Labour Map 6

1 PART 1 LabourIn developing regions, especially those least devel-oped and those experiencing rapidly rising populations,employment growth is driven mostly by demographicchanges. The majority of workers of these regions donot enter into formal wage employment, but insteadare engaged in self-employment or unpaid family work,such as in agriculture, and especially subsistence farm-ing. Consequently, economic downturns tend to haveonly a limited impact on overall employment growth inthese economies, in contrast to industrialized economieswhere employment growth is closely linked to the busi-ness cycle. Considering that the large share of the work-ing poor are engaged inagriculture, developments inthat sector have a major impact on welfare throughoutmuch of the 2000, agriculture was the mainstay of employmentaround the world.

2 Since then, the services sector hasassumed this mantle and the gap between the two haswidened. Although employment growth in agriculturehas slowed, the number of workers in this sector reachedover one billion in sub-Saharan Africa, growth in agricultural employ-ment accounted for half of all employment growth be-tween 1999 and 2009. In South Asia, nearly 33 per centof all employment growth since 1999 was in contrast, agricultural employment is falling in the de-veloped economies, East Asia and Latin America and theCaribbean regions. At the global level,womenare moreactive in the agricultural sector than men some 38 percent versus 33 per force participationrates are usually highest inthe poorest countries.

3 More people are employed outof necessity than by choice, as only a fraction of theworking-age population can afford not to work. Inthese countries, low unemployment figures in conjunc-tion with high Labour participation rates result in largeswathes engaged in vulnerable employment and manyin working poverty. This holds for many economiesin sub-Saharan Africa, where female participation ratesfeature among the highest in the is the principal driver of the high rate of childlabour in agriculture. Around 60 percent of all childlabourers 129 million girls and boys work in agri-culture. More than two-thirds of them are unpaid familymembers. The agricultural sector has the highest inci-dence of both unpaid child Labour and early entry intothe workforce, which often occurs between the ages offive and 6:No Data< 55 2020 4040 60> 60 Employment in agriculture, share of total employment (%, 2010*)Source: KILM (ILO)Metalink: , p.

4 78 Over 1 billion people are employed inworld agriculture, representing 1 in 3 ofall workers In sub-Saharan Africa over 60 percent ofthe entire workforce are involved in agri-culture18 LABOURNo Data< 55 2020 4040 60> 60 Employment in agriculture, share of total employment (%, 2010*)Chart 12: Employment in agriculture falling worldwide, but the sector still accounts formore than half of total employment in sub-Saharan Africa and South AsiaEmployment in agriculture, share of total employment (1990-2010)%1020304050601995200020052010 DevelopedEast AsiaSouth AsiaSub-S AfricaL. Amer. & : KILM (ILO)Metalink: , p. 7819 PART 1 High rates of child Labour are also caused by lack ofaccess to education, poor quality of education, limitedsupplies of affordable agricultural technology and adultlabour, hazardous practices, and the dominance of tradi-tional attitudes towards children s participation in agri-cultural activities.

5 However, in the context of familyfarming not all participation of children in productiveactivities is considered child Labour . For instance, age-appropriate tasks that do not interfere with a child s com-pulsory schooling and that are not hazardous can be im-portant contributions to the household food security andcan provide children with agricultural and other skills fortheir the overall Labour market, worldunemploymentin2010 stood at 205 million (a rate of percent), whichwas virtually unchanged from the previous year, butover 15 percent higher than the pre-recession level of2007. Well over half of the increase in global unemploy-ment between 2007 and 2010 arose in the developedeconomies, even though this group comprises only one-seventh of the world Labour , which indicatesthe employment-generating capacity of an economy,globally stood at 61 per cent in 2010, around a percent-age point lower than at the onset of global economicturmoil.

6 Put simply, this means that economies aroundthe world are not generating sufficient employment op-portunities to absorb additions to the working-age reading Global Employment Trends 2011 ( ) Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM) ( ) FAO Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division( ) Food, Agriculture & Decent Work ( )Chart 13: Wide variation in the depth of women s partic-ipation in agriculture, but their role more prominent indeveloping countriesWomen in agriculture, % of female employment (2010*)% & : KILM (ILO)Metalink: , p. 79 Chart 14: The need for paid employment is much higherin developing countries and among womenGender employment to gender population ratio (2010*)Male (%)Female (%)5060708020304050607080 Developed countryDeveloping countrySource: KILM (ILO)Metalink: , p.

7 7820 LABOURMap 7: High rates of unemployment afflict many regions, except AsiaNo Data< 55 88 1212 25> 25 Unemployment rates (%, 2009*)Source: KILM (ILO)Metalink: , p. 79 Chart 15: Agriculture forms the bedrock of employmentin the poorest regionsEmployment type (2010)%0%20%40%60%80%100% & : KILM (ILO)Metalink: , p. 78 Chart 16: Considerably less women participate in incomegenerating activities than menLabour force participation rate by gender, ages 15+ (2009)% & : KILM (ILO)Metalink: , p. 7921 PART 1 Capital and investmentInvestment drives growth and development. Additionalnet investment in capital goods (capital formation) suchas expenditure on new machinery, infrastructure andtechnology enables an economy to produce more, andmore efficiently in the future.

8 Investment is vital to pro-moting long-run economic growth by improving produc-tivity and productive its strong impact on welfare, investment is partic-ularly important in agriculture: countries that performedbest in terms of reducing poverty and hunger are alsothose that achieved higher net investment rates per agri-cultural worker. However, there has been a global slow-down in the rate of capital formation in primary agri-culture. While the rate grew annually at percent inthe period 1975 1990, the rate of capital formation wasonly percent during 1991 2007. This reduction wasrecorded in both developed and developing a consequence, in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia that is, regions where many countries experience thehighest prevalence and greatest depth of hunger thegrowth of the population active in agriculture has out-stripped growth of agricultural capital expenditure on agricultureis positively andhighly correlated with capital formation, confirming thedecisive role of such expenditure in creating an enablingenvironment for infrastructure and sustainable access tonatural resources.

9 It also has a significant positive im-pact on productivity: research has shown that increas-ing public spending on agriculture by 10 percent leadsto a percent increase in a country s agricultural totalfactor developing countries have less capacity to fill theinvestment gap. The share of public spending on agricul-ture has fallen to an average of approximately 7 percentin developing countries and even less in Africa. Agricul-turalOfficial Development Assistance(ODA) decreasedby some 58 percent in real terms between 1980 and2005, even though total ODA increased significantly by112 percent over the same period. This means that theshare of ODA going to the agricultural sector fell from 17percent in 1980 to between 5 and 6 percent in 2009, withthe same downward trend observed in national the absence of national funding channels, financingfor the rural agenda has been bolstered by increaseddonor funding.

10 Such assistance represents a large part ofthe agricultural budget in most rural-based 24 sub-Saharan countries, ODA averages 28 per-cent of total agricultural spending, and for Mozambique,Niger, and Rwanda, ODA averages more than 80 8:No Data< 00 11 2> 2 Annual change in agricultural capital stock (% of GDP, 2006 2007)Source: FAO & World BankMetalink: , p. 75 Around USD 100 billion dollars of invest-ment was put into agriculture globally in2007 But this is a fraction of the 5 trillion dol-lars added to world GDP in that year Growth in investment also lags behindpopulation growth in many developingcountries22 CAPITAL AND INVESTMENTNo Data< 00 11 2> 2 Annual change in agricultural capital stock (% of GDP, 2006 2007)Chart 17: Investment in agriculture as a share of GDP extremely lowChange in agricultural capital stock (1987 - 2007)% of AsiaSouth AsiaSub-S AfricaL.