The International Labour Organisation called on Monday for urgent measures to save jobs, at the opening of a summit on the economic crisis marked by fears that unemployment could soar by up to 59 million world-wide. "The world cannot afford to wait for unemployment to come back, several years after economic growth has returned," ILO Director General Juan Somavia said at the opening of the agency's summit on the jobs crisis.
Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy were set to launch appeals for a new world economic and social order during the meeting in Geneva later on Monday, officials said. Earlier, Lula underlined his concerns about the broad impact of the global economic crisis in a separate speech to the UN Human Rights Council in the western Swiss city.
"As the leader of a developing country, I hope that a new international order that rewards production and not speculation will emerge from the crisis," Brazil's president told the Council's 47 member states on Monday. French officials have said that Sarkozy will take a similar stance, outlining his vision of the "social model" that he wants to see emerge from the crisis.
Sarkozy would call for economic, financial and social issues to be dealt with in equal measure, and for a greater role for the ILO in the recovery effirts forged by the Group of 20 major economies, the officials added. Both France and Brazil are members of the G20, alongside major industrialised powers and emerging economies. Somavia called for "renewed leadership" at international level.
"We must urgently set in motion a process of much greater convergence and coherent co-operation among mutlilateral institutions". The ILO has forecats that the financial and economic crisis could force between 39 million to 59 million jobs between 2007 and the end of 2009 The UN's labour agency, a tripartite organisation grouping governments, labour leaders and employers from 183 nations sets and oversees international social standards.
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