UNDP suggests Central Banks to add ‘employment targeting’ mandate
View(s):Many Central Banks have a single mandate, namely inflation targeting. However, it is time that they also take on a secondary mandate, that of “employment targeting”, according to Dr. Selim Jahan, Director of the Human Development Report Office, of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He also added that, thus far, the often advocated model of growth-led employment had proven itself ineffective and, as such, it was now time to focus on employment-led economic growth and related strategies.
Dr. Jahan made these comments at the recent local launch of the UNDP’s “Global Human Development Report 2015: Work for Human Development”, a publication for which he was also the lead author. He further opined that countries should consider national employment strategies, which have been shown to be useful in the 27 countries that have adopted them, with good results, thus far. Additionally, he also commented that there were seven million people employed in the global renewable energy sector. And if only six countries, including USA, Indonesia, India, Brazil and South Africa, devoted just 1.2 per cent of their GDP to the renewable energy sector, then there would be 14 million new jobs created every year in this sector alone.
Sri Lanka’s Minister for Special Assignments, Dr. Sarath Amunugama, commented that, today, there were 1.2 million Sri Lankans working abroad, many in the Middle East, which may create problems for this country because of growing unrest and falling oil prices in the region. However, he also noted that the biggest segment were women, by far, and they were remitting in the area of US$ 4 to 5 billion currently, with these remittances having become the mainstay of Sri Lanka’s foreign income. Importantly for the country, these remittances were also being channelled directly to the poorest parts of the population, where it was most needed.
Meanwhile, the newly unveiled UNDP report ranked Sri Lanka as 73rd, out of 188 countries, in terms of the Human Development Index, up by one place since the year before. This means that Sri Lanka is ranked in the high human development category. Notably, the HDI was defined as a “summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living”.
(JH)