Factors Affecting the Global Labor Force
It's often said that people are the most critical resource in business today. If that's true, then recent studies suggest that the world, taken as a whole, isn't doing enough to nurture and develop this resource.
Perhaps the greatest impediment to creating a healthy and productive global workforce can be summed up in a single word: poverty. Extreme and persistent poverty is a major world trend, according to a massive report recently published by the World Bank. According to the report, 1.2 billion people live on $1 a day or less (the study's definition of extreme poverty), while just about 50% of the global population gets by on less than $2 a day. The good news is that there was a modest decline in the percentage of people living in poverty in developing nations between 1987 and 1998: from 28% to 24%. Much of this improvement occurred in East Asia, where poor people dropped from 27% to 15% of the population.
Linked to persistent poverty is the problem of hunger. A recent study from the United Nations World Food Programme reports that hunger currently afflicts 830 million people. That means that in a global population of around 6.1 billion people, about one seventh of them do not get enough nutrition to maintain active, healthy and productive lives, a trend that has large economic consequences.
In the not-so-distant future, a shortage of water may become an even more critical problem, suggests "Global Trends 2015," a report recently published by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. "By 2015," it states, "nearly half the world's population – more than 3 billion people – will live in countries that are 'water-stressed' – have less than 1,700 cubic meters of water per capita per year." Such shortages may well become so severe that regional conflicts will arise in many global regions, causing huge economic and social dislocations.
To a degree, these problems – especially extreme poverty itself – are attributable to political systems. The World Bank reports that the poor often fail to receive the benefits of public investment in education and health, and they are often the victims of governmental corruption and arbitrariness. Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen argues that governments that fail to give people a voice in the running of their countries ultimately impede economic development and create larger impoverished classes. Such governments are also more likely to ignore foreseeable crises, such as oncoming famines.
What role can or should corporations – with their obligations to shareholders – play in ameliorating these global problems? It's a difficult but important question to answer. After all, the "Global Trends 2015" report predicts that such institutions will become more important world players over the next 15 years. It notes, "States continually will be dealing with private-sector organizations – both for-profit and nonprofit. These nonstate actors increasingly will gain resources and power over the next 15 years as a result of the ongoing liberalization of global finance and trade, as well as the opportunities afforded by information technology."
The report goes on to say that in some nations with ineffective governments, "nonstate actors will become more important than governments in providing services, such as health clinics and schools." The implication, of course, is that the companies choosing to set up businesses in such regions increasingly will take on some of the education, health, and community-building responsibilities normally associated with governments and citizen groups. This is a daunting and perhaps controversial possibility, one that some global organizations may need to carefully ponder in coming years.
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To read the "Global Trends 2015" report, please go to
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/globaltrends2015/index.html
The World Food Programme's new report on world hunger can be found at
http://www.wfp.org/prelease/2001/010800.htm
To read the World Bank's "World Development Report 2000/2001," go to
http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/wdrpoverty/
Perhaps the greatest impediment to creating a healthy and productive global workforce can be summed up in a single word: poverty. Extreme and persistent poverty is a major world trend, according to a massive report recently published by the World Bank. According to the report, 1.2 billion people live on $1 a day or less (the study's definition of extreme poverty), while just about 50% of the global population gets by on less than $2 a day. The good news is that there was a modest decline in the percentage of people living in poverty in developing nations between 1987 and 1998: from 28% to 24%. Much of this improvement occurred in East Asia, where poor people dropped from 27% to 15% of the population.
Linked to persistent poverty is the problem of hunger. A recent study from the United Nations World Food Programme reports that hunger currently afflicts 830 million people. That means that in a global population of around 6.1 billion people, about one seventh of them do not get enough nutrition to maintain active, healthy and productive lives, a trend that has large economic consequences.
In the not-so-distant future, a shortage of water may become an even more critical problem, suggests "Global Trends 2015," a report recently published by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. "By 2015," it states, "nearly half the world's population – more than 3 billion people – will live in countries that are 'water-stressed' – have less than 1,700 cubic meters of water per capita per year." Such shortages may well become so severe that regional conflicts will arise in many global regions, causing huge economic and social dislocations.
To a degree, these problems – especially extreme poverty itself – are attributable to political systems. The World Bank reports that the poor often fail to receive the benefits of public investment in education and health, and they are often the victims of governmental corruption and arbitrariness. Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen argues that governments that fail to give people a voice in the running of their countries ultimately impede economic development and create larger impoverished classes. Such governments are also more likely to ignore foreseeable crises, such as oncoming famines.
What role can or should corporations – with their obligations to shareholders – play in ameliorating these global problems? It's a difficult but important question to answer. After all, the "Global Trends 2015" report predicts that such institutions will become more important world players over the next 15 years. It notes, "States continually will be dealing with private-sector organizations – both for-profit and nonprofit. These nonstate actors increasingly will gain resources and power over the next 15 years as a result of the ongoing liberalization of global finance and trade, as well as the opportunities afforded by information technology."
The report goes on to say that in some nations with ineffective governments, "nonstate actors will become more important than governments in providing services, such as health clinics and schools." The implication, of course, is that the companies choosing to set up businesses in such regions increasingly will take on some of the education, health, and community-building responsibilities normally associated with governments and citizen groups. This is a daunting and perhaps controversial possibility, one that some global organizations may need to carefully ponder in coming years.
====================================================
To read the "Global Trends 2015" report, please go to
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/globaltrends2015/index.html
The World Food Programme's new report on world hunger can be found at
http://www.wfp.org/prelease/2001/010800.htm
To read the World Bank's "World Development Report 2000/2001," go to
http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/wdrpoverty/