Employment and development - Improving the quality of human resources through education and training
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 26 January 1971 (27th Sitting) (seeDoc. 2886, report of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development). Text adopted by the Assembly on 26 January 1971 (27th Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Recalling its
Recommendation 595 (1970) and the report of its Committee on Economic Affairs and Development on the role of Council of Europe member States in the Second United Nations Development Decade (
Doc. 2702) ;
2. Having taken note of the report on "Employment and development - Improving the quality of human resources through education and training", presented by its Committee on Economic Affairs and Development (
Doc. 2886), as well as the report presented by its Committee on Culture and Education (
Doc. 2912) ;
3. Expressing its thanks and appreciation to those organisations which contributed to the preparatory Round Table on this theme in Rome on 26-27 November 1970 ;
4. Convinced that the Consultative Assembly has a real contribution to make to the success of the Second Development Decade by encouraging informed discussion of the programmes and activities of the different specialised agencies of the United Nations, and of the other relevant multilateral agencies ;
5. Conscious that the unemployment problem in the developing countries represents the major challenge facing the international community in the Second Development Decade, by reason of its implications both for development and for international stability ;
6. Considering that the concept of economic growth as expressed in terms of the rate of increase in gross national product has proved inadequate as a measure of social and economic progress in the developing as well as the industrialised countries ;
7. Considering that the unprecedented increase in the rate of growth of population in the developing countries, which has no parallel in European history, has contributed directly to the size and extent of open and disguised unemployment in these countries ;
8. Considering that the shortage of capital in the developing countries is an obstacle to the growth of employment as well as of output, and that this shortage has been aggravated by the choice of a capital intensive pattern of development and the use of labour saving technology, reflecting economic conditions in the industrialised countries ;
9. Convinced that the adoption of a more appropriate pattern of development will require action by both the developing and the industrialised countries, involving not only the choice of investment priorities but also the re-organisation of world trade ;
10. Convinced that investment in the development of human resources in general, and in improved education and training in particular, must be an integral part of any employment oriented development strategy ;
11. Aware that the academic, university oriented system of education, which is being challenged in the industrialised world, has proved unsuited to the needs of the developing countries ;
12. Conscious that social values are as important for development as the choice of economic priorities ;
13. Convinced that primary responsibility for establishing development priorities and undertaking the necessary investment lies with the State, and that the essential factor in determining the effectiveness of external financial and technical assistance is the political philosophy, commitment and effectiveness of the government on the spot,
14. Requests its members to intervene in their respective national parliaments with a view to urging member States of the Council of Europe, in co-operation with the other member States of the OECD Development Assistance Committee and in the framework of the Second United Nations Development Decade :
a to make every effort to implement the recommendations of the Pearson Commission concerning not only the target of 1 % of GNP for the total flow of financial resources, but also the target of 0.7 % of GNP for official development assistance, and the strengthening of multilateral programmes ;
b to envisage a policy of trade liberalisation combined with structural adjustments in their own economies, so as to allow the developing countries to expand exports and hence employment in these sectors of the economy where they have a comparative advantage due to low labour costs and other natural advantages ;
c to encourage all initiatives in OECD, the UN specialised agencies and elsewhere, with a view to research into the development of a modern technology, more suited to the economic conditions prevailing in the developing countries ;
d to support, through their bilateral aid programmes and through their contributions to multilateral programmes, the reform of existing systems of education and training in the developing countries with a view to making the content of education more relevant to immediate development priorities and to discouraging the emergence of a social elite based on educational privilege ;
e to encourage a global policy of rural development designed to improve living standards and economic prospects for the mass of the population in the traditional sector, thus reducing the drift from the land ;
f to secure a substantial increase in bilateral and multilateral food aid to the developing countries, such aid being planned henceforth on the basis of a policy for education and integrated in an employment and rural development policy ;
g to support, through their bilateral aid programmes and through their contributions to multilateral programmes, increased research into the development of appropriate methods of birth control, taking into account the economic, social, cultural and ethical context in which such a policy must be applied ;
h to examine immediately the effectiveness of their administrative and political arrangements for ensuring imaginative and constructive participation within the governing bodies of the multilateral agencies, and for following up the essential re-organisation of the UN specialised agencies in the aftermath of the Jackson Report on the capacity of the UN development system.
