Employment and Development

What do we know and what can we do?

Women and man, wearing blue flap trousers and green blouses, working in a workshop on a turning lathe.

Employment is crucial for development. Source: KfW Photo Archive / photothek.net

Decent and sustainable employment is increasingly recognised as important objective as well as promising means of development. Employment generates income, contributes to poverty reduction and may, in addition, increase social security and cohesion.

Research-practice Dialogue

To achieve more and better employment, development cooperation between partner countries and donor agencies needs to better understand the causes of, and obstacles to, employment. At the same time, drawing on practical experience, research can identify knowledge gaps that pose limits to successful employment creation.

The conference provides a forum for high-level dialogue among experts from research and practice. Participants take stock of their expertise in the respective fields of employment, growth and development, including the fields’ relevant connections. Based on this, they will explore next steps towards better knowledge and practice.

Framework of the Conference

The conference is hosted by KfW and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) and will take place in Berlin on the 15th and 16th of March 2012.

  • Day 1: The conference includes a public symposium with a distinguished keynote speaker and a high-level panel discussion, in which the challenges of employment are debated.
  • Day 2: The second day is a result-oriented expert conference (closed sessions) with leading academics presenting the state of research. The invited participants will discuss in parallel workshops how current knowledge can inform innovative and more effective policies and measures, and in what areas further research and research-practice cooperation are needed.
  • Participants come from a wide range of research and practice organizations, including international organisations (World Bank, International Labour Organization (ILO)), policy-makers from partner countries, German development cooperation, political foundations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
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The Institute for the Study of Labor (Institut für die Zukunft der Arbeit - IZA) is a private, independent research institute which conducts nationally and internationally oriented labor market research and policy advice on related topics. It operates an international network of about 1,100 economists and researchers. Prof. Dr. Klaus F. Zimmermann heads the institute as Director.

Further Information

Last updated: February 2012