Jobs, the cornerstone of development -WB

In developing countries, jobs are the cornerstone of development, with a payoff far beyond income alone. They are critical for reducing poverty, making cities work, and providing youth with alternatives to violence, said the World Bank's World Development Report (WDR 2013): Jobs.

The report stressed the role of strong private sector-led growth in creating jobs and outlined how jobs that do the most for development can spur a virtuous cycle. The report found that poverty falls as people work their way out of hardship and as jobs empower women to invest more in their children.

Efficiency increases as workers get better at what they do, as more productive jobs appear, and as less productive ones disappear. Societies flourish as jobs foster diversity and provide alternatives to conflict.

The report highlighted how jobs with the greatest development payoffs are those that raise incomes, make cities function better, connect the economy to global markets, protect the environment, and give people a stake in their societies.

Co-Author and Deputy Director of the World Development Report 2013: Jobs, Jesko Hentschel will present the main findings of this World Bank flagship report at the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the University of Colombo. "One of the biggest challenges facing Sri Lanka is to improve women's employment opportunities, especially for the young female population,” he said. "Around the world, we find that more working women come with real developmental gains, much beyond the income they earn from their jobs. Investment in children rises, more girls and women attend education and training classes as aspirations increase, and the way decisions in societies are being made matures.”