At the threshold of the 21st century, the world does not suffer from a lack of technological progress. Technological prowess has driven us into the corner of nuclear weapons. Environmental degradation is upon us. Most of all, there is widespread and large scale poverty. Poverty undermines the balance of terror that nuclear weapons may impose on responsible governments.
Poverty disables environmental improvements.
Poverty is morally, socially and economically unacceptable. Combating poverty, in my view, is the single most important challenge the ILO has to address for as long as I can see ahead. The most effective weapon against poverty is the expansion of democracy, and this on both economic and political grounds. True democracies also know that they have to strike a balance between growth and redistribution. That balance may well be shifting, because in true democracies nothing is cast in stone except the principle of accountability.