Experience shows that growth can only contribute to broad-based poverty reduction and to achieving other Millennium Development Goals if it results in more people, particularly the poor, gaining access to reasonably-paid, socially acceptable employment ("decent work") and enables them to unleash their entrepreneurial potential. This is the criterion for the equal distribution of income and the participation of broad segments of the population in the market economy.
Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. It involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.
