Poverty Reduction Through Employment and Labor Markets

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market
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Background
The research paper Poverty Alleviation, Employment, and the Labor Market was prepared by Mr. Rizwanul Islam, director of the Recovery and Reconstruction Department of the International Labour Organization. The paper was prepared under the lessons from the Asian experience and policies. This was delivered at the Asia and Pacific Forum on Poverty: Reforming Policies and Institutions for Poverty Reduction, to be held at the Asian Development Bank, Manila, 5-9 February 2001.
Meaning of Poverty
The term Poverty is used to define the minimum adequate standard of living in a particular area. The head count index of poverty is based on consumed expenditure for the population of a country or region. A certain amount of nutritional intake value is been determined to set up the line of Poverty. Thus people who consume less than that are said to be poverty stricken i.e. they lie below the poverty line. There is no country to be found in this world where the poverty level is totally zero. So poverty is present in everywhere in the world. But there are some regions that are identified where the rate is higher like Africa, Latin America and most importantly Asia. These are, in fact, the developing regions in comparison with others. Asia is still considered as the home of over two-thirds of the worlds poor. So, poverty alleviation is the key issue over here to get discussed with.
Poverty Alleviation: In Asian Context
Poverty is considered as one of the most important factors to be taken care of especially for the Asian region. Lots of Asian countries particularly South Asian side needs to get considered here mostly. Here the national poverty rate is very much higher than the other countries (instantly recent data shows the poverty rate of Bangladesh is almost 40% in national context). Still most of the people of these countries live below the poverty line. But the encouraging news over here is that the after implementing certain effective steps by the governments of these nations, the poverty alleviations in this region has come into the shape. The record of poverty alleviation in Asia provides a better performance than that of other developing regions.
The poverty-declining rate of Asia has come at a substantial form. Despite this achievement, however, there is very little room for complacency. Things are not the same in all over the places. Within Asia, there is a wide variation in the 1
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progress made in reducing poverty. Regarding the countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia, they have achieved impressive reductions in poverty for the last few years. They have come to the stage of only one step shorter to be regarded as developed countries. On the other hand, the performance of the South Asian countries has been rather modest. Furthermore, the recent economic crisis really got down some of the gains in poverty reduction in these arrears. Therefore, sustained reduction in poverty still remains as a live issue on the Asian development agenda.
Key Issues in Reducing Poverty in Asia
As we can see that the huge diversity of the Asian context with respect to poverty reduction enables us to illustrate useful lessons in this regard. At this we better realize the importance of poverty alleviation in this region. Keeping this thing in mind, some significant key issues might come up with the target of reducing poverty in Asia. After considering the total situation, we get that income is an important aspect of poverty. Accordingly productive employment is a key determinant of income. And higher income of Nation leads towards the higher Economic growth. With a higher rate of National GDP or output, a country is very much in alleviating its poverty condition. So, we have come to the decision of getting the importance of two important factors in poverty alleviation in Asia. These are
Employment Labor Market Outcomes.
With the advancement of these two, the Economic growth of a country can be ensured simultaneously. As from the pattern of the Asian countries that have achieved outstanding success in poverty alleviation, we can see the overall economic growth of those countries played a significant role at that moment. Countries like China, Japan, Korea, Thailand; Malaysia etc have specified a great importance to the nature and content of economic growth or GDP growth for their country perspective for achieving the goal of poverty alleviation. Therefore, Understanding the value of economic growth of a country, we need to emphasize on the role that Employment and the Labor market played in reducing poverty in Asia. It could therefore be said that decent and productive employment is one of the best ways of poverty alleviation. It also highlights policies and programs that are required to strengthen the contribution of labor market outcomes to the objective of poverty reduction. In fact, these are the two key issues that are needed to get considered over here.
The Role of Employment

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In case of poverty alleviation, output growth is a significant issue to get accustomed with. Output growth generally refers to the incomes of the poor. For the employees who are employed as wage laborers and salaried workers, the quantity of employment and the rate of remuneration are crucial for them. In contrast, people who are self-employed and highly paid in cases, the important issue for them are the productivity and returns, which in turn are influenced by a host of factors, like technology, inputs and prices of inputs and outputs. Thus we can find out that Employment- is the basic link between output growth and poverty alleviation. With more employment opportunity for the people, the chance of more is declining the rate of Poverty alleviation. Employment plays a significant role in poverty alleviation. This is indicated by the contrasting experiences between the more successful countries of East Asia and South-East Asia like the Peoples Republic of China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand; and the less successful ones of South Asia like Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka etc. Countries of South Asia were less successful in achieving the employment-augmenting growth and also less successful in reducing poverty. The high output growth was accompanied by employment growth at higher rate.
Statistics From ILO
From the statistics of The International Labor Organization (ILO)s World Employment Case for 1996/97, we get that between 1986 and 1993, in the countries of East Asia and Southeast Asia with the sole exception of Indonesia, employment grew at more than 3% per annum, while in countries like India and Pakistan, employment performance was weaker. The contrast in this respect is sharper for Employment in manufacturing sector. The Growth and Elasticity of employment in manufacturing really varies in certain different countries of Asia.
Table-1: Growth and Elasticity of Employment in Manufacturing in Selected Countries of Asia
Country Name
Bangladesh
1975-80
-
1981-85
-
1986-92
3.07
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China, PRC India Indonesia Korea, Republic Malaysia Pakistan Philippines Thailand
4.26 (0.68) 6.42 (0.33) 7.96 (0.53) 10.27 (0.67) 0.08 (0.01) 14.14 (3.66) 4.01 (0.61)
-1.18 12.45 (0.76) 3.55 (0.36)
5.00 1.41 (0.20) 8.00 (0.66) 3.70 (0.30) 11.20 (0.84) 1.54 (0.20) 6.47 (0.39) 3.76 (0.38)
1.78 (0.21) -7.49 3.29 (0.68)
* Figures within parenthesis represent elasticity of employment with respect to output growth.
Here we find out that during 1986-92, in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand, the growth in manufacturing employment was much higher than in India and Pakistan. The same is true of 1975-80. During the early 1980s, a recession in Malaysia and the Philippines led to declines in manufacturing employment. But these countries were able to reverse that trend with very high rates of growth after 1985. Such high rates of growth in manufacturing employment enabled countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand to achieve significant structural shifts in employment, which in turn led to a tightening of the labor market and a rise in real wages. This is how; they aid the process of poverty reduction in their particular areas.
The Role of Labour Market
Another important aspect of Poverty Alleviation is the Labor market, which is the development or growth of real wages for workers. As the economies of many Asian countries remain pre dominating by Agriculture and the agricultural laborers often constitute a large proportion of the poor in rural areas, the real wages of such workers are extremely crucial to their levels of living. On the other hand, as an agrarian economy undergoes structural transformation i.e. agricultural dominance declines and industry & service sector increases; the surplus/underemployed labor force moves out from 4
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agricultural to the manufacturing and service sector. Thus wage rates in the latter would also be important in achieving poverty reduction. In this way, a large number of the poor could be engaged in rural non-farm activities and in a variety of activities in the urban informal sector like small-scale industries. Therefore the important determinants of poverty can be wage rates and earnings of such people.
Linkage Between Poverty and Real Wage
It is always difficult to establish the linkage between poverty and real wages mentioned above for a variety of reasons. These are,
In developing countries, there are still traditional institutions and practices remain at a high rate. So it is quite difficult to conceptualize and quantify wages especially because of the practice of paying wages in kind. The concept of discrimination in workplace of different basis (Like sex, age, race etc) is still very much on in those areas. So there is no proper distribution of wages for all the employees working at same level. Then, a large segmentation of these economies is not often covered by a systematic practice of collecting data on wages. What is thus available is usually fragmentary, non-standardized, and hence, often non-comparable. It may, however, be possible to have some idea about broad trends and provide at least a heuristic argument on the linkage between poverty and real wages.
Statistical Indication
From the statistical indication of World Bank, World Development Case, 1995, we can get the way to scrutinize the differences in the growth of real wages between countries that attained an impressive reduction in poverty and also between those countries where poverty reduction was rather modest. Here we can mention about the two countries- The Indonesia and the Republic of Korea who have achieved high rates of real wage growth in manufacturing as well as their Agricultural sector. The record of poverty reduction was impressive in both countries at different levels. Although the growth of the manufacturing wage was not so high, the growth in real wages in agriculture was higher in the country Malaysia. Here the incidence of poverty has also declined sharply. Thailand is another Southeast Asian country that has achieved a very substantial reduction in poverty. Although there is no data on 5
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the agricultural wage for that country, data on the manufacturing wage rate indicates the importance of this variable in reducing poverty. Another extreme point lies in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, where a real wage rate in agriculture actually is in a declining mode. We can see over India, the growth rates of real wages were rather modest in both agriculture and manufacturing areas. But it is also well known that the records of poverty alleviation in East Asian and Southeast Asian countries are much more impressive than these South Asian countries.
Table-2: Growth Rates of Real Wages in Agriculture and Manufacturing in Selected Asian Countries (% per year)
Country
Growth of Agricultural Wages

Period Growth Rate
- 0.73 1.82 3.74 7.06 3.96 2.94 - 1.10 - 1.06 N/A 1960-91 1960-90 1976-88 1960-78 1971-92 1970-92 1960-77 1980-90 N/A
Growth in Manufacturing Wages

Period
1967-89 1963-90 1970-91 1966-91 1968-92 1963-88 1963-91 1966-90 1970-90
Growth Rate
- 1.05 1.74 5.52 9.09 2.18 4.89 0.89 1.03 3.00
Bangladesh India Indonesia Korea, Republic Malaysia Pakistan Philippines Sri Lanka Thailand
The Economic Crisis Incidence
While the discussion is going on all about the Poverty alleviation through the proper implementation of Employment and Labour market in the economic sector of the developing countries of South Asia, there comes another key important concern in this regard. This issue is known as Economic Crisis. The term refers to the reduction in the degree of underemployment and in the extent of dependence on the informal sector. At the same time, it indicates the high rates of real wage growth in an economy. The recent economic crisis in Asia really had a bittier impact on the poverty alleviation projects and plans. While underemployment and the dependence on the informal sector increased, real wage rates declined sharply in all sectors. As a result, the impressive achievements made in reducing poverty were reversed. The countries in Asia were seriously affected by the economic crisis incident.
Statistical Information
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From the beginning, it has been concerned that Asian region are one of the sufferer of Poverty setback and in this connection, Poverty alleviation is one of the major challenges to be faced by the government of this region. At this, the two best possible issues have been identified as employment and Real wage condition to get implemented for Poverty alleviation program. But the Economic crisis incident made the total thing abandon and the Asian countries got seriously exaggerated through that. According the statistical record of ILO, 1999- the incidence of poverty appears to have doubled during the crisis period. Another case (Lee, 1998) shows that in other countries especially in Korea Republic and Thailand, degradation in real wages and increases in unemployment were reflected in increases in poverty. The Crisis had a severe impact on the economic condition of the Asian countries that even some countries East Asia and Southeast Asia who are in a comparative better position, got affected in their real wage rates.
Table-3: Growth Rates of Real Wages in Southeast Asian Countries Before and During the Economic Crisis
Country Name
Percentage Change in Real Wages 1996 1997

8.7 2.4 3.3 - 1.1 1.4
1998
- 41.0 - 9.3 - 1.1 - 2.0 - 7.1
Indonesia Korea, Republic Malaysia Philippines Thailand
10.8 6.8 2.1 - 2.0 2.3
The Working Poor
According to our discussion, we have already realized the importance of employment in reducing the Poverty level for the Asian countries where it is a big issue. Bu things are not so easy at it seems to be. 7
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There are any complexities in this area. While we have already recognized the centrality of employment in making economic growth pro-poor, its suddenly been arised that Employment is not adequate enough for achieving the goal of poverty reduction. There are certainly some other obstacles and complexity here in this case. In the developing world, there are many people who are employed yet are still considered as poor. In any effort at poverty alleviation, it would be important to address the issue of the so-called Working Poor, because work alone does not guarantee an escape from poverty. For such people, employment is not a sufficient condition for poverty diminution. At this, the situation holds its position as it was before. So it is clear to us that in case of Poverty Alleviation, the role of these working Poor people is also important. In the developing countries, they live at a higher rate and economic growth can be affected by the performance dealing regarding this issue.
Defining the Working Poor People
The term Working Poor defines us about the people who are fully or partially employed but still counted under the poverty level. Their earning may be not sufficient enough to get out of the poverty level. The wage rates that these people have been paid are not up to the mark to get counted on the indicator point inside the poverty alleviation system. There is often a tendency to equate these people with those working in the informal sector. This conception, however, was not just borne out by facts. There are two noticeable points that are worth making in this regard. These are
First of all, the informal sector activities can be quite diversified with many of them providing returns or incomes above the poverty thresholds. It is, therefore, important to locate who the poor are within the informal sector. Secondly, many of the poor may be in activities, which are not classified as informal sector but can be said to belong to the Informal economy, defined in a broader way. Talking of such people include carpenters, weaver, and farm workers working in petty non-farm activities, selfemployed or wage workers, and so on. They are somehow, Employed, in
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some sense; but the incomes of many of them are below the poverty thresholds. So these people are generally known as the Working Poor people.
Dealing With the Working Poor Issue
After considering the issue of the Working Poor, we felt the need to deal with them. And for that, the first thing that comes to our mind that how to make a possible change in the real wage or income of these working poor people. In this connection, we can say that if an economy can get on to a high growth path and through appropriate macro and economic policies growth can be sufficiently employment-intensive, an adequate amount of productive employment will be created so as to gradually absorb all the working poor into such jobs as it will lift them out of poverty level. Indeed, this is the path that has been followed by the East Asian and Southeast Asian countries that have been successful in alleviating poverty. As mentioned before, certain policies can be geared towards achieving such employment-intensive growth paths. It must be recognized that most developing countries are characterized by a high incidence of poverty, such as high economic growth rates are not in sight.
Interventions: Working Poor Income Level
The additional interventions come into highlight in this case to help raising the income level of the working poor. Somehow these depend on the reasons for their lower incomes, which, in turn, vary much depending on the type of activity, culture, religion, geographic location, etc. Therefore, it has become necessary to use the best stock of knowledge based in this area and undertake additional works if warranted. Some of the factors for low productivity, low wages and low returns include type of market, demand for the products, relative prices of inputs and outputs, marketing arrangements, technology, bargaining power, and so on. At this, direct interventions in these areas are important from the point of view of addressing the problems of the working poor. Basically it is the government who takes initiatives in this regard. Any sorts of direct actions are taken by the government through its policy and plan.
Poverty Alleviation: Undeviating Intervention Policy
As far as it concerns, high economic growth rate is important for poverty alleviation on a sustained foundation. However it has not been possible for many developing countries especially in Asia, to achieve such high economic growth. Then again, many of these countries are also characterized by a high incidence of poverty. If these countries were to wait for poverty alleviation 9
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through the normal process of economic growth, they would perhaps have to wait for several more decades. This is not going to get worked for them as like as other developed countries. Moreover, the conditions necessary for the benefits of growth to trickle down to the poor are often absent from developing countries. In such circumstances, the government should take the forwarding steps to come forward in this regard. They have to make some direct interventions for a prompt result in poverty alleviation process rather waiting for the natural way to come on. This would help the nation to accelerate the mode of economic growth for the nation. For this purpose, two basic initiatives might get mentioned over here that would help in speeding up the process of poverty alleviation. The two aspects are
Special Measures Directly Targeted Programs.
The Special Measures

For poverty alleviation can be divided into two types:

Programs for employment and income generation Measures for social welfare.
Here the concern goes for the basic Human needs like food, cloth, shelter, education and health. In economic consideration of a country, basic five needs of Human is an essential part to get considered. In fact, these two categories of programs can be linked to the two broad types of basic human needs. For the first part, lets consider about the first three the basic needs i.e. the Private Basic needs. These contain issue of food, clothing, and shelter. These are the needs that are met mainly through ones individual or private income and consumption ratio. On the second chapter, we reflect on the other important components of basic needs i.e. education and health. These are some aspects that carry on more importance and validity of weight. Often they cannot be satisfied through increases in individual or private income alone. For this, social welfare programs can be critical factor in that regard. Social welfare is indicated as one of the key mottos of economic growth of a country. While such programs often are not targeted at the poor, to the extent they are designed to cover specific areas like slum areas in cities, backward regions in villages, proper sanitation in rural areas, supply of pure drinking water etc. with this, the poor
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are likely to be beneficial more. These are some steps that could be taken under the poverty alleviation program.
The Directly Targeted Programs

Associated with the employment and income generation can also be alienated into two types: Income generation through self-employment Wage-employment programs.
For the first issue that comes over here is the Self-employment consideration. Small scale of business that provides single ownership with a small amount of invest and safe return referrers to such cases. Mostly, small shopkeepers, hawkers are such kind of people who are generally underneath the selfemployment programs. Self-employment programs usually target the poor and assist them in undertaking income generating activities by providing them with micro-credit. In some cases, credit is accompanied by assistance in skill training, marketing, etc. Next come the Wage employment programs that create employment by using labor-intensive methods in constructing infrastructure. The more employment opportunities are created for the people, the more labor intensive the methods would come out and eventually, the present infrastructure can be rebuild in a structural format. Therefore the way of poverty alleviation would get smoother from here. A large number of programs of both types discussed above can be found in Asian countries especially the South Asian region, which is dealing with the poverty alleviation challenge. Most of them are taken care by the Government while the rest of the responsibilities are taken by private institutes and outside donors.
Target Area Coverage on Poverty Alleviation
As we proceed on to more steps farther towards the Poverty alleviation process, we are coming up with more challenges and also the ways to face them. In the above discussion, we have mentioned about several plans and programs concerning poverty alleviation in Asia. In assessing the effectiveness of such programs in poverty alleviation, there are certain issues that might arise over here.
How successful have the programs been in targeting the poor population?
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How effective impact they have executed in raising the incomes of the poor? How effective such poverty alleviation programs are? What has been the coverage of such programs in relation to the overall magnitude of poverty in various countries- is another big issue to get considered here.
All these important issues based on lessons from Asian experience come into the end point of the target area coverage under the poverty alleviation program. Analyzing these key issues would help us to reach the nuclear area of the poverty alleviation problem. Hence, it would be easy for us to get on to the solution and come up with some better initiative strategies and process of poverty alleviation in the poor countries in Asia.
Aiming the Right People & Reach Them
The success achieved by various poverty alleviation programs mostly depends in aiming the right people and reaching them properly. Buy these target groups varies considerably. Here we can see the noticeable factors are, first of all, aiming the right people who are actually poor and need the help in reducing their poverty problem. After wards, identifying these people, reaching them is another crucial thing to get achieved. Now for the wake of the Asian economic crisis and its adverse effects on employment, almost all the crisis-affected countries implemented public works programs as a means of employment generation and safety net provision to the poor. In this context, one most familiar problem faced by most of them was that of targeting the right people. The mechanism of self-targeting could not work in most cases because wages were set at too high a level compared to that needed for self-targeting to work. In case of Wage-employment programs, the problem of reaching the target groups is less stern, as they can make the use of wage rates as a mechanism for self-targeting. More specifically, if the wage rate in the special programs is kept at the level of market wages or at the levels offered in comparable work, it can be expected that only the poor and those without any alternative employment opportunity, will be offering themselves for such jobs.
Some Prominent Wage-Employment Programs

In reality some of the performances in respect to the wage employment programs have been mixed. Several wage employment programs were
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targeted towards the poor and they have accomplished their mission quite successfully. Some of them are
Employment Guarantee Scheme- One of the most well known wage employment programs targeted at the poor population is the Employment Guarantee Scheme which was established in the Maharastra State of India. Though it was a famous program, still there is a good deal of debate regarding its success with respect to perfect targeting or aiming. While a number of evaluations point to the success of the program, some recent data and studies cast some doubt in this regard.
Using panel survey data, 1979, from two villages of Maharastra, the study showed that most of the project beneficiaries had incomes above the poverty line. The situation continued throughout the next decade, and in 1989, the proportion of non-poor beneficiaries was higher than in 1979.
Jawahar Rojgar Yojana- is another wage employment program that is being implemented throughout India. But particular study shows that in 1992, as much as 57% of the program participants were above the poverty line, and another 25% were quite close to that level. Only 5% belonged to the hardcore poor who were far below the Poverty level.
In the context of Bangladesh, there are also some wage employment programs that deserves special mention. Like India, there are some programs that were really effective and useful at the same time. All these programs were meant for the poverty alleviation in this country. Describing those, we have
The Food for work Program- Since invention of the concept, it has been going on for many years now in Bangladesh. Recently, it has been transformed into a multi sectoral rural development program with the basic objective of poverty alleviation. While the Food for work program had no reputation for success in targeting, not much is known about the performance of its new version. Vulnerable Group Development Program- Another well-renowned wage employment program is the vulnerable group development program that targets destitute women in the country. This program is very much known for its success in reaching the target group. Here the target group is the poor and penniless woman generally from the rural areas who deserves special care and training under this program. Rural Maintenance Program- In regard with the development of the poor woman population at rural sector, the successful program that also deserves a remarkable name is the rural maintenance program. Under this program the target group was the deprived rural women whose welfare was the key issue over here.
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Programs with Sub-Programs and Similar Programs
Under all these successful poverty alleviation programs, the basic target was the welfare of the poor people. Beside these programs there are also some programs that deserve some special mention in this case. Here the approach of such programs as well as the total target people is quite different. While there are successful programs for the poor, there are also programs in which large proportions of the beneficiaries are not poor. As we deem on Asian perspective, we can see several countries where there are such programs practiced. In include countries like India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China Republic and so on.
In Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) possessed their credit and other assistance programs, which are available only to the poor more specifically, defined as landless and near-landless people. But there are also other programs that have not attained comparable success in reaching the poor populace. In recent evaluation it has been found out that even in the case of programs that have succeeded in reaching the poor, it is the not-so-poor who have benefited more in this connection. In India, we have the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) that faced this same criticism. The programs performance has been rather disappointing even in the backward and remote areas of the country. One evaluation shows that in 1992/93, 22% of the beneficiaries were close to the poverty line while another 4% did not even meet the criteria for inclusion in the program. In Sri Lanka, middle and higher income people benefited most from the self-employment programs of the 1980s that had been taken by the Government of the country at that time. However, theres not so much of information available about the performance of the more recent poverty alleviation programs of that country. In the Peoples Republic of China, loans taken from the credit program for poor collectives often went to non-poor collectives and households. So, the situation was similar like the other countries mentioned earlier. In Philippines- the experience was analogous under their PRESEED program. Here the proportion of the benefits goes mostly to the non-poor population group.
The Force Worked Upon the Earning of the Poor
From the viewpoint of Poverty alleviation, the earning of the poor become is a major point to get noticed here. Usually the income level of such poor people
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needs to get more attention over the situation. So the impacts of some forces need to get painted for their role over the earning of the poor. As earning increases, eventually the savings of the people increases that reflects the economic growth of the country. The impact is very much observed in the Asian region more specifically to be mentioned in the South Asian part where the poverty is in a higher rate. Direct employment and Wage employment, from both the standing point of these major forces, we can analyze their impact on the situation of the income of the poor. Here we choose two of the countries in South Asia- Bangladesh and India. After examining the factors in the two countries, its going to be easy for us to understand the real impact on the forces over the income of the poor. Getting into the broader perspective would be smoother for us in this pathway.
The Condition in Bangladesh
Bangladesh- one of the poor countries in South Asia, gets into our account over here. Highly densely populated country with higher poverty rates one of the biggest problems for this country for the last few decades. If we analyze the situation under this, we can see that the forces really have a high impact over the earning of the poor in this area. Starting with the impact of the direct employment programs with respect to the incomes of the poor we found that it shows a considerable variation in this case. Here the most important program forces of Bangladesh deserve a special mention. These are - the Grameen Bank and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) who stand out as having a positive impact on the incomes of the poor. In a former case early evaluation in 1984, we can see that the beneficiary households were able to raise their incomes by 33% within less than three years. Another study in 1989 shows that the beneficiaries of other poverty alleviation programs. This also includes the Grameen Bank who also has raised their incomes significantly. A recent evaluation shows that income and consumption of the beneficiaries of government and NGO programs have increased. The experiences of Grameen Bank and BRAC show that in cases where women in rural zone get the credit and undertake income-generating activities, the probability for improvement in household consumption and welfare goes up especially higher. This phenomenon occurs because women spend their earnings more prudently for the welfare of their families. Now lets come to the point of Wage employment programs of Bangladesh. Here we can observe that they have also made useful contributions in raising the incomes of the poor. Despite some limitations, the Food for works program has provided much needed employment and income earning opportunities to the poor during the period of agricultural activities learning.
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This program has played an especially valuable role in the years when Bangladesh was smacked by natural calamities. Similarly, the rural maintenance program and the vulnerable group development program made notable contributions in raising the incomes or earnings of destitute women.
Situations in India
In South Asia, India is considered as the central part which consists more than fifty percent of that region. More than 100 million peoples living area with a huge land, this country is even not free from the influence of poverty. Though the government is trying their best to make the economic condition of the country into a stable one, problems are always there for them. So, certain programs rose out in this connection. Concerning about the direct employment programs, the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) of India comes into the point here. But there has been a serious considerable amount of debate about the effectiveness of Indias IRDP in raising the incomes of the poor. Although some evaluations indicate that 30% to 40% of the beneficiaries have been able to cross the poverty line while others claim that this figure is much lower. Indeed, an earlier study in 1985 maintains that seven years after the introduction of IRDP, only about 3% of the beneficiaries were able to cross the poverty line. One recent study of 1996 argues to the point of view that the credit provided by the IRDP is lower than the investment needed for generating sufficient income to cross the poverty line. This study points out furthermore that when it comes to the issue of government subsidy provided along with the credit fund, the beneficiaries received 20% less than what they should have received according to government accounts. This also implies that a larger amount of money, which the beneficiaries should have received as a subsidy, simply cannot be accounted. Like the direct programs, there is also a serious debate concerning the success of Indias Wage employment programs. One of these programs that could be mentioned over here is the Jawahar Rojgar Yojana. Evaluation of this program indicates that in selected villages 36% of the people were interested in jobs; but during the period of 1990/91, only 14% of them got work at the rate of 16 days per person. While the poor needed at least 100 days of work, they actually got much lower than the actual phase. Also, the share of wages in total cost was only 20% to 50%, which should have been at least 60%. Again in the Maharastra employment guarantee scheme, the problems were almost the similar. However, it has a better reputation in terms of raising incomes of the poor. While complaining of wrong way of targeting, the study of
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1996 points out that this program was successful in raising the incomes of the poor.
For the countries in East Asia and South East Asia that are comparatively in better position than South Asian countries regarding the poverty issue, were also got affected by the economic crisis. But it is really difficult to identify anything confidently about their effectiveness in maintaining or augmenting the incomes of the poor or those in danger of falling back into poverty.
Programs Exposure
So far, the effectiveness and coverage efficiency of the poverty alleviation programs have been discussed here. Finally the point to get discussed over here is these programs successful exposure to the targeted poor people. It can say that the situation obviously differs from different regions even inside the Asia. Although poverty is a common factor to get discussed over the total Asian sector but the problem surely is being handled well in some regions like the South Ease and Eastern part. But the South Asian region is still struggling in this area. For them, the effectiveness and other significant issues get better importance rather than the developed ones. Talking about of the limitations of direct programs for poverty alleviation does not really mean to deny the important contributions made by them. Particularly in situations where poverty is in acute mode, economic growth is listless and economies are in recession due to economic crisis. Indeed, in countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal where theres always acute and widespread poverty as well as severe constraints on boosting output growth, a definite role of direct interventions for poverty alleviation have been found. With more careful target aiming, program designing, and proper program implementing, the interventions can be more effectual in achieving their desired objectives.
Coverage of the Programs in Asian Perspective
All these programs have had their coverage in their particular areas and population. Certain specific programs were meant for certain countries in Asian region. Some of the programs took place in the South Asian division while some others were in the East and Southeast part. Cultural, environmental, political, social and other differences between the countries were the key issues for such variations in this scenario.
In Bangladesh, the names famous over here are the Grameen Bank, the BRAC and all other additional NGOs like Proshika, ASF, Dipshikha etc.
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They all together cover approximately three million borrowers. The record assumes one borrower per household, six members per household, and 40% of the 120 million people living below the poverty line. From this, we can see that the programs mentioned earlier, covered a little over a third of the poor population in that country. The largest government program, run by the Bangladesh Rural Development Board (RDB), has covered a little over 100,000 borrowers. In comparison with that, the wage employment programs coverage is much broader. While the food for work program covers the entire country, the vulnerable group development program is implemented in all local administrative regions. Inspite the number of beneficiaries of the latter was higher in the distressed regions.
In India, the coverage of the self-employment programs seems rather unlimited compared to the number of poor in the respective countries. The large number of population and innovative strategies play their respective role in this matter. Along with the recent programs in Indonesia, the public works programs covered all Indonesian provinces in the year 1998. This was considered to be a great achievement for the Government of the nation. In the Republic of Korea, such Poverty alleviation programs covered over 70% of the unemployed target people. The programs in the Philippines and Thailand region were also quite large in terms of the number of people covered. In comparison, the coverage of the self-employment and micro-credit programs was more limited in here.
Approaches in Employment: Labor Market Policies
As long as it concerns that employment and labor market are the two best shots for the poverty alleviation process. With the accurate planning and proper implementation, these can be great arms to abolish poverty or reduce the rate. In the field of poverty alleviation and development implementation problem, we can find two broad strands that represent two different approaches to the problem. With better considerate of these two approaches, it is going to be more straightforward for us to get on to the way of finding a better solution of the problem.
The First Approach consults about importance of interventions aimed at bringing about structural changes in economic organizations that could contribute to poverty alleviation through a redistribution and reformation of the productive assets in favor of the poor.
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The process of structural transformation includes three stages that indisputably indicate the reformation of economic growth of a country. These stages are measured under the development process Stage 1- Agricultural dominance i.e. most of the outcomes of the nation contributing towards the GDP of the nation comes from the agricultural sector. Stage 2- Agriculture declines and Industrial sector starts to grow up. Stage 3- Agriculture declines further and industrial contribution occurs ore in national GDP. At this, Service sector grows rapidly. A modification of this approach focuses on the need to reorient macroeconomic and sectoral policies with a view to facilitating a pro-poor, employment-intensive growth of the economy. By this means it would be possible in making a broad-based sharing of the benefits of potential economic growth.
In the Second Approach, proper implementation of policies and programs are the main concerns that are directly aimed at the poor. Advocates of the latter usually are skeptical of the feasibility and practicability of reorienting development strategies through redistributive measures. In this subject matter, they consider direct interventions to be a better option of reducing poverty.
As there are noticeable points in both the approaches, in order to achieve more rapid and sustained rate of poverty reduction, it is essential to adopt an integrated approach because the two approaches can complement each other effectively. Being noted earlier that the direct programs can provide much needed short-term support to the poor, as the benefits of a re-oriented development strategy with a conducive macro-economic policy environment may take time to reach the poor accurately. This issue can be also important in situations of acute poverty that get aggravated frequently by the external shocks causing crisis situations. In addition, direct programs can help bring about necessary enhancements in the capabilities of the poor. Nevertheless, limitations are always there that might often make it difficult to reach all the poor people through such programs. More importantly, major changes in policies are often required in order to ensure that direct programs achieve their objectives fully.
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Indeed, programs are aimed at raising the productivity and incomes of the poor have the best chance of success when they are implemented within a macro economic policy environment, which is conducive to their operation. The two approaches mentioned earlier should, therefore, be adopted and applied in such a manner to gain the maximum benefit from them.
Economic Policy Reformation Areas
The term-Reformation refers to the change for something better in comparison with the present situation. For the employment and labor market influencing the economic perspective to get reformed to certain areas that makes high impact on the total situation. The economic policy reformation in these few areas would contribute to the objective of poverty reduction. After considering everything we have identified five important areas to get the highest focus on. These five areas are
Macroeconomic and sectoral policies along with public investment programs. Promotional productive employment sectors where the poor would be benefited. Regulations of Labor market. Labor market susceptibility reduction area. Enhancing the capabilities of the poor through the area of development of human resource.
These areas need to get highly focused on for the smoother running poverty alleviation programs.
Macroeconomic and Sectoral Policies Along With Public Investment Programs
For a higher pro-poor orientation, Macroeconomic and sectoral policies along with public investment areas need to get extra attention to be paid. These two areas are related by some means of their nature and performance effect on poverty level. In case of Macroeconomic policies to be considered, they can affect the levels of income and living conditions of the poor by creating vast influence in changing the following sectors-
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The way in to the productive assets like the tangible ones -land, equipment, machinery etc; along with the intangible assets like knowledge, information and so on. Profits from the productive assets i.e. use the best of these assets to get the highest output. The field of employment opportunities Entrance to social services like educational and health services which in turn can influence the quality of labor supply.
Without a doubt, there are cases and references showing that appropriate policies in the areas of trade, exchange rates, taxation, subsidies, credit, and pricing level have played an important role in poverty alleviation in Asia through the particular channels. The process of formulating such policies needs to be more responsive to their potential impact. Similarly, public investment programs is another important issue that can also be given a better pro-poor orientation by factoring in the potential impact on poverty through creating jobs for the poor. In order to carry it on, proper allocation of such investments is necessary in this arena.
Promotional Productive Employment
For the benefit of the poor, Promotional productive employment sectors need to get emphasized over here. Three major sectors are concerned under this area
The Informal Sector
The informal sector is characterized by the degree of heterogeneity. It is not only in terms of the type of activities, but also in terms of their productivity and returns. It is true that a large number of the so-called working poor are engaged in this sector. Many of these people are self-employed and their low earning could be due to a variety of factors like limited access to finance and productive assets due to their initial poverty, low levels of education, skills and knowledge etc. A large number of the poor are involved in manipulative or coercive external economic relationships with the suppliers of assets, inputs, credit or with the purchasers of output. Policies and action to fight against their poverty will need to be based on a clear understanding of such factors. Of course, theres a degree of anxiety to put an end to the poverty of such people who work hard and yet are unable to generate enough income for a decent living. Their ultimate goal in this regard is seen as the progressive
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incorporation of the informal sector into the formal economy. Most informal sector producers are unable to comply with such regulatory structures, and with such a move would only cause them to retreat further into the hidden economy. All together with the application of the protective measures spoken in international labor standards, it has become essential to remain aware of the difficulty of applying universal labor standards. The motive is because of the difficulty of enforcement and failure of many informal producers to meet the terms. Furthermore, it is important to remember that the emergence of informal sector is itself due to the poverty condition of those for whom the option could have been even more acute poverty in the absence of alternative opportunities for income and living standard. Even in their present form, the informal sector provides the poor with some cushion of actions. However, if actions in the informal sector are to contribute to reducing poverty, it is critical to ensure that at least minimum levels of income and protection must be attained. From a recent study of ILO, we can get that the analysis of the constraints imposed upon the informal sector by existing institutional, legal and regulatory structures. These suggest that, while it is important to provide basic social protection to informal sector producers and workers, it would be impractical to try for instantaneous application to them all the accessible labor legislation. Thus it is clear that in order to achieve the goal of reducing poverty in the informal sector, actions will be required on the normative as well as the developmental front. For the interventions, the focus should be on access to capital, skills, technology and markets. When we gather some valuable experience based on work in these areas by Government agencies, NGOs and multilateral agencies, thing need to get concerned of searching for means of action through which such work can be replicated on a larger scale.
The Economy of Rural Sector
A larger proportion of the poor people live in the rural sector in Asia. They remain engaged in agricultural activities, fishery, handloom and livestock either as a wage laborer or marginal farmer and self-employed. To alleviate their poverty, interventions are needed that might include policies and programs to raise productivity in such activities. This should include labor market interventions like wage protection through legislation and increasing the negotiating power of the poor by promoting the organization. So far, a continual reduction of the poverty in rural areas hinges critically on the growth of a productive and dynamic non-farm sector i.e. manufacturing
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and service sector. From the Asian experience and elsewhere, it shows that rural non-farm activities can be divided into two broad types. They are
Activities regarding the rural poor where they turn to as a desperate measure in addition, out a living when there is very little alternative The activities where productivity and wages are more than agriculture and that have a forceful potential growth. It is through the promotion of the latter type of activities that one can make a significant contribution to the goal of poverty reduction.
In order to formulate strategies for reducing rural poverty through the promotion of non-farm activities, it has become necessary to take these two broad type activities on account. Thus identify the major constraints that hold back the growth of the relevant type. While the capital is an important constraint, infrastructures consist with inputs as well as outputs of the economy are very much critical. With the goal of poverty alleviation, policies and action to promote rural non-farm activities should also be taken into account. Still, like in the case of urban informal sector, it would be necessary to find means of action through which largescale programs can be undertaken regarding this action.
Approaches Based on Labor and Infrastructure
Proper infrastructure is important concerning economic development and it comes along with the labor welfare approaches. This includes opening up and linking hitherto isolated rural areas through roads and highways. Improved transportation system can play a critical role in facilitating the growth of poverty-reducing non-farm activities. There are at least two more reasons for providing a particular attention to investment in this particular sector. The first one relates to the weight of this sector in a typical developing country economy. According to a World Bank case, 1994, some 20% of local investment and 40% to 60% of public investment are allocated to infrastructure in developing countries.
Secondly, the range of technological options that are available for this sector, it is possible to use investments here as a means of generating much needed employment for the poor. At the same time, properly planned infrastructure can help the growth of economic activities that would be beneficial for the poor. This can be done time and again without compromising on quality and cost-effectiveness.
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The labor-based approaches could also be applied in urban situations where they would contribute at the same time to an improvement in living standard and environment of the urban people. Clearing and paving of roads, improving drainage, upgrading urban slums and management of solid wastes are such activities to get followed in this circumstance. With ILOs programs in this field the approaches are often taken as synonymous with public works programs. It can be observed here that it is possible to involve the private sector and communities in executing the infrastructure schemes. Also it is possible to introduce elements of core labor standards relating the issues of forced and child labor, non-discrimination, wages, safety requirements etc. the important factor here is perfect devising and implementing programs that can successfully contribute to poverty reduction.
Regulations in Labor Market
Regulation- creates the restrictions through which everything has been done in a systematic way. Through the regulations of contractual relations in employment can engage variety of aspects like wages, different terms and conditions relating to basis of wage calculation, type and duration of contract, the right to negotiate terms and conditions, etc. Some of them may be applied only in the formal sector that usually accounts for a small part of the economy in developing countries, and where poverty is less. On the other hand, some may occur in the informal sense that may not be directly concerned with poverty. Besides, there are different aspects, which are potentially imperative in action against poverty. This is particularly true of regulation of wage setting, although it must be mentioned that the relationship between minimum wages and poverty may not be so obvious. Whether the potential role of minimum wages in reducing poverty can be realized depends on several factors like the indirect effects of minimum wage on overall labor demand, effects on labor productivity, etc. For minimum wages to get effective in action against poverty, they should be widely applied.
Employment security, forms of contractual arrangement, measures designed to put an end to exploitative practices etc. are some of the associated Regulations to other aspects of the labor market. These can also contribute to the fight against poverty. But a broader application is vital over here to make it more effective.
Labor Market Susceptibility Reduction Zone
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With a basic target of reducing poverty, susceptibility in the labor market should be an immediate target issue. To the extent that poverty is due to labor market outcomes, Susceptibility or vulnerability in the labor market can be related to a variety of factors, -age, gender, geographic location, ethnic groups and household status and so on. With all these important factors need to be addressed, the focus is solely on gender-based over this area. Generally in the Asian countries, gender discrimination is one of the biggest factors in several areas still today. Even the labor market is not free from this situation. Women are considered inferior than men in the job market and this inclination is generally found especially in South Asian developing region. Women face such disadvantageous situation in the labor market due to a variety of factors to be mentioned- lack of control over assets, emotionally taking quick steps, competing domestic and labor market demands on time, lack of access to training and discrimination in the labor market. Besides, there are also some economic and environmental factors that influence the system to behave against the women. There are different types of interventions that would be needed to address these various factors contributing to susceptibility. Many countries might require the fundamental, legal and institutional reforms in order to provide women with access to control over certain types of assets. On the contrarily, the problem of discrimination will have to be addressed through legislative action combined with monitoring of compliance as well as awareness of the people. This is a very tough job to be done as the lower rate of literacy in this zone, like in Bangladesh, makes it more complicated. In case of legislative actions, they need to be supplemented by developmental action to bring about a greater degree of empowerment of women. With the proper increase in access to skill and entrepreneurship training, technology, knowledge, markets as well as credit. For certain groups like home workers who are especially vulnerable to exploitative practices, additional interventions in the form of organizational promotion are targeted for the purpose of their bargaining power amplification.
Development of Human Resource
Human resource development is one of the most important issues of economic prosperity. Whatever plans and policies to be made for poverty reduction, the primary requirement over here is the development of human resources. In this relation, investments in education and training are noted as a potentially powerful instrument for raising the productivity and earnings of the poor.
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Education is essential for a nation to get flourish in the world. Without proper education, no nation can move forward towards the path of development. Consequently, improving the human capital base of the poor through the spread of literacy and basic education enhances their capabilities in several ways. Here we can find out two points of views where the above statement can be applicable.
In the view of Rural economy, modified educational levels have been shown to raise productivity in rustic agriculture through enhancing the willingness to innovate and the capacity to absorb information on new techniques of production. In general, it also enhances the capability to respond to market opportunities in both farm and non-farm rural activities. As it offers an access route to training, better jobs can always be ensured in this regard. In case of Urban economy, improved access to further education and modern training programs for the poor is a best way for poverty reduction in a target of getting more skilled and better paying jobs. Training is also an important component of support services. Through proper training, a skilled labor becomes more skillful and point out his faults that shouldnt get to be repeated in the future performance. For the raise of productivity and incomes in the informal sector, training is a fundamental subject to consider with.
It has been observed that vocational and technical training in formal institutions benefits relatively a small proportion of the labor force who may find jobs in the formal sector. With a large target to make a real contribution to the of poverty reduction, training systems must be geared to the tasks of imparting and upgrading skills for the informal sector and rural non-farm activities. Thus the productivity and incomes of the poor can raise and target is fulfilled. Besides the training programs, there are also some policy intervention programs at Macro level of economy, which helps to generate the activities of the poor. These are also some necessary applications for human resource development.
Policy Intervention at Macro Level
The function of human resource development in poverty alleviation suggests that policy interventions are the critical aspects which are required at several levels. Amongst them, the Macro level deserves a special mention here. At the macro level, policies are essential to ensure that adequate provisions that are made for expenditures allocated equitably in education and training. The question over here can be is it particularly important to ensure universal access to good basic education? Since this is most beneficial tool from the standpoint of poverty alleviation, theres no better option that can be found in
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this regard. At the macro level, policy interventions are needed to ensure that school fees, remunerations and other cost-recovery measures do not prevent access by the poor to education and training programs. From the above discussion, it is clear to us that the positive initiatives can be made to promote greater school enrolment and attendance by the poor will often be required in this case. At the same time, labor market interventions may often be required to remove barriers to the access of the poor to training opportunities. In the end, the role of direct interventions at the micro level will also be required to provide necessary training to upgrade production among the poor in peasant agriculture and the urban informal sector. These targeted interventions can serve to promote new income-generating activities among the poor. All in all, the poverty alleviation process in Asia can be settled up in such various effective manners.
Theme
After going through the case it is easily distinguishable that, the reason behind the existing poverty in Asia pacific are the lack of long term effective planning, systemic implementation, proper infrastructure, economic market regulations, low living standard, huge unskilled population and so on. First of all, the programs that were prepared for poverty alleviation were not perfectly implemented as they were intended to be. Huge mistakes in targeting or aiming the actual poor people and wasted a huge amount of resources on other useless criteria. Basically these programs were designed to create employment in the labor market that would eventually go to poverty alleviation. But unfortunately these programs could not achieve it because of 27
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absenteeism, lack of HR development, discrimination in the work place and so on. Then the market regulations as well as the economic market conditions are not solid enough to absorb an external shock or economic crisis in these regions. That is why the real wage rate as along with the employment rate never enjoyed a steady growth of economy. Every time when the economy manages to increase their economy through the use of macroeconomics and multi-sectoral economic policies, a small economic crisis just simply reveres the result. Further more the lack of proper infrastructure and other basic requirements such as education, training, information etc are not available during the time being. So the huge unskilled population which is now unemployed have no other option to improve their economic condition and reach above the line of poverty.
Main Issue
Considering the huge challenges of poverty in Asia along with the current economic crisis, can the developing regions of Asia would be able to solve them out through the Poverty Alleviation Process by the proper utilization and implementation of Employment and Labor market condition?
SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is a tool that provides a vivid description of any given situation. It includes four important aspects of a situation. These are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and lastly threats. The strength and weakness represents two internal factors on which the people have a big amount of control. On the other hand, opportunity and threats are the two external factors on which the people may have no control at all. Only by predicting and controlling them an organization can cope up with them. It should be kept in mind that all of them are equally important in aspect of a situation or for an organization. Because an plan falls apart for only one weakness inspire of having thousands of strengths. Only a single threat can destroy the whole operation while it had so many opportunities ahead of it. While working in a vast fast growing global village, it is the SWOT analysis that will enable the top
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management as well as the other management to take advantage of their strength, weakness, opportunity and threats in a practical way. It is also true for case Poverty Alleviation, Employment, and the Labor Market, which is a burning question in Asia. Here is the SWOT analysis of this case.
Strengths
Every case or situation has some strength. In some cases this is obvious, for example, having a huge support from the government as well donors is a big strength for poverty alleviation program in Asia. Strength is the most important factor for an organization, which helps an organization to meet its goal and compete with the external and internal factors. The success of an organization mostly depends on the strength of an organization. The following are a few of the most prevalent strengths that Poverty Alleviation Program has at the present time.
Concentration on a Targeted Group
One very important strength of poverty alleviation program is that it is targeted towards a specific group. Although there is a number of debates that these programs are not actually concentrating on the target groups but yet it seems quite successful in achieving their target. It is also true that the success achieved by various poverty alleviation programs in reaching the target groups varies considerably.
But in general they are showing success in bringing poor people above the line of poverty. As we can see that in Bangladesh, credit and other assistance programs of Grameen Bank and the Bangladesh Rural advancement Committee (BRAC) are available only to the poor (defined as landless and/or near-landless). Indias Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) concentrates backward and remote areas of the country. Evaluation shows that in 1992/93, it benefited 74% poor people who were actually poor. In the Peoples Republic of China, loans from the credit program for poor collectives goes to the poor collectives and households. Furthermore there are some policies, which actually concentrate on specific factors such as job requirements. A well-known example of wage employment programs targeted at the poor is the Employment guarantee scheme in the Maharastra State of India, which is actually guaranteed program that will give job to the unemployed. Jawahar Rojgar Yojana is another wage employment program that is being implemented throughout India. In Bangladesh, the food for work program has been going on for many years now. And recently, it has been transformed into a multicultural rural
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development program with the basic objective of poverty alleviation. Another wage employment program is the vulnerable group development program which targets destitute women. This program is known for its success in reaching the target group. Another successful program is the rural maintenance program which also targets the poor women.
Increased Employment
Employment is a very important tool that can help to a great extent to reduce poverty in Asia. The basic idea behind this is that if people are employed, they are earning money and increasing the growth of real wage rate. Employment thus, is the key link between output growth and poverty alleviation. Monitoring and analysis of the growth-employment-poverty nexus is, therefore, crucial in the fight against poverty, which shows a sign of progress in Asia. The role that employment plays in poverty alleviation is indicated by the contrasting experiences between the more successful countries of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the less successful ones of South Asia. In the former, high output growth was accompanied by employment growth at high rate, which in turn led to labor market tightening and increases in rates of remuneration.
Countries of South Asia were less successful in achieving such employmentaugmenting growth, and also less successful in reducing poverty. The International Labor Organization (ILO)s World Employment Case for 1996/97 mentions that between 1986 and 1993, in the countries of East Asia and Southeast Asia with the sole exception of Indonesia, employment grew at more than 3% per annum, while in countries like India and Pakistan, employment performance was weaker. The contrast in this respect is sharper for employment in manufacturing. During 1986-92, in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, growth in manufacturing employment was much higher than in India and Pakistan. The same is true of 1975-80. During the early 1980s, a recession in Malaysia and the Philippines led to declines in manufacturing employment; but these countries were able to reverse that trend with very high rates of growth after 1985. Such high rates of growth in manufacturing employment enabled countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand to achieve significant structural shifts in employment (in varying degrees) which in turn led to a tightening of the labor market and a rise in real wages - thus aiding the process of poverty reduction. So definitely we can see that poverty alleviation program gets stronger in this aspect. The following table also shows the evidence in regard to this fact;
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Table 4: Growth and Elasticity of Employment in Manufacturing in Selected Countries of Asia
Country
Bangladesh China, PRC India Indonesia Korea, Rep. of Malaysia
1975-80
4.26 (0.68) 6.42 (0.33) 7.96 (0.53) 10.27 (0.67) 0.08 (0.01) 14.14 (3.66) 4.01 (0.61)
1981-85
-1.18 12.45 (0.76) 3.55 (0.36) -0.82
1986-92
3.07 5.00 1.41 (0.20) 8.00 (0.66) 3.70 (0.30) 11.20 (0.84) 1.54 (0.20) 6.47 (0.39) 3.76 (0.38)
Pakistan The Philippines
1.78 (0.21) -7.49 3.29 (0.68)
Thailand
Introduction of New Policies
There have a number of policies and plans been introduced to reduce poverty in this region. Various NGO,s , governments have come forward with their policy and plans to reduce poverty. Most of the ideas are pretty much perfect to fight with the burning issue, poverty. Although there have been some minor disappointment in those but their overall performance are considered good enough as they have managed to reduce poverty an extent; there are number of policies which are now being implemented in Asia. Among them some are mentioned here;
In Bangladesh credit and other assistance programs of Grameen Bank and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) available only to the poor, In the Peoples Republic of China, loans from the credit program for poor collectives often went to non-poor collectives and households, PRESEED In Sri Lanka, The experience of the PRESEED program in the Philippines, Employment guarantee scheme in the Maharastra State of India,
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Jawahar Rojgar Yojana a wage employment program that being implemented throughout India The food for work In Bangladesh, Vulnerable group development program in Bangladesh which targets destitute women, Rural maintenance program which also targets the poor women in Bangladesh.
With so many policies in hand, it is sure that poverty alleviation program is due to success in Asia.
Many organizations and NGOs working on this program
Another important strength of poverty alleviation is that they have a number of non-profit organizations as well NGOs. They are working very hard to alleviate poverty in Asia pacific. Their task begins from allocating donations, preparing plans, implementing policies, evaluate and case their progress. Basically its because of them; the poverty in Asia has seen a bright face of reduction. As we can see that In Bangladesh there a number of NGO's who have working with a view to reduce poverty in this particular region. Among them, two leading organizations are;

Grameen Bank and The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC).
In India, Sri Lanka we see a number of organization who are also involved in the same process. They are very much efficient, more flexible, self reliant and free from the traps of bureaucracy. With their presence in the program it will be an easy task to alleviate poverty.
Tightening Labor Market
Strength of poverty alleviation is the tightening labor market in this region. To the extent that poverty is due to labor market outcomes, vulnerability in the labor market should be an immediate target issue for policy and action to reduce poverty. But it was given less emphasis even a few times ago. But now
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governments have come forward to reduce vulnerability in the labor market that can be related to a variety of factors, e.g., age, gender, ethnic groups, or household status. They have realized that these factors are important and need to be addressed. They have also realized that gender-related vulnerability is also a critical issue that needs immediate attention. Women face a disadvantageous situation in the labor market due to a variety of factors like lack of control over assets, competing domestic and labor market demands on time, lack of access to training, and discrimination in the labor market. So government have forward with different types of interventions to address these various factors contributing to vulnerability like fundamental legal and institutional reforms. Also they have addresses the problem of discrimination through legislative action, combined with monitoring of compliance as well as awareness rising. This way they have created a dynamic work environment and labor market in Asia. This is a very important strength for poverty alleviation because with a better labor market there will increase in employment and decrease in poverty.
Increased Growth in Economy (High Rate of GDP)
It is an important factor, which can lead to a reduction in poverty. While there is no easy answer to the question of how poverty can be alleviated, various studies now provide a fairly strong indication about the role of overall economic growth in alleviating poverty. In Asia, the countries, which achieved notable success in poverty alleviation like the Peoples Republic of China, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand, are also the ones who attained high rates of GDP growth. It must, however, be noted that a high rate of economic growth is only a necessary condition - not a sufficient criterion in itself - for reducing poverty. The nature and content of output growth is extremely important for achieving this goal. Whatever the terms are, its a sign of strength many countries in Asia are now showing a potential growth in their economy.
Upward Growth in Real Wage Rates
One more important strength that we find in this case is the increased growth in real wage rate. It is very important and promising aspect of poverty alleviation in Asia. Because it necessary to convert real wage into economic growth. This will finally lead to a increase in the economy and reduction in poverty. It is actually another aspect of the labor market, which is important for poverty reduction known as the growth of real wages for workers. As the economies of many Asian countries remain predominantly rural or agrarian, and as agricultural laborers often constitute a large proportion of the poor in rural areas, the real wages of such workers are extremely important to their levels of living. On the other hand, as an agrarian economy undergoes structural
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transformation and the surplus/underemployed labor moves out of agriculture to the modern (primarily manufacturing) sector, wage rates in the latter would also be important in achieving poverty reduction. In addition, a large number of the poor could be engaged in rural non-farm activities and in a variety of activities in the urban informal sector. Wage rates and earnings in such activities can be important determinants of poverty. There is positive relation between real wage rate and poverty reduction. it can be seen from the date stated in the table stated below. Although rather dated, it can help us examine differences in the growth of real wages between countries that attained an impressive reduction in poverty, and also between those countries where poverty reduction was rather modest. Both Indonesia and the Republic of Korea achieved high rates of real wage growth in manufacturing as well as agriculture. And the record of poverty reduction was impressive in both countries. Growth in real wages in agriculture was high in Malaysia also - another country where the incidence of poverty declined sharply. Thailand is the other Southeast Asian country that achieved a very substantial reduction in poverty. Although there is no data on the agricultural wage for that country, data on the manufacturing wage rate indicates the importance of this variable in reducing poverty. At the other extreme lie Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, where real wage rates in agriculture actually declined. In India, the growth rates of real wages were rather modest in both agriculture and manufacturing. It is also well known that the record of poverty alleviation in these countries is much less impressive than those in the East Asian and Southeast Asian countries. From this it is evident that those countries that have steady growth of wages are certain to achieve more poverty reduction. It is a matter time when this strength will become most important one to reduce poverty in Asia.
Concentration on Vulnarable Groups (Women)
The programs running under poverty alleviation program has strength, more concentration on women. Basically women are not respected and regarded as earning member in most societies of Asia. But actually they are more efficient and hardworking than the men. So when the programs are targeted towards them, it shows more success than other programs, which concentrated more on the men. As we can see that when Grameen and BRAC concentrates on women in Bangladesh, they are getting more success in achieving their target. Now more and more programs are being launched because they show the potential strength in alleviating poverty in Bangladesh.
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Weaknesses
Limited Coverage
The area and the people covered by the programs are on a limited basis. But only covering a little portion will not help us to remove poverty in a large scale. From the case we see that Except in India, coverage of the self-employment programs is rather limited compared to the number of poor in the respective countries. Also, In Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank and all other NGOs together cover approximately three million borrowers. Assuming one borrower per household, six members per household, and 40% of the 120 million people living below the poverty line. So we can see that the programs mentioned above covered a little over a third of the poor in that country. The largest government program, run by the Bangladesh Rural Development Board, has covered a little over 100,000 borrowers. In comparison, the coverage of the wage employment programs is much broader. While the food for work program covers the entire country, the vulnerable group development program is implemented in all local administrative regions - although the number of beneficiaries of the latter is higher in the distressed regions. Amongst the recent programs, the public works programs in Indonesia covered all Indonesian provinces in 1998. In the Republic of Korea, such programs covered over 70% of the unemployed. The programs in the Philippines and Thailand were also quite large in terms of the number of people covered. In comparison to those developed countries, it is very limited in the less developed countries such as Bangladesh, with this less or little coverage it is not possible to fight with such a huge problem.
Inappropriate Direct Programs
There have been a number of programs to alleviate poverty in Asia. But unfortunately as the coverage is limited, so the number of direct interventions r direct programs. In the case we find many direct programs, which have been 35
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implemented, and also which have shown a progress. But we have a huge crisis in our hand, the biggest region with maximum poor people. To cope up with it we will need more direct programs that will elaborate the true and big picture. But unfortunately we dont see that happening. It is not that we are denying the contributions of direct programs for poverty alleviation in situations where poverty is acute, growth is sluggish, or economies are in recession due to economic crisis.
Indeed, in countries with acute and widespread poverty as well as severe constraints on boosting output growth, there is a definite role of direct interventions for poverty alleviation. With more careful targeting, program design, and program implementation, interventions can be more effective in achieving their desired objectives. So without introducing more effective direct progress, it will not be an easy task to alleviate poverty.
Diverse and unreachable Target Groups
The poverty alleviation actually works on a target group, which is below the poor level. Their aim to is target those groups and work on them so that they can become self-reliant and rise or reach the normal level. But unfortunately it has been very difficult situation for them. Also the success achieved by various poverty alleviation programs in reaching the target groups varies considerably. Inspire of having a good and efficient program they dont pay out. While there are successful programs, there are also programs in which large proportions of the beneficiaries are not poor. As we can see, in Bangladesh, credit and other assistance programs of Grameen Bank and BRAC are available only to the poor (defined as landless and/or near landless). But there are other programs that have not attained similar success in reaching the poor. Recent evaluations also points out that even in the case of programs which have succeeded in reaching the poor, it is the not-sopoor who have benefited more. Indias Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) also faces this criticism. The programs performance has been rather disappointing even in backward and remote areas of the country. One evaluation shows that in 1992/93, 22% of the beneficiaries were close to the poverty line while another 4% did not even meet the criteria for inclusion in the program In the Peoples Republic of China, loans from the credit program for poor collectives often went to non-poor collectives and households. The experience of the PRESEED program in the Philippines was similar. In Sri Lanka, middle and higher income people benefited most from the selfemployment programs of the 1980s. It is generally expected that the problem of reaching the target groups is less serious in the Case of wage employment programs, as they can employ wage
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rates as a mechanism for self-targeting. A number of evaluations point to the success of the program in this regard, a recent study casts some doubt. Using panel survey data from two villages of Maharastra, this study shows that most of the project beneficiaries in 1979 had incomes above the poverty line. The situation continued during the next decade, and in 1989, the proportion of nonpoor beneficiaries was higher than in 1979.
Jawahar Rojgar Yojana is another wage employment program that is being implemented throughout India. But one study shows that in 1992, as much as 57% of the program participants were above the poverty line, and another 25% were quite close to that level. Only 5% belonged to the poorest of the poor. In Bangladesh, the food for work program has been going on for many years now. And recently, it has been transformed into a multi sectored rural development program with the basic objective of poverty alleviation. But it is very unfortunate that the food for work program had no reputation for success in targeting,. Hence it is nothing a clear wastage to the people.
Ineffective Planning
The beginning phase or the planning phase is a very important factor for reducing poverty in Asia. The planning should be done with intensive care because a big amount of effort, money is on the stakes. A mistake might result in reduction of donations from the government and the foreign donors. So proper attention should be given to preparing a plan for this. It is not an easy task to alleviate poverty. It needs planning on the long-term basis with keeping various aspects in mind. A number of programs have been implementing to reduce poverty in Asia. Some of them have shown a great amount improvement, but yet there are number programs, which are very much behind in reaching their target, Especially in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka. The planning should be done on a macro basis, with a view to improve income, wage rate by targeting, helping the real poor people. But in most situations they have failed to do so. From the case we can see that most of the people who are benefited from the programs were actually not so poor. The money spent on these programs also has not been utilized properly.
Absence of Infrastructure
Infrastructure like roads, transport, electricity, education and skills of workers and access to markets - for inputs as well as outputs is another important aspect that has made poverty alleviation a hard task. One cannot deny the critical importance of infrastructure in catalyzing development. Opening up and linking hitherto isolated rural areas, roads and improved transport can play a
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critical role in facilitating the growth of poverty-reducing non-farm activities. There are at least two more reasons for providing a particular attention to investment in this sector. The first relates to the weight of this sector in a typical developing country economy. According to a World Bank case, some 20 per cent of total investment and 40 to 60 per cent of public investment are allocated to infrastructure in developing countries. Secondly, given the range of technological options that are available for this sector, it is possible to use investments here as a means of generating much needed employment for the poor. However most of the areas in Asia where we can actually find out the real poor people, there is no infrastructure, like the rural or the backward area of Bangladesh, India. In this situation it is a hard job does some thing for the people living in there. If there were an infrastructure then it would have been very easy to create employment for them, which would eventually affect their living standards and income. But as they do not have any infrastructure it is not possible provide them any mean to improve their employment rather it is also not possible to access them. This how the absence of infrastructure is causing a lot of trouble to the poverty alleviation program.
Ineffective Labor Market Regulations
In this region we have huge labor market. This labor market is very much important to Asia as well other regions as they are provider of cheap and efficient labor. Also they provide scope for increased job opportunity and increased income. But it is only possible if there is effective labor market regulation. As regulation of contractual relations in employment can cover a variety of aspects like wages, other terms and conditions like relating to basis of wage calculation, type and duration of contract, the right to negotiate terms and conditions, etc, they can contribute to a huge extent in improving the status of the poor workers. While some of them may be applied only or mainly in the formal sector and as such may not be directly concerned with poverty, there are aspects which are potentially important in action against poverty. This is particularly true of regulation of wage setting. For minimum wages to be effective in action against poverty, they have to be widely applied and complied with. Regulations relating to other aspects of the labor market, e.g., employment security, forms of contractual arrangement (especially, measures designed to put an end to exploitative practices) can also contribute to the fight against poverty. But in order to be effective, they also need to be applied widely. This where the problems begin for poverty alleviation program in Asia. As the Asia provides a source cheap labor, it is not feasible for the owner to maintain all those regulation. Because then they would not be able provide at present cheap because they are covering many other factors for the employees. In this
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situation they will just simply loose they market share in the global market. On the other hand, if they do not comply with the labor market regulation they poverty situation will not be improved and the poverty will not be reduced.
Lack of HR Development
One more important and crucial weakness of Asia is that there is lack of human resources development. Due to this reason it is becoming more difficult reduce poverty. It beyond all doubt that Investments in education and training are a potentially powerful instrument for raising the productivity and earnings of the poor. Improving the human capital base of the poor through the spread of literacy and basic education enhances their capabilities in several ways. In the rural economy, improved educational levels have been shown to raise productivity in peasant agriculture through enhancing the willingness to innovate and the capacity to absorb information on new techniques of production. It enhances the capacity to respond to market opportunities in both farm and non-farm rural activities, and offers an access route to training and, through this, to better jobs. In the urban economy, improved access to further education and training for the poor is a key escape route from poverty to more skilled and better paying jobs. Training is also an important component of support services provided to raise productivity and incomes in the informal sector. The above view of the role of human resource development in poverty alleviation suggests that policy interventions are required at several levels. At the macro level policies are required to ensure that adequate provisions are made for expenditures in education and training and that these are allocated equitably. Every people below the line of poverty should have access to education, information, and training which are relevant and required to get a job. But unfortunately this is not possible in the countries where there is acute poverty. For this there is lack of skilled labor that is also ineligible to apply for a job.
Vulnerable Market
The labor market situation in these countries is not so good. Most of the economies put less emphasis on this particular issue, which is not so wise. It is evident that poverty is due to labor market outcomes; vulnerability in the labor market should be an immediate target issue for policy and action to reduce poverty. Vulnerability in the labor market can be related to a variety of factors, such as age, gender, ethnic groups, or household status. All these factors are important and need to be addressed, but among them one issue needs intensive attention, which is gender-related vulnerability. Women face a disadvantageous situation in the labor market due to a variety of factors, Such as:
Lack of control over assets,
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Competing domestic and labor market demands on time, Lack of access to training, and Discrimination in the labor market.
Due to these factors, the Asian labor market is very much very much vulnerable, especially in comparison to European labor market. As the markets are very much vulnerable, the investors are not interested to put their money or effort in these countries. As an outcome of this, there are less ventures and job opportunities in this region, which is another reason behind poverty. As long as the markets are not made more appropriate, the poverty alleviation program will not achievable in this part of the world.
Huge, Unskilled & Poor Population
Another problem ahead of poverty alleviation is that there is huge population, which is very tough to control and develop. In developed countries they are represented as human resources, which is actually an asset to the country. But the population in this country is not skilled enough. So rather being assets, they are considered as a hazard to the country. Asia is home to over twothirds of the worlds poor. And within Asia, there is a wide variation in the status of poverty. There are some countries, which have improved their situation by carefully, and controlling their economic condition. But still a major portion from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka remain below the line of poverty. It is evident that being so much huge that it will be very difficult to reduce poverty in this region
Lack of Data
It is very important to collect data of the programs on a regular basis. the data are required so that we can be aware of the effectiveness of the programs, how much the program is doing, how well they are reaching the target groups, how much do they need to be changed or modified. With our accurate regular data, it will be very tough to justify the programs. Therefore there will be chance that we will be running ineffective programs in this region with a little or no success. The reason behind lack of data is that large segments of these economies are not often covered by a systematic practice of collecting data especially about wages. What is thus available is usually fragmentary, nonstandardized, and hence, often non-comparable. It may, however, be possible to have some idea about broad trends and provide at least a heuristic argument on the linkage between poverty and real wages. But still we will in cloud and cant be able to see the true picture. if we do not establish proper practice for collecting data about the programs there is a little chance that we will able reduce poverty in this region.
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Unskilled Labor
We have discussed earlier that this region is home to the world two third poor populations. In the cases of developed countries they are represented as assets, but the population in this country is skilled in any professional field. Hence it is rather considered as a weakness in this case. The aim of poverty alleviation is to reduce poverty through number policies among which employment is the most promising one. But employment requires specific job requirements, knowledge and training, which scares in this part of the world, are. But if we can manage to develop human resources in this region, then there will be sure chance of poverty alleviation. But as the labor in these countries is poor, they have little access to education, it becomes a mammoth task to convert them into skilled earning labor and alleviate poverty from this region.
Economic Crisis
It should be kept in mind that the programs implemented to alleviate poverty are not immune to economic crisis. The programs are designed on macro economical basis with taking account of other economic factors. They are well designed and planned to reach the target objective, reduce poverty. But these genius plans are not so perfect to other factors such as economic crisis. The economic crisis is so fatal that years or progress such steady growth in GDP simply falls apart due to this incident. From a data table in the case we find out that In the extreme case of Indonesia, the economic crisis caused a reversal of several impressive labor market gains made by the country before the economic crisis such as

Reduction in the degree of underemployment and in the extent of dependence on the informal sector High rates of real wage growth). While underemployment and The dependence on the informal sector increased, real wage rates declined sharply in all sectors.
As a result, the impressive achievements made in reducing poverty were reversed. Indeed, the incidence of poverty appears to have doubled during the crisis period in other countries also (especially Korea and Thailand), declines in real wages and increases in unemployment were reflected in increases in poverty. From these we find out that the programs are very much sensitive to the economic crisis situations. If they are not designed to be compatible to the economic crisis, then there is a sure chance that our recent attempt to alleviate poverty will result in failure again.
Downward Pattern of Economic Growth

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Economic growth is an important tool through which poverty can be alleviated. It is more like self-correcting mechanism that creates job opportunity and reduce poverty if there is a steady growth of economy. If an economy can get onto a high growth path, and through appropriate macro and sectored policies growth can be sufficiently employment-intensive, an adequate amount of productive employment will be created so as to gradually absorb all the working poor into such jobs as will lift them out of poverty. Indeed, this is the path that has been followed by the East Asian countries that have been successful in alleviating poverty. And as mentioned earlier, policies can be geared towards achieving such employment-intensive growth paths. It must be recognized, however, that in many of the developing countries characterized by a high incidence of poverty, such high growth rates are not in sight. While efforts need to continue for implementing an employment-intensive high growth strategy, additional interventions will be needed to address the situation of the working poor. Although some countries in Asia such as Malaysia, Thailand have shown this pattern but most other countries it is very difficult to locate. Hence the economy cannot self adjust itself and the poverty remains like unbreakable stone in the pathway of poverty alleviation program.
Unwillingness to Work/Absenteeism
Poverty alleviation program tries to alleviate poverty by providing job to the poor and unemployment people. They came up a number of programs that tries to train, educate and facilitate their earnings. The example of these cans food for work, Jawahar Rojgar Yojona and so on. Theses program finds out people who are out of work and actually below the line of poverty. But they encounter with people who actually do not want to work. We can see in the case that there are some people in India who do not prefer to work. Rather they are more interested in non economical activity which is a great weakness of the problem. If people so not want to work then it will be a tough job for NGOs and governments to reduce poverty through employment.
Opportunities
Incentives From Donors
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There is a big opportunity ahead of poverty alleviation program in Asia. The program has been helped a lot by the foreign donors such as IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB). They have contribution a huge amount of money and effort in the program so that poverty can be alleviated in Asia. Furthermore there is an opportunity of more donations from the satisfied donors. If the countries in Asia can show a real achievement in this poverty alleviation target by forcing for different social welfare, country development, construction, crime reduction, reducing inflation rate and improving other economic market then developed countries will provide more incentives to them. Furthermore they will also waiver of loan and subsidize. So it is a big opportunity ahead of them because later on it will help the program to reduce poverty in more places.
Improvement in Environment
By alleviating poverty the overall environment of Asia can be improved. Asia is considered to one of the worst region where environment below standard. This is basically due to the existing poverty in this part. But if poverty alleviation program su8ccessfully alleviate poverty then the over all condition will improved. At present the labor market, social environment and other area are quite like a mess. As long as the [poverty remains in these countries there will be no opportunity for improvement. But when poverty will be removed, there will be a sure opportunity of better environment, increased productivity and good labor market.
Improvement in Living Standards
At present most of the people are living in Asia are below the line of poverty. So it is acute that they do not have a standard living standard. They do not get the most basic need so life such as food, shelter, health and education. But by alleviating poverty we will be able provide them all this needs. When the poverty will be at decreasing state, the living standard of the people will be increased so their productivity and earnings will be increased. In this situation it will work as boosting power for poverty alleviation. So definitely it is huge opportunity ahead poverty alleviation in Asia.
Economical Stability In the labor and Economical market
Poverty alleviation program is trying to reduce poverty by improving the economy in the country. What they are actually trying is to strengthen the economy, which will lead to automatic increase in real wage rate.
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Thus they will be able tighten the labor market, the work environment and the vulnerable groups who are not active in present economy. The overall result of this is more economical stability, which is a big opportunity to the program.
Improvement of HR in Asia
Most of the countries in Asia do not put more emphasis on the human resources. We can see that most pf the countries have a huge population is not productive, skilled and educated. More over they have no access to training and information. Poverty alleviation program is trying to improve the situation by providing the people education, training and job. So they are eventually developing the human resources in this part of World. So, this lucrative opportunity ahead of the program because later on it will be also very helpful in alleviating poverty.
Empowerment of Women
In most part of Asia, women are neglected to a great extent. It is basically due to the present society. But poverty alleviation program is now trying to target the women in these countries. They have already showed a huge success in that program which has concentrated on women. If the programs elaborates more women from others part then there is a big opportunity that the present condition of women will be improved. They will be more productive and active in the economy. So definitely it is very good opportunity ahead of them.
Threats
Government Policies
In poverty alleviation government plays a very important role. They come up with plans and policy, co-ordinate and help the NGOs to reduce poverty. But their biggest contribution to the program is through the Direct Interventions. They implement their economical policies in the macroeconomics and multi 44
Group: E
sect oral area and try to alleviate poverty. it is not possible to reduce poverty without the help and contribution of the government. But unfortunately in some case the government can go against the poverty alleviation program. In most of the countries the government has negative attitude towards the NGOs. They actually make problems to the NGOs rather cooperating with them. It is very true in the case of Bangladesh where the fundamentalist groups in the government are totally opposing the NGOs. So NGOs are having a tough time to operate in country. Also some times government comes up with such policies that hamper the economic growth in the short run and poverty alleviation in the long run. It can be seen in most of the countries where government issues such plans and budget, which make it more difficult to alleviate poverty in Asia.
Competition Among the Countries

The program is concentrated on poor countries of Asia. At present there are a number of different plans being implemented in different parts of this region. The result pf these programs show a huge variance in country to country. As we can see that Malaysia, Thailand have really improved the labor market, productivity, HR, Infrastructure and have become the dominant power in Asia. On the other hand there are countries that do not have so many resources. In this situation when there is a tough competition among these countries. We can see that Bangladesh can have no advantage in comparison to Malaysia when it is a matter or winning an order from the foreign country. In this situation the courtiers with fewer resources will stay behind in the race of poverty alleviation. There is also a threat that these countries will become poorer due to the completion among themselves.
Economic Crisis
The poverty alleviation program is not immune to economic crisis. If things go out of hand such as recession or depression breaks out, then there is a big threat that everything in poverty alleviation program will just simply fall apart. As the economic condition and labor market is not so good in Asia, it is very much vulnerable to economic crisis. It was also true in case of recent economic crisis in Asia. We can see that all five countries that were seriously affected by the crisis suffered a reversal of several impressive labor market gains made by the country before the economic crisis like reduction in the degree of underemployment and in the extent of dependence on the informal sector, and high rates of real wage growth. As a result, the impressive achievements made in reducing poverty were reversed. If the economy in Asia is not made stronger the there is a big threat that soon the poverty alleviation program will be hampered due to this incident.
Ineffective NGOs
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NGOs are the best tool to implement poverty alleviation program in Asia. They are non-profit organization and very much flexible in size and operation. It is very easy for them reach to the far and backward areas of Asia and run the program. They work basically on project basis and have huge experience in this field. But unfortunately some time the NGOs make huge mistakes in their operations. We can see that in most5 cases NGOs have made huge mistakes in Targeting the audience which was supposed to be real poor, they have spent a lot money on other things such buying expensive cars, comfortable air conditioned office and helping people who are actually not poor. This has created discrimination among the people of the country and dissatisfaction among the government and the donors. In this situation the future of poverty alleviation can come under question. As big things are on stakes, the NGOs should re-evaluate their operations or else this threat will just simply destroy their whole poverty alleviation program in Asia.
Gender Discrimination
Another threat that we find from the case is gender discrimination. The poverty alleviation program has shown a huge success when they have concentrated on the women of these countries. We can see that in Bangladesh, the vulnerable group development program which targets destitute women and the rural maintenance program which also targets the poor women have provided a huge success to the women as well as the program. So if they can work more with the women then the poverty alleviation can be achieved very soon. But unfortunately this has not been possible for them.
HR Issues
Poor Country
Poverty is outcome of the economic unstable system of a poor country. It is evident that most of the people live below the poverty line in a poor country. In this case, we find out that there are huge populations living in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka who are defined as the real poor.
Employment Growth
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Decent and productive employment is one of the best routes out of poverty. A Steady employment growth is a prerequisite for poverty alleviation. Employment growth is less in the developing country because in the developing country does not have proper system and economic infrastructure. And adequate amount of productive employment will be created so as to gradually absorb all the working poor into such jobs as will lift them out of poverty.
Low Rate of Economic Growth
Poverty exists in developing and underdeveloped country and their economic growth rate is low. But a high rate of economic growth is essential for poverty alleviation on a sustained basis. But is has not been possible for many developing countries to achieve such high growth. If they were to wait for poverty alleviation through the normal process of economic growth, they would perhaps have to wait for several more decades. Also, the conditions necessary for the benefits of growth to trickle down to the poor are often absent from developing countries.
Low Wage Rate
In most of the poor country have low wage rate. If you see a developed country, you will get that in this particular country have high wage rate. For example, In Bangladesh have low wage rate. Labor market which is very important for poverty reduction, is the growth rate of real wage for workers. Wage rates can be important determinants of poverty. While underemployment and the dependence on the informal sector increased, wage rates declined sharply in all the sectors.
Low Level of Living
A degree of anxiety to put an end to the poverty of such people who work hard and yet are unable to generate enough income for a decent living. In this case, in Asian countries living standard is very low.
Absenteeism/attitude to Neglect Work
Not only unemployment is the reason behind poverty. There are also some people who do not actually want to work. While provided with job opportunities they will show no interest to work or may even show up to the work.
Lacks of Infrastructure
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In most of the country have lacks of infrastructure like roads, transportation, information etc. They do not have that have much opportunity for education so that they are remaining uneducated.
Low Productivity
In Asia most of the country are poor and their productivity is very low. In this case, some country generating high productivity but in some country have a high level of employment growth rate but the productivity is low.
Low Status of Female Workers
In many developing countries have low status of female workers. In some working place, male are getting double pay than the female workers. Furthermore, in many parts of Asia women are not allowed to conduct business or engage directly in economical activities.
Low Returns
According to the case, in some countries employees are idle. They are not serious about their task. So, ultimately returns are low.
Providing Training and Education
Different NGOs and organizations are providing different types of training and education facilities so that the people can get job or get self-employed.
Various Poverty Alleviation Programs
Different NGOs arranging different types of program to alleviate the poverty. These programs help to the poor people to stand in a good position. For example, in Bangladesh, credit and other assistance programs of Grameen Bank and the BRAC.
Programs for Employment and Income Generation
Self-employment program usually target the poor and assist them in undertaking income generating activities by providing them with microcredit. And, there are wage employment programs create employment by using labor- intensive method.
Futile Planning
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Although the plans were prepared to alleviate poverty, they were not successful in it because their planning did not have long-term vision, effective planning and proper implementation. They made mistakes in aiming their target group, wasted a lot of resources on nothing.
Inexpert Labor
In the case, in most of the Asian country labor force here are not so skilled. They are not well paid and their condition is not good. The poor condition in the labor market has been a barrier to improve their condition.
Short of HR Development
According to the case, The HR issue is quite neglected in Asia. There is lack of resources (education, information and Training) and facilities that can help in creating powerful and dynamic human resources, which can act as a tool in reducing poverty in Asia.
Human Resource Planning Process

Planning is an important element to do something in a perfect way. Planning is the process of coping with uncertainty by formulating future courses of action to achieve specified results. And, planning enables human to achieve great things by envisioning a pathway from concept to reality. But human resource planning process is a process of anticipating and making provision for the movement or flow of people into, within, and out of an organization. It is an essential part of managing the human resources effectively. And, planning is the first process of any strategy. So, human resource planning process is the nice process in the HR strategy. Its purpose is the effective deployment of human resource through:
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Anticipating organizational labor supply and demand. Providing expanded employment opportunities for women, minorities, and the disabled. Guiding the development and training the workforce.
There are two types of forecasting. One is forecasting the demand and another one is forecasting the supply. In demand and supply forecasting have different types of considerations and techniques. So, from the analysis of the case Poverty Alleviation and Employment we got some essentials, which are necessary to forecast demand and supply of poverty alleviation and employment in the Human Resource Planning Process.
Forecasting Demand
Considerations Product/Service Demand

Poverty alleviation is an important issue in todays world. There are many NGOs working together to alleviate poverty. There are some limitations of direct programs for poverty alleviation do not mean to deny the important contributions made by them, especially in situations where poverty is acute, growth is sluggish, or economics are in recession due to economic crisis. Service demand of the poverty alleviation is very strong because, everybody wants to assuage poverty.
Technology
Technology is very important to do a work smoothly. Here, many NGOs working for many countries to assuage poverty. Their working process is good. They have large offices, nice transportations and so on.
Financial Resources
According to the case, there are huge different financial resources to alleviate poverty. Different NGOs and different donators working for the poverty alleviation. World Bank, IMF and ADB helping to different NGO, government by giving huge money. There is also option waiver of loan, financial incentives.
Absenteeism/Turnover
It refers to the number of employees leaving the organization. Since there is no specific organization so it is very difficult to determine the rate of
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absenteeism or return. But as per as we can say that some people are disobedient to their work in the workplace.
Organizational Growth
There are different organizations growing up to alleviate poverty. Day by day many organization coming up to help the country where poverty exist. If you consider NGO as organization, then the organizational growth is good because many donators help to those NGOs by giving financial support.
Management Philosophy
Management who are working for the poverty alleviation believes in direct intervention by which the economy can be improved and self-employment to be created. So, real wage rate will be high and will reduce poverty.
Techniques Trend Analysis

It is a quantitative approach to forecast the demand techniques. Trend analysis determines human resources needs, labor productivity ratio etc. Poor country needs high labor productivity to develop the country. But according to the case labor productivity ratio is low and more needs of human resources.
Managerial Estimates
It refers the opinions of supervisors, department managers, experts, or other knowledgeable about the organizations future employment needs. In this case, the organizations that are working for to alleviate poverty, they are very effective in some country and sometimes are they are very effective that they should be. In some situation or in some country, they are experts and knowledgeable.
Delphi techniques
It is a part of qualitative approach to demand forecasting. In this particular case, we did not find any sort of information regarding Delphi techniques.
Forecasting Supply
Techniques Staffing Tables

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Staffing tables refers graphic representations of all organizational jobs, along with the number of employees currently occupying those jobs and future employment requirements. Actually, this case is not on the particular organization. It is on the poverty alleviation. But there are some organizations that are working for the poverty alleviation. There is no point regarding the staffing table.
Markov Analysis
Markov analysis is a method for tracking the pattern of employee movement through various jobs. In this case there are no points indicated about the Markov analysis.
Skills Inventories
Skill inventories include files of personnel education, experience, interests, skills, etc., that allow managers to quickly match job openings with employee backgrounds. There are no points regarding skills inventories. But we assume that by reading this case, who are working for the poverty alleviation they are experience and educated.
Management Inventories
According to the case, there are no points about the management inventories. We have said before that this case on poverty alleviation.
Replacement Charts
It refers listing of current jobholders and persons who are potential replacements if an opening occur. Actually, this case is on the poverty alleviation and many organizations working for this. These organizations are growing up so that new position is opening and some educated person fills this position.
Succession Planning
It refers the process of identifying, developing, and tracking key individuals for executive position. Different NGOs and country government trying to find out the major problems and trying to solve this problem by the succession planning.
External Considerations
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Demographic Changes
In the case, there are many demographic changes. There are many organizations working in different countries. And, some of the people working in this organization that are from outside of the country. In both the situation, the organizations as well as the people face many demographical changes such as climate, culture, living style, social structure and so on.
Education of the Workforce

Most of the people who are working for the poverty alleviation are educated. But they need to be educated in some more specific area, which will help them to understand the present situation with more precision.
Labor Mobility
According to the case, labor mobility is high. Because, there are different types of NGO working for the poverty alleviation in different country. Employees are moving in different places for their task.
Government Policies
In every country have government, and have their own government policy. In every country have some policies to alleviate the poverty. In fact, government helps different organizations to alleviate poverty. But in this case there is no particular point about the government policy.
Unemployment Rate
The rate of employment has a major impact on forecasting the supply of employees. When the rate of unemployment is high, government and firms need to create new jobs for the people. According to the case, in Asia, some country have high unemployment rate like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and so on. But, in some country have low unemployment rate like Japan, China etc.
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Recommendations & Implementation

While there is no easy answer to the question of how poverty can be alleviated, this is not only problem for the developing country like Bangladesh but also has become an important issue for other developed countries in Asia. In todays perspective poverty cant be alleviated only by adopting some few steps, the long term planning and its implementation can be the most effective way to get rid of this problem. It is clear from the SWOT analysis that in order to achieve the goal of reducing poverty, the necessary actions will be needed on the normative as well as the developmental front. There should be more emphasis on access to capital, skills, technology and markets. As we do have useful experience based on work in these areas by government agencies, NGOs and multilateral agencies, what is important is to look for means of action through which such activities can be replicated on a larger scale in order to have a significant impact on overall levels of poverty. Poverty at individual and national levels cannot be eradicated like polio or small pox because it is implicated by our mental, physical, emotional, religious, and cultural states of being. It is more complex than getting a vaccination shot in the arm. It however can be alleviated or its ravaging effects can be ameliorated, and thus there is room for well-designed poverty alleviation programs to address
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the root causes as well as the impact, symptoms, and manifestations of poverty. Good poverty alleviation programs take time to design, and need intelligent planning, human and technical resources, and a well-established administrative capacity to implement in the following pages; we are chronologically placing our recommendations and implementation plan to reduce our poverty.
Developing the Employment Opportunities
Employment and poverty are closely related to each other. The poverty cant be eliminated until the employment opportunities are developed. To achieve success in poverty alleviation the important step should be implemented to attain high rates of GDP growth, and the growth of GDP depends on the employment opportunity. If the working able people are not employed, there will be no possibility of earning money and the GDP will not increase rather it may decline when the people will have no work. The nature and content of output growth is extremely important for achieving higher GDP. Although the problems are often overstated, unemployment remains a major cause of poverty. The poor are the victims of forced idleness more frequently than the non-poor. Poor family heads are about 5.5times as likely to be unemployed as are the no poor For growth to contribute to poverty alleviation, output growth must translate into incomes of the poor. Without the income of people and creating the opportunities for employment, poverty alleviation cant be possible. The following steps should be implemented in regarding with employment.
Increasing the Quantity of Employment
The most important condition for the development of employment opportunities is increasing the quantity of employment. For this the people who are self-employed, productivity and returns are important, which in turn are influenced by a host of factors, e.g., technology, inputs used, and prices of inputs and outputs, these factors should be standardized first to increase the quantity of employment. Employment programs that streamline the operation of the labor market, increase the productivity of low-income workers, and create opportunities for employment and advancement can alleviate the plight of the working poor. Legislation to eliminate discrimination must also be enforced when such employment and training programs are implemented.
Technology
Technology is the only key factor that can create job opportunity.
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Group: E
Unemployed People
For the people who are unemployed, if the people are technically skilled they can be the best resource for any country. So the government should give more emphasis on the technology, which is currently followed by other developed countries. For this the technically developed countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philippines can be taken as model for the developing countries to improve the technology to create more job opportunities.
Proper Utilization of Inputs

When any country becomes technically improved, the next responsibility comes to utilize the inputs. For any output the entire processing depends on the use of input, if the raw materials and labors are used appropriately maximum output can be possible. It can create various sources of inputs and the quantity of employment will be increased. The other importance of proper utilization of inputs is to influence the people to contribute in production when they are valued properly.
Prices of Inputs and Outputs

Price is the main factor for any production. When the prices of input and output are adjusted, the productivity increases a lot. The price should be determined in such a way that the output growth rate must be high. The employment growth rate is accompanied by the adjustment of price. So government should control price at present and take effective measures to remain the price unchanged in future.
Cash-In-Aid
It is found that countries of South Asia were less successful in achieving higher employment growth, and also less successful in reducing poverty. The difference between cash subsides and rehabilitative programs are often blurred, for instance, stipends are necessary for the poor if they are to complete an effective training program. These various strategies for helping the poor complement each other. Not only must today's poverty be alleviated through cash and in-and aid, but also steps must be taken to reduce it in the future by better preparing young people and by giving the poor a better chance in the job market.
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So the above steps should be implemented not only for short term but also for the long term.
Improving the Labor Market
Labor market is important for poverty reduction. This is the place of adjusting the demand and supply of labor. The other aspect of the labor market is the growth of real wages for workers. The real wages of poor workers are extremely important to their levels of living. If the real wages are not standardized, the opportunities of employment will go in vain.
Whether the potential role of minimum wages in reducing poverty can be realized depends on several factors, e.g., the extent of coverage, the extent of compliance, the indirect effects of minimum wage on overall labor demand, effects on labor productivity, etc. For minimum wages to be effective in action against poverty, they have to be widely applied and complied with. Wage rates and earnings for rural non-farm and urban informal sector activities can be important determinants of poverty. Implementing the following steps can eliminate the difficulty between poverty and real wages: In developing countries, it is difficult to conceptualize and quantify wages as they practice of paying wages in kind, so it should be avoided. They need to be more specific by deciding standard wage level. Most of the countries are not often covered by a systematic practice of collecting data on wages. The available things are non-standardized and often non-comparable. So the steps should be implemented to have idea about broad trends and provide at least a heuristic argument on the linkage between poverty and real wages. To gain impressive reduction in poverty, the real wage rate growth rate should be higher in manufacturing as well as agriculture. So the developing countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka should stop the declining of real wage rate in agriculture.
Real wage rate has great impact on the labor market as well as reducing poverty so the wage rate should be higher in both manufacturing and agriculture to eliminate poverty.
Raising the Income of Working Poor
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In any effort at poverty alleviation, it would be necessary to address the issue of the working poor because only does not guarantee an escape from poverty. The poor face multiple impediments to self-sufficiency, including joblessness, less than a high school education, and dependence on welfare. There are four different major groups of poor people. They are the elderly, children, employed working-age adults, and unemployed working-age adults. Each of these groups has different problems that are addressed by different programs. Few elderly people hold jobs, and that is the main cause of poverty among the elderly. Some of the elderly poor are willing and able to hold regular jobs, but most cannot. An increasing number of elderly people living alone must support themselves. As the elderly become more numerous and livelonger, meeting their income needs becomes increasingly burdensome. The best and often the only practicable way to help the aged poor is to give them some form of income support The following steps can be implemented from now to raise the income of working poor: The first step should be taken so that an economy can get onto a high growth path, and through proper appropriate macro and sectoral policies growth can be sufficiently employment-intensive, an adequate amount of productive employment will be created so as to gradually absorb all the working poor into such jobs as will lift them out of poverty. To reduce poverty the policy adopted by the East Asian countries has made them successful and their path can be taken as guideline. Only the efforts cannot be enough for implementing an employment-intensive high growth strategy, additional interventions will be required to address the situation of working poor. At first the government should take the stock of knowledge base in activity and geographic location. Then direct interventions should be adopted to reduce the factor for low productivity, low returns and low wages include type of market, relative prices of inputs and outputs, marketing arrangements, technology type of market, demand for the products. If these factors are identified properly, the interventions can be implemented more effectively. The next step should be taken to increase the income of people include marginal farmers, farm workers, those working in petty non-farm activities because their incomes are below the poverty thresholds. Though they are classified as informal sector, their income can be a great contributor to the higher growth of economy, and when their income will above the poverty threshold the GDP will increase.
When the economy has enough growth and sufficient employment opportunities, the condition of working poor can be made better, these working poor are a great part of our economy and the poverty can not be alleviated until improve their condition. For this, the factors related to the poor condition
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should be addressed first and eliminated them by implementing the above steps.
Removing the Coverage Limitation
It is found that in comparison to the developed countries, the programs that are adopted are very limited. They are not implemented throughout the whole region where poverty should be eliminated. If the programs are not covered equally, the developing country cannot reduce the poverty. With less or little coverage it is not possible to fight against such a huge problem. With more careful targeting, program design, and program implementation, interventions can be more effective in achieving their desired objectives. For extending the coverage the following steps should be implemented: The government should recruit more people to introduce the poverty alleviation programs in the rural regions. There should be no political preferences to implement the policies. It should be operated for all. The other step can be taken to elaborate the advantages of poverty alleviation programs to the poor people to inspire for contribution. From the present moment government should follow strict policy to implement what programs they are adopting. It is the government who can establish the poverty alleviation program to reach the goal.
Expanding the Direct Programs
It is found that a number of programs to alleviate poverty in Asia have been introduced, but as the coverage is limited, so the numbers of direct interventions of direct programs are not sufficient. The direct programs can be made more effective by implementing the following steps: There should be change in major policies in order to ensure that direct programs achieve their objectives completely. Programs aimed at raising the productivity and incomes of the poor have the best chance of success when they will be implemented within a macro policy environment, which is conducive to their operation. The direct programs can be constructed to fulfill the objectives of poverty reduction by implementing:

Greater pro-poor orientation in macroeconomic and sectoral policies as well as in public investment programs, Promoting productive employment in sectors where the poor could benefit,
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Labor market regulations; Reducing vulnerability in the labor market, and Enhancing the capabilities of the poor through human resource development
Introducing Direct Involvement for Poverty Alleviation
Although a high rate of economic growth is essential for poverty alleviation on a sustained basis, it has not been possible for many developing countries to achieve such high growth. On the other hand, many of these countries are also characterized by a high incidence of poverty. If they were to wait for poverty alleviation through the normal process of economic growth, they would perhaps have to wait for several more decades. Also, the conditions necessary for the benefits of growth to trickle down to the poor are often absent from developing countries. In such circumstances, special measures and directly targeted programs help in speeding up the process of poverty alleviation. The special measures for poverty alleviation can be of two types: (i) programs for employment and income generation and (ii) measures for social welfare. In fact, these two categories of programs can be linked to the two broad types of basic human needs. One part of the basic needs - the one containing food, clothing, and shelter - is met mainly through ones individual income and consumption. And programs of employment and income generation are designed mainly with the aim of contributing to the satisfaction of such private basic needs. On the other hand, an important component of basic needs e.g., education and health - often cannot be satisfied through increases in individual income alone. Social welfare programs can be important in that regard. While such programs often are not targeted at the poor, to the extent they are designed to cover specific areas, like, slum areas in cities, villages in backward regions, and the poor are likely to benefit more. Programs of employment and income generation can also be of two types: Income generation through self-employment and Wage-employment programs.
Self-employment programs usually target the poor and assist them in undertaking income generating activities by providing them with micro-credit. In some cases, credit is accompanied by assistance in skill training, marketing, etc.
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Easy Access to the Target Groups
The poverty alleviation actually works on target groups, which lie below the poor level. The main aim of poverty alleviation program is to raise the income level of poor people and make them self-reliant. But unfortunately the goal has not been achieved for not getting the target groups properly. Most of the countries in Asia make policies to fight against poverty, but they are not able to reach the target groups and the programs are not implemented accurately. In India most of the poverty alleviation programs were failed for the lack of implementation to the target groups. They implemented those only for some selective areas and the poverty conditions of poor people were not improved. It also happened in Bangladesh and the targeted poor people could not get rid of the curse of poverty. This thing can only be eliminated when the targeted poor people are brought under these programs and they will get benefit of these tasks. The following steps will indicate the ways to get reach to the target groups: At first the target groups should be formed selecting the people who are below poverty threshold, these poor people always fight against the poverty. So the programs should be focused in rural are where people are less self-employed and having low level of income. In the absence of in-depth evaluations of the recent employment programs in the countries of East Asia and Southeast Asia, economic crisis affected this. The poverty alleviation programs sometimes cant be successful for this economic crisis; therefore the policy makers should also implement the alternative ways to cope with this uncertainty. It will be helpful to implement the programs to the target groups. The poverty alleviation programs should be focused on especially for women who can get the credit and undertake income-generating activities. This will attract them to earn more and spend for the welfare of their families. There should be more attractive remuneration and realizable programs so that rural people can be familiar with the process. If they are well informed and motivated, they will eagerly contribute to these programs. Self-employment programs are mainly designed for the poor people who have very low-income level, but in many developing countries like Sri Lanka and Philippines the middle and higher income people took advantages from this program. So it should be strictly checked for the welfare of poor people who has no income at all. Many new and well-structured programs can be introduced to the target groups so that they can easily identify the best one to reduce their poverty.
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This can help the NGOs and government to get the attention of poverty cursed people who really want to get rid of this.
It is not easy enough to reach to the target groups for various types of barriers and hurdles, with more careful targeting; planning, program design, and program implementation, can be more effective in achieving their desired objectives to reduce poverty.
Planning Should be Effective
The planning phase is very important factor for reducing poverty in Asia. Planning should be prepared with intensive care because a big amount of effort, money is on the stakes. So full attention should be given to prepare plan for reducing poverty. It requires planning on the long-term basis with keeping various aspects in mind. All the programs are not successful for poverty alleviation; lots of them are very much behind in reaching their goal. In the developing countries like Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka most of the planning is not effective. The following methods can ensure the success of planning: The planning should be done on a macro basis, with a view to improve income, wage rate by targeting, cooperating the real poor people. These policies are based on the procedures of reducing poverty from the country. Macroeconomic policies can affect the levels of income and living conditions of the poor by changing any of the following: Access to productive assets (e.g., land, equipment and machinery, knowledge and information, etc.) Returns on productive assets Employment opportunities; and Access to social services (e.g., education and health) which in turn can influence the quality of labor supply). Appropriate policies in the areas of trade, exchange rates, taxation, credit, subsidies, and pricing have played an important role in alleviating poverty in Asia through the successful implementation of planning when it should be utilized for the welfare of real poor people. Money is the driven force for implementing any plan successfully, but it was found that the money spent on these programs also has not been utilized properly. It is a common scenario in developing countries where the NGOs, government agencies dont use money properly. They spend more what they dont need to do. It causes limitations for implementing plan and most of them are null in void. So the corruption must be 62
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eliminated to stop the misuse of money. No planning can be successful at present and future until the right use of money is introduced. A number of skilled people should be appointed to make appropriate planning and implement it for the real poor people. Sometimes good planning cannot be successful for the lacking of efficient people. So it is necessary to select the experienced, skilled, and knowledgeable persons to find means of action through largescale programs can be undertaken. Planning will be effective when basic social protection to informal sector producers and workers are given. To make planning successful it is essential to ensure that at least minimum levels of income and protection can be attained. The NGOs, governmental agencies and multilateral agencies will have to focus on access to capital, skills, technology and markets, so their planning should be related to these important factors. Therefore the planning should be made to improve capital, skills, technology and markets.
In these ways planning can be more effective when their implementations will be done in proper time and through accurate channels.
Improvising the Infrastructure
It is found that most of the areas in Asia where rural people live the infrastructure are not adequate. If there were infrastructure than it would be possible to create sufficient employment for the poor people, which would eventually affect their living standard and income. But for the absence of infrastructure it is possible provide them any mean to improve employment rather it is not possible to access them. This causes a great barrier for poverty alleviation. But this situation should be changed; the infrastructures need to be developed in rural area to access the poor people easily. This can be done in the following ways: There should be more investment in the development of infrastructure by utilizing the foreign aid and the money given by the government. It will create employment opportunities for the rural people. Labor based approaches could also be applied in urban situations where they would contribute simultaneously to an improvement in conditions of living of the urban poor and improvements in urban environment.
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For infrastructure development there should be good program design especially based on decentralized planning and community involvement, and effective implementation. There should be programs to Upgrading urban slums through clearing and paving of roads, improving drainage, and management of solid wastes are examples of such activities. In developing countries most of the infrastructures are not improvised for the want proper utilization of money, the NGOs and government organizations did not pay heed for the welfare of poor people; creating accountability can eliminate this obstacle. The administration must be accountable for their works and investing money, they must have transparency in all kinds of financial activities. There should be the range of technological options that are available for this sector; it is possible to use investments here as a means of generating much needed employment for the poor. The policy maker should emphasis more on the modern technology, which can be cost effective and time consuming. Highly efficient, skilled and experienced manpower must be appointed and modern equipments should be utilized for the development of infrastructure. Although many experiences with public works programs have been rather disappointing, that need not be an argument against such an approach. Rather, that should be an argument for devising and implementing programs that can successfully contribute to poverty reduction.
HR Development
Due to the lack of human resource development, it is becoming more difficult to reduce poverty in Asia. Investments in education and training are a potentially powerful instrument for raising the productivity and increasing the skill of working people. The following steps can identify the ways of HR development:
Improving Educational Levels
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Improving the human capital base of the poor through the spread of literacy and basic education enhances their capabilities. In rural area most of the people are illiterate and they lack behind for having no adequate knowledge. But this problem should be solved by giving the rural people proper knowledge, they must be brought under educational program like Food for Education, Scholarship programs for women, and Vocational Training for young people. All steps necessary should be taken to encourage education especially for female who are the most important parts for reducing poverty. When people will be educated, they can eliminate poverty by giving effort and utilizing their skills.
Training
In the urban economy, improved access to further education and training for the poor is a key escape route from poverty to more skilled and better paying jobs. Training is also an important component of support services provided to raise productivity and incomes in the informal sector. When people are trained, their skills must be developed and they can improve their working capabilities. It is recognized in developed countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand that training can transform an unskilled person to a skilled and effective working force. But the NGOs and government agencies should organize training practically and they need to provide in house training. Training programs should be designed to help the poor people to be selfemployed, these programs may include- fishery and Livestock, and managing poultry firm, tailoring for women, and modern agricultural method for farmers. It is seen a lot of unskilled and poor people have changed their fate with the help of proper training, now they are self-employed and able to earn lot.
Implementing Macro Policy
At the macro level policies are required to ensure that adequate provisions are made for expenditures in education and training and that these are allocated equitably. It is particularly important to ensure universal access to good basic education since this is most beneficial from the standpoint of poverty alleviation. At the macro level, policy interventions are required to ensure that school fees and other cost-recovery measures do not prevent access by the poor to education and training. Positive measures to promote greater school enrolment and attendance by the poor will also often be required. At the same time, labor market interventions may often be required to remove barriers to the access of the poor to training opportunities. Finally, direct interventions at the micro level will also be required to provide training to upgrade production among the poor in peasant agriculture and the urban informal sector. Such targeted interventions also serve to promote new income-generating activities among the poor.
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It needs to be noted, however, that vocational and technical training in formal institutions benefits a relatively small proportion of the labor force who may find jobs in the formal sector. In order to make a real contribution to the objective of poverty reduction, training systems must be geared to the tasks of imparting and upgrading skills for the informal sector and rural non-farm activities of the type that can raise the productivity and incomes of the poor.
Reducing Labor Market Vulnerability
To the extent that poverty is due to labor market outcomes, vulnerability in the labor market should be an immediate target issue for policy and action to reduce poverty. Vulnerability in the labor market can be related to a variety of factors, e.g., age, gender, ethnic groups, or household status. While all these factors are important and need to be addressed, here we are focusing only on gender-related vulnerability. Women face a disadvantageous situation in the labor market due to a variety of factors, e.g., lack of control over assets, competing domestic and labor market demands on time, lack of access to training, and discrimination in the labor market. Different types of interventions will be needed to address these various factors contributing to vulnerability: Fundamental legal and institutional reforms may be required in many countries to provide women with access to control over certain types of assets. On the other hand, the problem of discrimination will have to be addressed through legislative action, combined with monitoring of compliance as well as awareness rising. Legislative action will need to be supplemented by developmental action to bring about a greater degree of empowerment of women, especially through increased access to skill and entrepreneurship training, technology, markets as well as credit. Another wage employment program vulnerable group development program can be arranged which targets destitute women and the other successful program will be the rural maintenance program which also targets the poor women. Additional interventions like promotion of organizations should be aimed at strengthening their bargaining power, which will be required to reduce poverty. Women face a disadvantageous situation in the labor market due to a variety of factors. They are highly discriminated in working place and labor market; highlighting the importance of womens working ability and their contributions should reduce this discrimination. They are very efficient and if they are valued well, our productivity will increase further. So there
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should be the well arrangement of suitable job opportunities for women by introducing new training programs. As long as the markets are not made appropriate, the poverty alleviation program will not achievable, therefore the vulnerability must be reduced in labor market by following the above mentioned steps when this kind of crisis will be found.
Implementing Labor Skill Programs
Another problem is identified that there are lots of unskilled people in developing countries, which are efficient, and they do not have any contribution for poverty elimination. As the labors are unskilled the poverty alleviation programs cannot be successful always. So the labor force should be skilled by implementing various steps when there will be shortage of efficient employees: Training is the best way to enhance the skill of labors, so different types of vocational, technical training programs can be introduced in rural areas, this training programs can include engineering, commercial, agricultural, industrial and mining. The unskilled labors can be appointed temporarily to train and create them experienced labor force. It will be easy for them to learn the modern techniques and they will be efficient to apply those. In rural areas the labors should get sufficient training facilities to become expert in informal sectors. The other successful people who have got freedom from poverty can act as guide for other people. Their advice and guidelines will help the unskilled people to be more skilled. For improving the skill of labor, the NGOs and government can select a particular class of educated local people who can train the others. There must be adequate employment opportunities for the skilled people so that they can utilize what they learn and know about specific jobs. If they dont use skill, they will not be efficient.
Preserving Available Data
It is very important to collect data of the programs on a regular basis, the data are required so that effective measures can be implemented and the programs can be effective. It will be very difficult to justify the programs without having accurate sufficient data. So the process of data collection and preservation is important. For keeping the record of all information we have to collect all kinds
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of relevant data and preserve it in computers. The data collection procedure should be modernized and standard. For this the government agencies and the NGOs should preserve past and current data for future implementation. The record keeping organizations and statistical bureaus should be rearranged and the employees must be trained to become more expert in data collection. Beside this the organizations can collect data from different relevant sources e.g. NGO, foreign branches of different organizations. This can help lot to justify the programs and make them more effective in future.
Coping with Economic Crisis
The poverty alleviation programs are designed on macro economical basis with taking account of other economic factors. They are mainly designed and planned to reach the target groups. But these plans are not always successful for the factors such as economic crisis. Economic crisis means the sudden fall of steady growth in GDP. This problem can be happened at any country if the economical policy is not appropriate. To cope with this uncertainty there should be strong policy and its implementation. The following steps can be helpful to coping with uncertainty: The policy should be focused on to establish the relationship between poverty and real wage. As the economies of many Asian countries remain predominantly rural and agrarian, and as agricultural laborers often constitute a large proportion of the poor in rural areas, the real wages of such workers are extremely important to their levels of living. It is found that there exists high rates of real wage growth while underemployment, this policy should be changed. The wage rate should not be high to create employment opportunities. Because high real wage rate is the main obstacle to create employment. A large quantity of the poor could be engaged in rural non-farm activities and in a variety of activities in the urban informal sector to remain the real wage rate steady. The growth wage rate should be balanced in both agriculture and manufacturing sectors, for this the government should create enough employment opportunities in both sectors. The policy should not be implemented for urban sector; the rural and informal sectors should also be given preference. The equal distribution of opportunities can raise the productivity and the growth of GDP will be high. To avoid economic crisis the government should operate different job programs through NGOs and other agencies to remain people engage in productivity. If people do not have job, they will have no income to reduce their poverty, the resources will not be utilized and it can decline the output. 68
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In the developing world there are many who are employed yet are still poor, for their low income the countries economy go through crisis. So the policy maker should find out the option to get those poor people free from poverty. When an economy can get onto a high growth path, and through appropriate macro and policies growth can be sufficiently employmentintensive, an adequate amount of productive employment will be formed so as to gradually absorb all the working poor into such jobs as will as free them from the curse of poverty. Price also plays a vital role in production, if price fall the wage rate declines and people will become jobless, so price should be adjusted to continue the flow of production and save the economy.
The economic crisis is a big problem for any developing countries, it creates more poverty and the poor people become poorer. The employment opportunities, productivity declines and the GDP falls. The other implementation for developing countries can be following the developed countries how they cope with economic crisis.
The Other Effective Implementations

Poverty alleviation program is a big challenge for the developing countries in Asia; most of the programs are designed and operated by NGOs and government agencies. Their activities are performed relying on foreign aids, but the financial assistance are not completely used for the welfare of poor people, so to fight against poverty NGOs and other organizations should be directed efficiently through a well designed poverty alleviation plan. They must be accountable to the foreign donors and government. During recession production goes down, real wage growth declines and GDP falls down, this creates a great economic crisis. Sometimes world economy may face recession and it also affects all developed and least developed countries, the poverty raise lot and people become jobless. For this government should have enough reserve of money and plan for creating informal job opportunities. Last of all the entire poverty alleviation programs should be implemented for the rural and urban people who are lying below the poverty scale, this can be done for the whole target groups.
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70

Poverty Reduction Through Employment and Labor Markets

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Poverty Reduction Through Employment and Labor Markets

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Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Poverty Alleviation: In Asian Context

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Key Issues in Reducing Poverty in Asia

Employment Labor Market Outcomes.

The Role of Employment

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Statistics From ILO

Table-1: Growth and Elasticity of Employment in Manufacturing in Selected Countries of Asia

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

-1.18 12.45 (0.76) 3.55 (0.36)

1.78 (0.21) -7.49 3.29 (0.68)

The Role of Labour Market

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Linkage Between Poverty and Real Wage

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Growth of Agricultural Wages

Growth in Manufacturing Wages

The Economic Crisis Incidence

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Percentage Change in Real Wages 1996 1997

Indonesia Korea, Republic Malaysia Philippines Thailand

10.8 6.8 2.1 - 2.0 2.3

The Working Poor

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Defining the Working Poor People

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Dealing With the Working Poor Issue

Interventions: Working Poor Income Level

Poverty Alleviation: Undeviating Intervention Policy

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Special Measures Directly Targeted Programs.

The Special Measures

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

The Directly Targeted Programs

Target Area Coverage on Poverty Alleviation

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Aiming the Right People & Reach Them

Some Prominent Wage-Employment Programs

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Programs with Sub-Programs and Similar Programs

The Force Worked Upon the Earning of the Poor

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

The Condition in Bangladesh

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Coverage of the Programs in Asian Perspective

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Approaches in Employment: Labor Market Policies

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Economic Policy Reformation Areas

Macroeconomic and Sectoral Policies Along With Public Investment Programs

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Promotional Productive Employment

The Informal Sector

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

The Economy of Rural Sector

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market

Approaches Based on Labor and Infrastructure

Poverty Alleviation, Employment and Labor Market