Regional perspectives on World Development Report 1995 : will Arab workers prosper or be left out in the twenty-first century?

This report is devoted to the relationship between policy, development, and the welfare of workers - the incomes they earn, the risks they face, and the conditions under which they work. Three important messages emerge in this report: 1) the best way to improve the welfare of workers, increase labor productivity, and reduce poverty is through policies that rely heavily on markets, emphasize educational investments in all the people, and support family farms; 2) defining basic standards, providing the framework for individual and collective contracts, and reducing income insecurity for workers are needed to complement market conditions. Labor policy, however, must also avoid favoring those in good jobs at the expense of those in rural and informal sectors and the unemployed; 3) the main ingredients of a successful transition are the establishment of mechanisms to facilitate the retraining and transfer of laid-off workers to new jobs, and compensation for those hurt by change.