World leaders meet in Oslo tomorrow to discuss continuing job losses and ways of reducing poverty as a result of the global crisis in an event that would be exclusively covered by the Sunday Times for its readers.
The day-long conference at the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel titled “The Challenges of Growth, Employment and Social Cohesion” is jointly organized by the ILO and the IMF in collaboration with the Norwegian government.
Key speakers include Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Prime Minister Jose Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain, Prime Minister George Papandreou of Greece, ILO Director-General Juan Somavia, and IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Others include Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Labour of UK; Hanne Bjurstrom, Minister of Labour of Norway; Susana Ackum, State Secretary, Finance Ministry of Sweden; Christine Lagarde, Finance Minister of France and Finance Minister Sigbjørn Johnsen of Norway.
The conference is designed to tackle the critical policy questions posed by the steep rise in joblessness and the setback to poverty reduction and discuss possible policy prescriptions to return economies to broad-based and equitable growth, according to a conference document.
The ILO says the global financial crisis and the ensuing recession have had devastating consequences for employment and poverty reduction. It estimates that 34 million more people worldwide are unemployed now as a result of the crisis. Combating unemployment and striving to attain decent work for all is a key priority as the global economy emerges from the downturn.
Conference organizers said leaders would address possible long-term and short-term responses to the current employment crisis. Various other sessions would discuss the human and social costs of the recent financial and economic crisis, and explore the appropriate short-term policy responses to the employment crisis and how to ease the burden of joblessness.
This is a follow up to the June 2009 ILO ‘Jobs’ Summit in Geneva which brought world leaders to discuss the global crisis and its impact on jobs and poverty, an event that was also exclusively covered by the Sunday Tim es |
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