It's About the Jobs

People often forget that the ultimate goal of international development organizations is to put themselves out of business by helping countries become economically developed. That's why it's always nice to hear Kemal Dervis remind everyone that helping people create decent and productive work is at the heart of the UNDP's work.

There is widespread consensus that unemployment represents one of the greatest challenges to development on the African continent – but not only the African continent I should add – many other parts of the world.

Though the International Labor Organization leads the UN efforts to promote employment, a joint UNDP-ILO Employment Strategy for Poverty Reduction has been developed that leverages the strengths of each organization to fight poverty by creating jobs - giving people a hand up rather than a hand out.