Poor in Asian development: an ILO programme

"Mass poverty" exists, primarily in South Asia and, in less dramatic proportions, in other parts of the region. There can be little doubt that one prerequisite of abolishing, or at least substantially reducing the misery from which hundreds of millions of people are now suffering, is to stem population growth. It has recently become widely accepted that another prerequisite is the adoption of an approach to economic and social development which con centrates on the traditional and "informal" urban sector rather than on the "modern" sector of their economies. This "labour-intensive approach" seeks to expand employment opportunities in the traditional and informal sectors and to raise the levels of productivity and income of the grossly underemployed people deriving their livelihood from them. It does so through the gradual modernisation of these sectors, through the development and utilisation of increasingly productive and relatively labour-intensive or "appropriate" tech nologies, and through the reduction of inequalities. The approach contrasts with the "modern sector approach", which experience has shown to be inade quate as a means of reducing mass poverty within an acceptable period of time. Concentration on the modern sector has made it possible to increase total output in many developing countries at relatively satisfactory rates, but without reducing unemployment, hunger, poverty, gaps between the rich and the poor. Indeed, in many instances these evils have increased in spite of satisfactory over-all growth rates, creating dissatisfaction with the distribution of the fruits of development and a consequent alienation, unrest, disorder and disruption of the economic and social processes.