People must be the Object and Focus of Development – PM

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller emphasised on (June 12), that people must be the object and focus of development worldwide.
“We have learnt that economic growth is meaningless, if the majority of the people are left behind in the process,” she said.
Mrs. Simpson Miller was speaking at the 96th Session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Prime Minister said that with its long history of effecting change for the benefit of workers, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) was well placed to continue acting as a conduit for the measures necessary to achieve decent work for all. Mrs. Simpson Miller offered several recommendations to the organisation. “First, in order to advance the decent work agenda, I urge that consideration be given to broadening the existing tripartite arrangement, to embrace other civil partners. Second, members of the tripartite – the government, employers and the trade unions – must intensify their efforts to persuade multilateral agencies to provide additional training, technical co-operation and financial assistance for development initiatives,” she said.
“This is one way in which we could all assist the ILO’s efforts in achieving its decent work agenda,” Mrs. Simpson Miller said.
As defined by the ILO, “decent work is the converging focus of the four strategic objectives, namely rights at work, employment, social protection and social dialogue. It is an organizing concept for the ILO in order to provide an overall framework for action in economic and social development.”
The Prime Minister also suggested that the ILO should continue to lend its voice in a more direct way to the call for a reform of the international financial and trading system; and that the members of the ILO family must insist that the promises of the Doha development agenda are delivered.
“Studies show that the realisation of these objectives has the potential to lift some 500 million people out of poverty if global barriers to trade are removed,” said the Prime Minister.
She also encouraged member states to “amplify and support the call for extra budgetary support for ILO activities.”
In the meantime, Mrs. Simpson Miller urged members of the ILO and leaders everywhere to eradicate poverty and misery.
“I summon you to unite and find the courage and the determination, the will and the way to promote decent work and fight the scourge of poverty. We cannot allow our people to be swept away by the destructive tide of poverty and marginalisation,” she emphasised.
Mrs. Simpson Miller said that the ILO “will always be the conscience of the world, in defence of the rights of the working poor, the marginalised and the most vulnerable in our societies.”