PROMOTING PRO-POOR GROWTH: EMPLOYMENT- © OECD 2009 Employment is the Major Route out of Poverty: How Donors Can Help

Productive employment and decent work needs to be a key objective of development co-operation and receive greater attention in policy dialogue with developing countries. Productive employment and decent work are the main routes out of poverty, including in fragile environments, and are crucial for achieving the MDGs. Specific measures need to be taken to improve employment, productivity and working conditions in the informal economy, facilitate formalisation, encourage entrepreneurship and promote more, productive and decent employment in the formal economy. The participation of women and young people in the labour market needs to increase, including by addressing gender-based discrimination, and the constraints and barriers that women and young people face as well as by strengthening measures to improve access to demand-driven vocational training. Efforts by partner countries to improve the availability of reliable, sex-disaggregated statistics should be supported because these are crucial for understanding the functioning and dynamics of both the formal and informal labour markets and enhance evidence-based policy-making