The role of employment and work in poverty eradication and empowerment and advancement of women

The Asian economic crisis which began with the floating of the bhat by Thailand on July 1 1997 is still having devastating effects on the livelihood and the well being of millions of people in many parts of the world. The financial crisis spread from Thailand to other Asian countries, subsequently to Russia and more recently to Brazil. Fortunately, timely and decisive action by the US Federal Reserve last autumn (instituting three successive reductions in interest rates) has enabled advanced countries to escape the crisis so far. Nevertheless it is estimated by the World Bank that as a consequence of the crisis the rate of growth of world GDP is 2 percentage points lower both in 1998 and in 1999 than it would otherwise have been. A rough calculation shows that this amounts to a huge loss over these two years of $120 per capita in production or income for each man, woman and child in the world. This also suggests indirectly that hundreds of millions of people in poor countries who live on a dollar a day or less are likely to have become considerably poorer still as a result of the crisis.