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EMployMEnT, worK, and HEalTH inEqualiTiEs - a global perspective
have undermined the capacity of governments to provide essential
infrastructure, while private provision of essential public
infrastructure raises additional policy dilemmas likely to lead to
suboptimal solutions. overall, in many if not most countries, there
are significant shortfalls in infrastructure that need to be
addressed. While this constitutes a major challenge, it also
accentuates the potential for a relatively rapid, sustainable
reconfiguring of transportation systems, power generation and the
like, once the neo-liberal paradigm is discarded in favour of more
socially inclusive policy settings.
in terms of the specific actions that need to be taken to
simultaneously address the economic crisis, unhealthy employment
conditions, environmental degradation and climate change the
following points can be made.
at the global and regional (for example, the eU) level, there is
a need for governments to agree on a new economic and social
infrastructure. most notably, new and existing agreements on
international trade and commercial arrangements will need to
be re-engineered so that minimum labour, health,
environment and climate protections become an integral part
of them (with a gradual raising of standards over time). This
will not only overcome the disarticulated and health-damaging
discourse that presently occurs but also provide a powerful
economic incentive for all countries to join (something that is
completely absent from present arrangements). The global
restructuring will also require that international agencies
responsible for health and labour standards (Who and iLo)
have a direct and meaningful input into these deliberations
(matched with real sanctions, unlike the largely ineffectual
collaborative efforts of the past (rosentock, cullen, &
fingerhut, 2005). it will also require a fundamental
restructuring or, if this proves impossible, the replacement of
key international agencies governing economic infrastructure,
such as the WTo, the imf, the oecD, and the World Bank,
H. E. Mr Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, shifting away from the neo-liberal agenda that currently
president of the Togolese republic, before his dominates towards one based on sustainable economics and
speech at the ilo summit on the Global Jobs including sufficient expertise in health, labour and social
Crisis (June 15-17, 2009). Geneva issues in order to facilitate more balanced judgements and
(switzerland).
more ample discourse with the iLo and Who. The same
source: © ilo/pool photo ilc (2009)
applies to agencies directing economic, trade and commercial
arrangements at the regional level (for example, neo-liberal
policy remains dominant within the european commission and
nafTa). furthermore, global campaigns based around
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