The Employment Challenge: An Agenda for Global Action. A Policy Paper Commissioned by UNDP for the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, Denmark, March 1995).

In May 1994, 26 experts from 10 countries attended a technical meeting on economic policies and employment. After hearing and discussing eight papers on the nature of the employment problem and its macroeconomic solution, the group formulated an outline for global action that called on nations to act together to increase their chances of providing remunerative and sustainable work for all their citizens. Among the principles and recommendations included in the outline were the following: (1) the industrial countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development must coordinate their policies for faster growth; (2) the momentum toward freer trade must be sustained with reductions in tariffs and other barriers by countries at all levels of development; (3) the system of official development assistance should be revamped to concentrate available resources on the countries that need them most; (4) the outstanding debts of the poorest developing countries should be reduced or eliminated; and (5) basic education for all individuals and retraining for adults are essential preconditions for increasing/upgrading employment everywhere. (Appended are lists of 8 background papers and the 26 participants in the technical meeting.) (MN)