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afrol.com, 26 July - The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) is urging its affiliates to use the new IMF/World Bank mechanisms which are designed to promote their newly defined goal of reducing poverty, as an opportunity to get involved in defining national government poverty-reduction programmes. The ICFTU call to its affiliates comes at a time when the whole issue of poverty reduction is being talked about in the follow-up to the G8 discussions in Okinawa, where the world leaders pledged themselves to halving poverty by 2015. It also follows recent IMF/World Bank declarations that poverty reduction is henceforth to be the overarching goal of both institutions. The new lending strategy requires countries which seek to borrow funds to draw up a "Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper", in which they identify targets for reducing poverty. IMF/World Bank publications do not indicate whether achievement of such targets will be as binding as have been the traditional structural adjustment conditions, which have had disastrous effects in many poor countries. As with the positive words at the G-8, it is not clear how serious and real these commitments will be. Nevertheless, the ICFTU believes that the new anti-poverty commitments by these institutions can create new opportunities for achieving positive changes in national policy on poverty. The IMF/World Bank also recommend that the country governments consult with civil society in drawing up their proposals. As in many countries trade unions are the most organised and structured element of civil society, they must play an important role in this says the ICFTU. However, in the first Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for Uganda, which was drawn up by the IMF/World Bank in May, while there was much talk of "bottom-up participation", and "empowerment of the poor" no mention was made of trade unions, or the necessity of improving labour rights. To insure that this is not the case with further Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, the ICFTU is urging trade unions to approach their national governments and insist that trade unions be fully and explicitly included in the poverty reduction consultation process. The IMF/World Bank priority for applying the new poverty reduction process will be to the 40 highly-indebted poor countries (HIPCs), 32 of which are in Africa, 4 are in Asia and 4 in Latin America. The ICFTU is therefore strongly recommending that its affiliates and ITS affiliates in these countries get involved in whatever plans their national governments has for preparing a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, and make sure that the government know that they wish to become involved in the procedure.
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