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World Bank note (May 2012) on wage and poverty alleviation trends linked to the garment sector. "A radical shift in apparel production between countries over the last few years has had mixed results in wages and poverty reduction across the developing world. This is particularly true since the end of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) and the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) in 2005, which abolished export and import quotas. While most people predicted that China would gain, because of low wages, and all others would lose, many other Asian apparel exporters in fact benefited, such as Bangladesh, India, Vietnam and Pakistan. And not just because of low wages -salaries tended to increase in most exporting countries-but because of domestic policies supporting the textile industry. On the other hand, countries like Honduras, Mexico, Morocco and Sri Lanka experienced falling apparel employment, something that would appear to be bad news as jobs for women and workers most likely to be closest to poverty, were lost. But Mexico's experience suggests that shifting out of apparel may not be necessarily negative news when the country is moving up the value chain into more advanced manufacturing. In fact, this would be a sign of economic development as long as the shift into higher-value goods and services is possible. What matters is for countries to have policies that focus on improving competitiveness in the long-run, but also workforce programs to help workers make the transition. Increasing apparel exports is a good thing for poverty reduction in developing countries but moving up the ladder is an inevitable step in the quest for prosperity. Let's allow the textile industry to keep moving across borders and to help countries lift themselves out of poverty."

To eradicate poverty, the international community should pursue a wider and more far-reaching approach to development than was captured in the MDGs, European thinktanks say in the 2013 ERD. Although poverty should remain a core focus of the new agenda, the objective should be to tackle its causes by adopting a more inclusive and sustainable development model that emphasises jobs and addresses inequality, according to ODI, the European Council for Development Policy Management and the German Development Institute.

"The verification of supermarket policies with the case study in Morocco shows that there is a clear disconnect between labour standards that supermarkets uphold and the harsh reality for green beans workers. It is recommended that supermarkets exercise proper due diligence by investigating and addressing workplace related problems in FFV supply chains independently and more rigorously. "

Despite growth estimates going down for China (now at 7.4% in Q3/2012), the labour market is still tight and wages are still rising. Growth figures below 8% were previously considered cause for concern, but this article suggests that demographic trends (i.e. impact of the one child policy) are lessening the pressure on the government for job creation. There simply are not as many workers joining the workforce.While the latest slowdown has led to some temporary job cuts, these have not been near the figures reached in 2008-9. All of these factors suggest that further large-scale stimulus measures in China are unlikely.

New report from ODI, July 2012.

This report examines the role of commodity buyers, food processors and retailers inthe realization of the right to food. These actors play a key role, as they connect producersto consumers, and as they transform raw commodities into edible food. But the vastmajority of those who are hungry in the world today are part of the food system; smallindependent food producers or waged agricultural workers working on farms in the formalor informal sector represent over half of the billion who go hungry today. The reporttherefore asks how the sourcing, pricing, and wages policies of commodity buyers, foodprocessors and retailers impact the right to food. The report seeks to contribute to a betterunderstanding, by agribusiness corporations and States alike, of their respectiveresponsibilities and obligations under international law. It ends with 10 recommendationsto States and the agribusiness sector to ensure that the current transformation of the foodchain will contribute to the realization of the right to food. The recommendations relate to arange of areas, including codes of conduct and international framework agreements,cooperatives, marketing boards, public procurement, and competition law.

US investor coalition, ICCR, is pressing 25 companies to adopt policies to avoid potential human trafficking in their supply chains

DFID's new private sector policy paper "Our new approach to working with the private sector is about us doing more with and for private enterprise, extending this work in new areas, and doing it better. We want private sector thinking to become as much part of DFID's DNA as our work with charities and governments. The new approach will deliver results for poor people: better job opportunities and incomes; more readily available and affordable finance for households and small businesses; and more accessible, better quality healthcare, schooling and basic services."

Improvement in labor market conditions has been the main explanation behind many of the poverty success stories observed in the last decade-that is the primary conclusion of an analysis of changes in poverty by income source. Changes in labor earnings were the largest contributor to poverty reduction for a sample of 16 countries where poverty increased substantially. In 10 of these countries, labor income explained more than half of the change in poverty, and in another 4 countries, it accounted for more than 40 percent of the reduction in poverty. A declining dependency rate accounts for over a fifth of the reduction in poverty in 10 out of 16 countries, while transfers and other nonearned incomes account for more than a quarter of the reduction in poverty in 9 of these countries. A further decomposition of the contribution of labor income to poverty reduction in Bangladesh, Peru, and Thailand found that changes in individual characteristics (education, work experience, and region of residence) were important, but that overall, increases in real earnings among the poor matter the most.

Recent blog by Naila Kabeer for Guardian

Database of responses with accompanying synthesis report.

Short video interview (3m) with Jayati Ghosh

Commission working document covering EU policy and xisting measures in the context of MDGs, trade, procurement, bilateral development assistance etc