L&D 2020: Shaping change in learning

Society

Global poverty

Before seeking corporate employment, Millenials will usually conduct some careful research on a target company's ethical stance on issues ranging from irrigation in Mexico to developing skills in Chile. This group is particularly keen to work for corporates putting something back into the countries whose resources they are using.

For example, Unilever has been helping the developing world for many years. Hindustan Unilever, for example, has been working to end childhood malnutrition in India by working with UNICEF. By 2010, Grameen Bank and Groupe Danone had established the Grameen Danone Foods Social Business Enterprise in Bangladesh, which is still creating business partnerships with local communities to bring nutrition and alleviate poverty.

Companies are recognising that human rights take precedence over company rights and must not be compromised for profit. One example is Rio Tinto, who reached agreement with the World Bank to jointly fund a huge long-term mining infrastructure project on the grounds of its social, environmental and economic benefits to a heavily impoverished region of Madagascar.

All the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are considerably richer per head than they were, though they are still poorer than Western economies. The rise in their economic wealth has increased the possibilities of finding jobs locally. However, resources donated by the BRICs to other developing countries (the BRICs' client states) are therefore not invested in the poorest back at home. For the more authoritarian BRICs, looking after their own poor is less important than increasing their global clout.

In developing countries, greater prosperity is possible if they become client states of either the BRICs or traditional donors. However, BRIC generosity depends on a developing country having something to trade. Landlocked and resource poor countries such as Chad and Mali are even more marginalised today than at the turn of the century.

In 2000, only three percent of the global population were living outside their country of birth, but this is set to double by 2030.

Several key forces have been driving these flows of people:

• economic factors have drawn poor people into countries needing labour
• ageing populations in rich countries have created vacancies offering immigrants the possibility of a foothold on the work ladder
• the rural-to-urban shift has continued across all developing countries
• global warming has forced millions at sea level to flee to the hills and desertification has pushed people into the cities
• local wars continue to create involuntary refugees.

But there are benefits for the poor:

• increasing pressure for jobs to be done in more acceptable ways is reducing exploitation
• informality is resulting in greater freedom to set up one's own enterprise
• some migrants return wealthier, more skilled and able to make valuable contributions to their countries of origin.

But a worrying question remains after the poor have migrated to wealthier countries in search of employment and opportunities. Who is looking after the dependent poor left behind, including disabled people and marginalised ethnic groups? The fate of the very poorest now crucially depends on how willing the world's community is to provide a global safety net.

1. Academy of Management Annual meeting, August 2007

2. http://www.outsights.co.uk/ See: Scenarios for the Poorest, Outsights Multi-Stakeholder Project, 2004

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