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FAO, the ILO and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) have joined forces to support the creation of more and better jobs, noting that decent work in the agricultural sector was key to combat the persisting rural poverty in the region. Despite economic growth, an increase in agricultural exports and an agricultural boom in Latin America for much of the last decade, more than half of the rural population remains poor. 

The UN agencies have collaborated to produce a study Políticas de mercado de trabajo y pobreza rural en América Latina (in Spanish), which highlights the need to enforce labour standards and to formalize employment in order to reduce poverty.

A regional seminar on Labour Market and Rural Poverty in Latin America was held on 8-9 November 2010 at the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago de Chile.

The seminar brought together government officials, leaders from agricultural workers’ and employers’ organizations from the region, together with experts and specialists from FAO, the ILO and ECLAC, research centers and other international agencies for cooperation. The objective was to place the issues surrounding rural labour markets firmly on the region’s political agenda, by highlighting the role they play for the reduction of rural poverty and the importance of having strong institutions and public policies for labour markets to function better.

For further information visit: www.rlc.fao.org/index.php