional changes are needed to speed up dissemination of information in this field? What policies can. be devised to ensure a more effective control over the activities of multinational enterprises? What
changes are required to ensure a more effective contribution by such enterprises to the meeting of basic needs, to the development of appropriate technology end products and to training of local personnel and transmission of technical
know-how? Finally, what sort of measures are needed in the industrialized countries to facilitate the emergence of a more balanced international division of labour under which developing countries can progressively export more
manufactured and processed goods?
These are some of the problems to which answers will be sought at the World Employment Conference, The present preparatory meeting organized by the
Economic Commissions for Africa and West Asia can make a major contribution to the success of the World Employment Conference by co-ordinating the position of African and West Asian countries on the policy proposals contained in the Conference document. A similar preparatory meeting was successfully organized
last month by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and a meeting is currently being held in Latin America under the auspices of the Economic Commission for Latin America. These preparatory meetings can make a most valuable contribution to the World Employment Conference next month by stimulating discussion and debate, by presenting regional perspectives to
global analyses and recommendations and by co-ordinating the regional position.
It is to be hoped that the outcome of discussions over the next few days here could be incorporated in a position paper which could serve as an important document for the deliberations in Geneva.
Your Excellency, I would like to take this opportunity once again to thank the organizers of the meeting and the participants for their vital contribution towards the preparation of the World Employment Conference.
Please convey our regards and gratitude to His Excellency the President Habib Bourgiba, an outstanding African and Arab statesman. I feel confident that in our deliberations here, we shall be inspired by his vision and idealism.
ECA/ECWA/lL0/JM/Rev.2
Annex V ■ ;
Joint ECA/ECWA Regional Meeting in
Preparation for ILO Tripartite World Conference on Employment, Income Distribution and Social Progress and the International Division of Labour, Tunis, .4-7 May 1976 "
Address to the Opening Session:,
Mr, -M.Si Al-Attar ■ ..
Executive Secretary, Economic Commission for Western Asia
i
^Ollr Excellency, ■ . • ...
ladies and Gentieten,
First of-'ail,-, pn behalf of the Economic Commission for-Western. Asia, I. ■ should like ,to', express my profound gratitude' to the Government of Tunisia and to His,Excellency Mr..Mohamed Ennaceur, Minister of Social Affairs; for"their kind hospitality, which, has enabled the Economic Commission for Africa and ECWA'-to organize this regional meeting as part of the preparations'for the World Employment Conference. I also wish to thank the International Labour Office for its valuable assistance to our two. commissions,- with the aim of facilitation the work-.of the;meetings Although the Economic Commission for"Western Asia has already- collaborated with the ILO in organizing a regional course last year*
for Arab countries in Africa and Asia, this is the first time that we have1 had-the honour of organizing a meeting oh such a scale jointly with the EGA.
I airi surethat this, coroperation between our two commissions will be extended -toiother fields in order the .better to serve the development process in our respective regions.
Your Excellency, ■.-■■:■■ ....
Ladies and Gentlemen, ' -': .!O1' ■ ..-•■■ . ...
Since the Second World War the economic growth which has benefited most . countries of. the7w0rld has not produced the desired social benefits. At both national and international,., levels it has become evident that economic ^growth over,the past 20 years has not,led'to harmonious development and that the.: ■■.
equitable distribution of the fruits of that growth remains to be assured.
'Now it would seem that national policies aiming at employment creation and the full utilization of available manpower, accompanied by a more equitable international division of labour, would permit a better distribution of income
and a reduction .in poverty, . .
ECA/ECWA/ILO/JM/Rev.2 Annex V
Page 2
The Arab world as a whole, and the 12 member countries of .ECWA in . particular, are also characterise!by the tendency I have described. The problems of employment and income distribution are not identical in all Arab countries; however, despite the lack of accurate statistics, particularly as regards distribution of the national income among different population groups, one can pick out a number of common denominators of the employment situation
in these countries, in particular the decrease in percentage of active population, particularly women. Rarely does one find this exceeding 28 per cent of the