BROADENING COHERENCE AND COLLABORATION FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH EMPLOYMENT AND DECENT WORK

International Labour Organization Division for Social Policy and Development, UN-DESA Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division, Food and Agricultural Organization Inter- agency Technical Meeting on BROADENING COHERENCE AND COLLABORATION FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH EMPLOYMENT AND DECENT WORK 14-15 November 2011 IFAD Rome Italy --Concept note -- I. Purpose of the meeting Rural areas are home to half the world population and some 75 percent of the world s poor. They are marred by several decent work deficits and challenges: higher rates of unemployment and underemployment, especially among youth and women; limited social protection; widespread informal activities, temporary or casual labour, and poor and dangerous working conditions; prevalence of child labour; exclusion from the scope of labour laws; and disadvantaged groups such as migrants, indigenous peoples, and particularly women have limited rights and lack voice. There are gaps in implementing standards and rights at work in agriculture and rural employment, especially those working under informal work arrangements. 1

Yet rural areas also hold considerable potential for economic growth, high returns, and productive jobs and livelihoods. Rural employment is strategic to food security and poverty reduction and is an engine for economic growth in many developing countries. There are sizeable challenges to be tackled in order to unleash rural development potential. There is a strong need for coherence, coordination and collaboration among the national and international actors to have an important impact in interventions, and to make decisive advances in the socio-economic outlook of rural women and men, their communities and countries, and globally. The United Nations system is ata particularly propitious conjuncture to jointly engage in rural development work: Rural development lies at the core of poverty eradication, a priority objective of the international community, including the 2nd United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2008-2017) under a theme Full employment and decent work for all and the inter-agency Plan of action for the Decade. It is also central to a number of other pressing concerns shared by most agencies and their national constituents, from economic growth and crisis resilience, to food security and climate change, to youth employment, empowerment of women, management of migration flows and socio-political stability. The national and global economic architecture are being redesigned following the ongoing economic crisis. Key components of the new architecture include redirecting investment to the sectors, areas and policies most likely to boost economic growth and strengthen resilience to future crises; making growth job-rich (and income-rich) and ensuring social inclusion. The recent upheavals in the Arab world are reinforcing the relevance of these components. There is a need to seek alternative investment targets and modalities, and move from the thus far predominant urban-based growth and development model, to rural-driven growth and development. Employment and decent work is becoming a common language in the UN and the development community at large, as well as at country level, facilitating joint activities. II. Background TheInter-agency meeting is intended as a continuation and a follow up of the Inter-agency technical meeting on Building employment and decent work into sustainable recovery and development the UN contribution held in Turin in November 2010, in two ways: By moving from research and debate on the need for job-rich and decent work-based growth, that was a main focus of that 2010 meeting, and from agreement on the relevance 2

of coherence and coordination among agencies, that was one of its core conclusions, to identifying specific areas for action and modalities for collaboration, including a division of labour based on comparative advantages and complementarities a timetable and impact targets. (see Annex 1, to be filled by UN agencies and other institutions to allow a mapping of capacities). By focusing action on a dimension that attracted considerable attention in Turin meeting rural development. III. Objectives The Inter-agency meeting aims at establishinga broad coherence and collaboration to set Unleashing of rural development through employment and decent work as a core element of national and international development strategies. The meeting will discuss a set of complementary themes (among others, issues emerged from the discussions at the Turinmeeting). Each session would address the following three questions: (a) What are the relevance/potential and the challenges that needs to be addressed? (b) What are the options for action? (c) How to build coherence and collaboration among agencies (and other actors invited to the meeting), based on comparative advantages? The outcome of each session will include an identification of specific areas of collaboration, as well as a set of concrete, practical and country-level initiatives to be undertaken jointly (by two or more agencies and other institutions, including donors, participating in the technical meeting). These could be new initiatives, or initiatives building on existing ones, to enrich them or increase their outreach. To make the discussions on future collaboration more concrete, promoting ruralfriendly value chains could be chosen as special focus. Rural-friendly refers to the goal of ensuring that national and global agribusiness value chains entail strong returns for rural stakeholders, including small scale producers and other small entrepreneurs, in terms of capacity to access those value chains, to have a voice in them, to obtain fair prices and income, to receive support for strengthening productivity and product quality, and to move towards higher valueadded agricultural, industrial and service activities; and land investments and their implications on labour and for agricultural and rural development. 3

Choosing this theme would allow taking on board a number of important topical concerns, such a support to small scale producers, increasing rural productivity and incomes, rural industrialization, diversification and access to markets, food security, as well as promoting productive employment and entrepreneurship among youth and women. IV. Organizational and Administrative Matters Rural development and rural employment are important components of the UN system-wide Plan of Action for the 2 nd UN Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2008-2017). Participants will include focal points of the 2 nd UN Decade for the Eradication of Poverty; regional organizations such as African Union; NEPAD; regional economic commissions COMESA, ECOWAS; key rural-relevant NGOs such as ICA and Oxfam; private sector representatives such as main employers and workers organizations like IUF; development partners; and select media. The meeting will be organized by International Labour Organization, Division for Social Policy and Development, UN-DESA and the Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division, Food and Agricultural Organization and held from14-15november 2011,IFAD premises, Rome, Italy. 4

Annex 1. A mapping of institutions core goals/values, assets offered and assets sought Core competencies for rural development offered and sought Institution Core goals and values Offered Sought ILO Promote job rich growth, Fight poverty, Protect and empower disadvantaged groups, Social dialogue, Broad participatory approach to development, Improve employability, Support entrepreneurship and help improve performance of agricultural and other enterprises, Improve the lives and livelihoods of populations; Gender equity Technical areas: Expertise and over 50 ruralrelevant tools in employment policies, women, youth, skills development, career guidance, entrepreneurship support (including MSMs and women entrepreneurship), cooperatives, value chains, micro finance, green jobs, Local Economic Development, Employment Intensive Investment (from large public works to community based infrastructure), child labour, indigenous populations, disabled persons, occupational safety and health, wages and other working conditions, HIV/AIDS, social coverage, migration social coverage, post crisis rehabilitation, labour administration, labour inspection, international labour standards (over 30 International Conventions directly relevant to agriculture + others on fisheries, mining and other rural relevant areas) Widespread, direct presence and contacts in rural areas Links with agriculture, forestry, fishing and other rural relevant authorities Expertise in the technicalities of rural activities (ex. skills in how to plant trees, turn a log into a piece of furniture, etc.) Links to strategic macro economic decisionmakers at national and international level. ( Ministries of Finance, of Investment, etc.) Links with employers and workers organizations (so with the private sector), including strengthening of those organizations, and social dialogue Sectors: Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, Mining, Food Processing, Textiles, Hotels and Tourism Main 10 15 approaches/tools to offer: Employment intensive infrastructure investment (ex.irap); Entrepreneurship (KAB, SIYB, MATCOM training for management of cooperatives Value chain development); Rural microfinance; Local Economic Development (LED); Communitybased skills development (TREE); Biz up selfemployment skills for young people; Working conditions (Ergonomic checkpoints in agriculture, Extending social security to all, 5

STEP tools for health micro insurance, Work improvement in neighbourhood development ( WIND), Supporting Children s rights through education, the arts and the media (SCREAM), tackling hazardous child labour in agriculture, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples rights, International Labour Conventions and Recommendations IFAD FAO FAO vision is a world free of hunger and malnutrition where food and agriculture contributes to improving theliving standards of all, especially the poorest, in an economically, socially and environmentallysustainable manner. The three Global Goals of Members are: 1. reduction of the absolute number of people suffering from hunger, progressively ensuring a world in which all people at all times have sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietaryneeds and food preferences for an active and healthy life (productive rural employment contributes to all food security dimensions (food availability, access & utilization, and stability over time); 2. elimination of poverty and the driving forward of economic and social progress for all, with increased food production, enhanced rural development and sustainable livelihoods(promoting decent rural employment contributes to sustainable livelihoods, by fostering human resource development); 3. sustainable management and utilisation of natural resources, including land, Technical areas: FAO has decades of expertise in supporting policies and programmes designed to benefit self employed producers, farmers, fishers and forest users, as well as other rural workers. Much of FAO s work directly and indirectly promotes employment. The selfassessment carried out in 2008 showed that FAO has a wealth of expertise in employment creation and enterprise development related to agriculture and rural development. It includes links with producers organizations, including strengthening of those organizations, and social dialogue. FAO has a comparative advantage in improving rural livelihoods, addressing decent work conditions and creating employment in agriculture and rural areas. FAO will continue to work towards an integrated approach on decent rural employment harnessing the multidisciplinarity of different technical units and involving decentralized offices. Sectors: Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, Food Processing, Agribusiness and Rural Entrepreneurship, Natural Resources Management. Approaches/tools to offer: Farmer Field and Business Schools (FFS and FBS); Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools (JFFLS) for rural youth; Integrated Production and Pest Management through FFS (IPPM / FFS) and FAO s work on pesticides use and management; Socio economic and Gender Analysis (SEAGA); FAO Ex Ante Tool for Ranking Policy Alternatives; FAO Guidelines for rapid appraisals of agrifood chain Expertises in adapted mechanisms and practices supporting implementation of International Labour Standards in agricultural and rural contexts, including informal ones. Support extension of gender aware social protection mechanisms to workers in both formal and informal rural economy, by creating synergies with social economy initiatives and the agricultural policies and programmes. Links to strategic macro economic decisionmakers at national and international level (Ministries of Finance, of Investment, etc.) and to agricultural and rural development plans investment plans and processes Support to enabling environments for youthled innovation for rural employment and decent work promotion Support innovative territorial approaches for rural employment promotion that strengthen farm/non farm and urban rural linkages and adequately respond to the needs and constraints of the informal economy in rural areas and promote gender equity. 6

UNDP World Bank Other NGOs ICA Oxfam Other water, air, climate and climate and genetic resources, for the benefit of present and future generations.(sustainable rural livelihoods for current and future generations hinge upon the responsible management of natural resources. Rural employment is closely related to FAO s goals. Productive rural employment contributes to food security in all its dimensions (availability, access & utilization, and stability over time). Besides, promoting decent rural employment contributes to sustainable livelihoods, enhancing human capacity. And, for the nature of the livelihoods of rural populations, sustainable management of the natural resource base is essential. Commitment to results, respect for all, integrity, Results Based Management and accountability; transparency and professionalism; gender equity. performance in developing countries; Training approaches and materials for improving farm management skills of extension workers and farmers; FAO guide and resources on contract farming; FAO TECA (Technology for Agriculture); FAO Guides on Bioenergy initiatives and on Origin linked products; FAO website, manuals and tools on land tenure; Rural Finance Learning Centre; FAO Guides and materials on rural finance, business management for small scale agro processors; FAO Guides on material on agricultural cooperatives and rural group savings; FAO material on climate change and climate smart agriculture; FAO tools for assessments in emergencies and post crisis recovery; FAO Education for rural people toolkit; FAO LINKS (gender, biodiversity and local knowledge) and Market Analysis and Development (MA&D) approach; FAO s work on responsible fisheries; FAO s work on livestock. For more information: FAO (2010): Guidance on how to address rural employment and decent work concerns in FAO country activities (http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1937e/i19 37e.pdf) 7