A social perspective on development requires addressing poverty in all its dimensions. It promotes a people-centred approach to poverty eradication, advocating the empowerment of people living in poverty through their full participation in all aspects of political, economic and social life, especially in the design and implementation of policies that affect the poorest and most vulnerable groups of society. An integrated strategy towards the eradication of poverty necessitates implementing policies geared to more equitable distribution of wealth and income and social protection.

Equality can be understood as parity in the enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms, and equality of opportunities with regards to education and work and the fulfilment of potential. Equity relates to a degree of equality in the living conditions of people, especially in terms of income and wealth, that society considers desirable.

A social perspective on development emphasizes the view that inequality impairs growth and development, including efforts to eradicate poverty, and that equity itself is instrumental for economic growth and development. It aims at providing a better understanding of the effects of economic and social policies on equity in societies and promotes ways of advancing policies contributing to the reduction of inequalities. Policies for both inequality and poverty reduction are mutually reinforcing.

Unemployment and underemployment lie at the core of poverty. For the poor, labour is often the only asset they can use to improve their well-being. Hence, the creation of productive employment opportunities is essential for reducing poverty and for sustainable economic and social development.

Given the importance of employment for poverty reduction, job-creation should occupy a central place in national poverty reduction strategies. Many employment strategies are often related to agricultural and rural development and include using labour-intensive agricultural technologies; developing small and medium-size enterprises, and promoting micro projects in rural areas.

Such strategies, however, often address the quantity of employment while the qualitative dimensions, such as equity, security, dignity and freedom are often absent or minimal. In general, national poverty reduction strategies do not comment on employment programmes, social protection or rights at work. Neither do they offer in-depth analysis of the effects of policies on poverty reduction.

There should be a focus on creating better and more productive jobs. Social economy institutions and organizations play an important role in promoting livelihoods and job creation in the fight against poverty. Social economy enterprises offer an important source of employment in the face of the global unemployment and underemployment problems.

Currently, it is estimated that the global cooperative movement directly provides productive self-employment for several hundred million workers-owners of production and services cooperatives, as well as the non-member employees and other cooperative enterprises. Agricultural cooperatives create employment in areas such as food production, marketing, credit, insurance and transportation. Cooperatives also provide more quality job opportunities for youth, women, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and other marginalized groups. Cooperatives contribute to poverty reduction by typically placing more emphasis on job security for employee members and employees’ family members, paying competitive wages, promoting additional income through profit-sharing, distribution of dividends and other benefits, and supporting community facilities such as health clinics and schools that do private sector businesses.

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