How labour and macroeconomic policies can contribute towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals
Paragraph 76 (v) of the Nairobi Maafikiano states that UNCTAD should “assess, in cooperation with other relevant international organizations such as the International Labour Organization, the impact of labour and employment policies on economic growth, including the interrelation between macroeconomic and labour policies”.
In particular, at the session, participants will explore the links between employment and, respectively, macroeconomic policies and the international context, with the aim of highlighting the main elements of a consistent policy framework.
Within a macroeconomic setting, the most salient issues will be the roles of income distribution, and hence wage and employment and social protection, as well as fiscal policies, in ensuring healthy growth of aggregate demand and investment.
Participants at the session will also address, from this perspective, the gender dimension of such macroeconomic and employment policies. In the international context, salient issues will be a global monetary system that does not rely exclusively on global capital markets.
The session will highlight the structural limits to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals posed by two trends: on the one hand, global retrenchment of labour income shares and fiscal policy eroding domestic demand, forcing a tendency to rely on the growth of net exports; and, on the other hand, hazardous dependency on global financial markets which imposes limits to domestic policy space. By implication, the session will aim at highlighting the degree of reforms and policy effort that are required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Contributions by Experts
Experts are encouraged to prepare articles on the subject under discussion. Written papers and contributions must be submitted to the UNCTAD secretariat by Friday, 22 February 2019.
These papers will be made available at the multi-year expert meeting in the form and language in which they are received.
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Topic
Macroeconomics South-South cooperationMeeting series
Contact
UNCTAD secretariat
Intergovernmental Support Service
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Fax: 41 22 917 0214
E-mail: meetings-unctad@un.org
Division on Globalization and Development Strategies
E.: alex.izurieta@unctad.org