Decent Work for Poverty Reduction: An Agenda for Development in the Least Developed Countries Issues paper for the Thematic Session on Human Resources Development and Employment V. Employment policies for poverty reduction in LDCs1

V.1 A high rate of labour-absorbing growth ...................................................................... 2 V.2 Promoting the self-employment of the poor by converting them into productive entrepreneurs............................................................................................. 4 V.3 Increasing the productivity of the poor workers both in wage employment and in self-employment ............................................................................................... 5 V.4 Ensuring favourable terms of exchange for the products of the poor’s labour............ 6 V.5 Specially designed employment opportunities for the households with unusual and/or unfavourable labour endowment ........................................................ 7 V.6 Design of protection of vulnerable workers ................................................................. 7 V.7 Supply-side factors ...................................................................................................... 7 The analysis of the nature of poverty, the characteristics of employment and the performance in poverty alleviation in the LDCs help identify the components of employment policy for poverty reduction in these countries. The essence of the poverty reduction strategy for the LDCs consists of: (i) a high rate of growth, (ii) inducing a rapid expansion in employment (iii) which is