ESCAP and ILO support the creation of regional research network on employment and inclusive growth

ESCAP South and South-West Asia Office and ILO’s Decent Work Team in South Asia are supporting an innovative research and capacity-building network to bring South Asia closer to an inclusive growth path and provide better jobs and social protection to people across the subregion who are missing out on the benefits of growth.

The South Asia Research Network for Employment and Inclusive Growth was launched in New Delhi on 21 May 2013, with a panel of distinguished experts from five South Asian countries, chaired by Dr. G.K. Chadha, President of South Asian University. The panel included Professor Abhijit Sen, Member of the Planning Commission, Government of India.

The three-year project places strong emphasis on building capacity of decision and policy-makers in the subregion to formulate evidence-based policies to promote growth paths that can increase the formalization of the labour market and the proportion of decent jobs, as well as reduce social exclusion. It also aims to enhance understanding and awareness of the interaction among many social, economic and institutional factors affecting labour markets and social exclusion.

The project will be coordinated by the Institute for Human Development in India jointly with ESCAP South and South-West Asia Office and ILO’s Decent Work Team in South Asia, with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. SARNEIG will cover five countries across South Asia: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Prominent experts on growth, employment and social protection from the subregion along with institutional partners from each of the five countries involved in the project participated in a two-day inception workshop held on 21 and 22 May at the India International Centre.

“It’s only natural to wonder why growth in this subregion has not led to greater poverty reduction and job creation... A priority area, which is expected to guide the policy agenda for the coming years is to create more decent jobs and to drive the inclusive and sustainable aspect of growth”, commented Dr. Nagesh Kumar, Director, ESCAP South and South-West Asia Office at the launch of the project. “One needs to look at the structural changes that need to be fostered to pull out the lagging regions...”

The workshop indeed considered the challenges to improving inclusive growth in South Asia and the pathways to better growth for all by addressing critical needs and challenges in employment and social protection across the five countries.

Workshop participants highlighted common challenges for employment in South Asia such as high levels of informality, low respect for workers’ rights, non-existing or weak regulations and poor working conditions -- all of which contribute to low productivity and low value-added production. Experts stressed that the need for decent work will only become more acute as most countries in the subregion face a large youth bulge, with millions of young people about to join the workforce or having just entered the labour market, many with great expectations of finding decent and productive work.
“Employment is certainly moving up to the top of the agenda”, noted Ms. Tine Staermose, Director, International Labour Organization in New Delhi, highlighting the four pillars of decent work. “The global economic crisis has shattered many illusions about employment... It is urgent that new evidence and analytical insights be effectively communicated to policy makers”, she said.

South Asian experts also discussed the vast gaps in social protection that exist across the subregion and the subsequent costs to faster economic and social development and wellbeing. Most people in South Asia have never had access to most forms of social protection (from social safety nets such as unemployment and health insurance, pensions, benefits for disadvantaged individuals and population subgroups including single parents, care-takers, people with disabilities) to the delivery and access to social services including decent education opportunities, decent lifelong health care, or access to adequate water, sanitation and energy.

The project aims to generate applied research and policy networks in order to evolve solutions for the implementation of a basic social protection floor. This would form the basis of, or staircase towards a universal social protection system to boost social inclusion and accelerate economic growth.

The project will also focus on generating research and policy to address the wider macroeconomic conditions necessary for inclusive growth. There is space to redouble national efforts for more productive patterns of work and focus on high value-added sectors of economic activity. Social protection often requires large-scale investments in infrastructure and public goods as well as better institutions to deliver services and respond to basic needs. Greater macroeconomic stability and resilience to economic and other shocks along with greater ownership of public spending are among important elements for countries to move forward and develop faster.

The project aims to generate national country studies on employment and inclusive growth in each of the five countries, as well as a regional South Asia report that will compile good practices and lessons learned to better inform policies and provide policy guidance. In the context of this project, ESCAP and ILO are working with IHD to design workshops for junior researchers to be trained in understanding and analyzing employment and social protection policies in South Asia. Finally, the Network will offer a competitive call for papers to foster a productive and policy-oriented research environment for inclusive growth policies in South Asia.