Full Employment and Focus on Decent Work Will Make Poverty Eradication Effective

On the occasion of the International Day for
the Eradication of Poverty, the ITUC has pointed to a series of clear steps which need to be taken in order to make poverty eradication effective.

With only three years left before the deadline for the global poverty goal (MDG1), much more effort needs to be made to implement full employment and decent work policies.

“Worldwide unemployment and poverty have grown enormously since the beginning of the economic and financial crisis in 2008. Again, we need to remind the world that powerful financial and business elites are still dictating policy and that ordinary people continue to suffer,” stated Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary.

According to the ITUC, to eradicate poverty around the world, governments should concentrate on action to create jobs and to ensure regulation of banks and finance, to make them focus on growth and development in the real economy. Official development aid must be maintained and where possible increased, rather than sacrificed on the altar of austerity.