Resource
World Labour Report 2000. Income security and social protection in a changing world.
Summary (English)
An important flagship study from the International Labour Office, the World Labour Report 2000 examines the changing context in which women and men are trying to achieve income security for themselves and their families. Drawing from detailed, worldwide data, this edition assesses the impact of globalization and liberalization, and considers the vital role played by social protection in supporting, supplementing and replacing market incomes. The Report highlights the forces at work in creating greater insecurity for many income earners. It discusses the effects of rising unemployment and underemployment, and of labour market developments which have exposed a growing number of workers, especially women, to low pay and precarious conditions. It considers other factors, such as changing family structures and demographic trends that have created new needs and imposed new constraints. In addition, this wide-ranging study examines existing income protection measures to cater for major contingencies such as old age, incapacity for work, bearing and raising children, and unemployment. Also included are health care - without which many in the developing world are unfit to earn their living - and safety net measures such as social assistance. An efficient economy and an effective system of social protection are both essential for the attainment of income security and a stable society. The Report underlines the direct and immediate relationship between the provision of social protection and decent work, as underlined by Juan Somavia, Director-General of the ILO, in his first report to the International Labour Conference in 1999. The Report finds that the positive impact of social protection on the economy has often been neglected, and that this impact can be enhanced by a better coordination between social protection, labour market and anti-poverty policies. With many social security systems now under reform, future prospects are outlined and an alarm is sounded about the implications of pension fund growth for the instability of global financial markets. Top priority, the Report says, must be given - by civil society, as much as by the State - to finding the most effective means to bring social protection to the majority who still go without.
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