Joint ILO-IMF Conference: The Challenges of Growth, Employment and Social Cohesion

The September 13 IMF-ILO conference on “The Challenges of Growth, Employment and Social Cohesion” in Oslo is designed to tackle the difficult—but critical—policy questions posed by the steep rise in joblessness and the setback to growth and poverty reduction. The conference, which is sponsored by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway, will bring together senior government officials, labor and business leaders, and well-known economists to address the possible long-term and short-term responses to the employment crisis and to explore new ways of forging a sustainable, job-rich recovery. Prior to the conference, a discussion paper for the conference roundtables, with contributions authored, respectively, by the IMF and the ILO, and addressing many of the conference issues, will be made available for review and online discussion.

The conference is being held as the outlook for global employment continues to worsen in the wake of the Great Recession, brought on by the financial crisis of 2008. According to ILO estimates, global unemployment in 2010 hovered at some 210 million people, or an increase of 34 million since the eve of the crisis in 2007.

The conference will focus on both short and long-term policy measures. The short-term measures—to be addressed during a morning roundtable discussion—consider the human cost of the financial crisis and how to ease the burden of joblessness. The second roundtable, in the afternoon, will focus on the longer-term policy measures, and address new strategies to kick-start vibrant employment growth and make markets work more for people. It will discuss wage policies, education and training, support to smaller enterprises and 21st century social protection.

By bringing together a diverse group of speakers and participants, the conference will seek to define global solutions to the challenges of unemployment that are relevant to all regions. IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and ILO Director General Juan Somavia will chair the conference. Other high-level participants in the conference will include: President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Prime Minister George Papandreou of Greece, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde of France, U.K. Secretary of State for Labour Iain Duncan Smith, and International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Sharan Burrow. Kemal Derviş, Vice-President of the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution, will also be speaking at the event.

Objectives:

• To encourage a global discussion of the difficult policy questions raised by the sharp rise in unemployment since 2008.
• To broaden the discussion of key issues of employment and social cohesion to include national governments, international organizations, labour and business leaders, as well as academics in one forum.
• To develop consensus on specific policy actions to address the employment crisis.

For more information, please visit the Oslo Conference website. Full video coverage of the conference and press conferences will be available through this website.