29 Mar 2011

UN / ILO LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

The latest UN report on growth and employment released today said that diversifying production rather than relying on commodity exports is crucial to boosting the economies of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). UNTV/ FILE

Posted at: March 29, 2011 3:44 pm

Duration: 01:58

Available in: SD

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STORY: UN / ILO LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES 
TRT: 1.58
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 29 MARCH 2011, NEW YORK CITY

SHOTLIST:

RECENT 2011, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters

29 MARCH 2011, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, press conference
3. Cutaway, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jose Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Director of the Employment Sector, ILO:
"The report starts by recognizing the growth revival or the growth acceleration in LDCs in the last decade, and it recognizes some of the progress as good news but it also point out that this growth did not produce sufficient social and economic returns or benefits."
5. Cutaway, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Jose Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Director of the Employment Sector, ILO:
"If we look at Sub-Saharan Africa agriculture provides employment and incomes for around two thirds of the labour force. Unfortunately there is an impressive gap in average yields in food productions. The average yield in Sub-Saharan Africa is only half of the world's average. For instance it is one thousand kilograms per hectare in the region compared with five thousand in China, and four thousand three hundred in Indonesia."
7. Cutaway, journalists and cameraman
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jose Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Director of the Employment Sector, ILO:
"The reasons for all of this is lack of investment in infrastructure from roads to irrigation, to extension services. In some cases too rapid trade liberalization and dismantling of state support for small farmers. In some countries the real appreciation of the exchange rate has also played a role and also a fold in donor support for agriculture."

FILE / UNMIS / 2009, JUBA, SUDAN

9. Wide shot, Juba market
10. Med shot, imported fruits
11. Med shot, Juba market

FILE / WORLD BANK / 20 NOVEMBER 2010, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI

12. Wide shot, construction site with workers
13. Wide shot, worker twisting iron
14. Med shot, worker cutting metal

FILE / UNHCR, FEBRUARY 2009, KAKUMA, KENYA

15. Wide shot, hair dresser and customer
16. Med shot, mirror reflection of hair dresser braiding customer's hair

FILE / UNIFEM / DATE UNKNOWN / COCHABAMBA, BOLIVIA

17. Wide shot, women working in a produce market

FILE / WORLD BANK / MAY 2008, YELLAREDDY, ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA

18. Med shot, women filling sacks with rice

STORYLINE:

Diversifying production rather than relying on commodity exports is crucial to boosting the economies of the least developed countries (LDCs) a quarter of the world's total, according to an International Labor Organization (ILO) report launched today at the United Nations in New York.

Providing figures and trends for 2000-2009 period, the report "Growth, Employment and Decent Work in the Least Developed Countries" shows that employment in LDCs had grown at an annual average rate of 2.9 per cent, slightly above population growth but much weaker than the gross domestic product (GDP). Most of the increase took place in the services sector, with industry accounting for a mere 10 percent of total employment in 2008, up from 8 percent in 2000.

Briefing journalists on the Report, the Executive Director of the Employment Sector at ILO, Jose Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs said that the report noted growth revival or growth acceleration in the LDCs in the last decade, but as it recognized some of the progress as good news it also pointed out that that growth "did not produce sufficient social and economic returns or benefits."

The share of wage and salary workers increased slightly, from 14 per cent in 2000 to 18 per cent in 2008 but the large majority of workers remained trapped in vulnerable forms of employment that cannot lift them above the poverty line.

On the production side Salazar said that looking at Sub-Saharan Africa agriculture provided employment and incomes for around two thirds of the labour force. "Unfortunately there is an impressive gap in average yields in food productions", he said adding that the average yield in Sub-Saharan Africa was only half of the worlds average.

The report continues that the Asian least developed countries did a bit better and in the island LDCs there was a history of slow growing agriculture.

Salazar said that the reason for the slow growth was the lack of investment in infrastructure from roads to irrigation, to extension services, and in some cases too rapid trade liberalization and dismantling of state support for small farmers.

Among policy suggestions the report called for implementing labour market and social policies that encourage the transition from the informal to the formal economy, protecting the incomes of the most vulnerable groups, and setting up a range of labour market institutions to cover areas such as employment protection legislation and minimum wages. Collective bargaining and freedom of association have important developmental impacts, it adds.

Of the 48 countries currently designated by the UN as LDCs, 33 are in the African region, 14 in Asia and Oceania and one (Haiti) in the Caribbean.

The report was prepared for a conference on LDCs to be held in Istanbul from 9 to 13 May, which will seek to promote a 10-year programme for food security, decent work, disaster risk reduction, climate resilience and clean energy growth in the 48 LDCs.

Filed under 07.03.00 - TRADE IN MANUFACTURES; BARRIERS TO TRADE 07.05.00 - TRADE RELATED FINANCE 12. - EMPLOYMENT File UNTV - United Nations Television.