Tokyo (EFE).- The labor ministers of the G7 countries highlighted today the importance of applying the lessons learned from the pandemic and committing to better access to continuous training and more inclusion in the labor market for its sustainability.
For their part, the Ministers of Agriculture supported the importance of diversifying agricultural supply chains and adopting practices that are more respectful of the environment to achieve resilient and sustainable systems.
Joint Declaration on Labor
At the end of their two-day meeting this Sunday in Kurashiki, in western Japan, the job holders of the Group of Seven (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States), together with the representative from the European Union sector, adopted a joint declaration in which they advocate that the States make a greater investment in human capital.
In this sense, they highlighted the importance of “learning lessons from the policies linked to covid-19 in order to be able to respond to future crises without jeopardizing the sustainability of social protection systems”, given the unforeseen budgetary costs that these measures they provoked in some countries, putting pressure on their unemployment systems.
With this in mind, they advocated developing policies that include greater support so that workers can remain, enter or return to a job in any circumstance.
The pandemic has generated changes in the forms of production and consumption and the expansion of the use of digital platforms, accelerating a transformation of the labor market and communications.
To adapt to this new situation, the G7 advocates promoting “adequate opportunities to improve and update professional skills, to help reduce the risk of job insecurity, skill mismatches and gaps, and a shortage of skilled workers in our labor markets” .
“We will renew our efforts to improve the availability of quality education and continuing training opportunities, particularly for those most in need”, including strengthening public-private coordination, given the “high inequality” of access to training programs between the economies of the G7, they added.
Regarding the fall in the size of the labor force, the G7 ministers advocated promoting market participation through the incorporation of older workers and people with disabilities, who can use teleworking, robotics or artificial intelligence (AI).
The group’s job holders recognized that there are still differences in access to job opportunities, including the gender gap and “occupational segregation and stereotyped visions of gender roles, especially in managerial positions,” in which they committed to continue working.
The group included in the text a condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “which has caused untold harm to the people of Ukraine, as well as rising food and energy prices that threaten millions with an increased risk of poverty, and has had significant social, economic and labor market impacts in Ukraine and beyond,” they noted.
A respectful agriculture with the environment
In a joint statement by the G7 agriculture ministers adopted today at the end of their two-day meeting in the southwestern Japanese city of Miyazaki, the group condemned the impact that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is having on security food, but recalled that even before that war chronic hunger affected 828 million people.
“It is clear that political responses are urgently needed,” said those responsible for Agriculture from Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, joined by the head of the European Union (EU) branch. , who said that the Russo-Ukrainian war has only exacerbated existing problems for these activities, such as climate change or infectious diseases, with the covid-19 pandemic as an example.
In the short term, “it is essential to support Ukraine and mitigate the adverse effects of the war,” the ministers said, also stressing the importance of “continuing the urgently needed transformation towards resilient and sustainable agricultural practices to achieve a sufficient production in the medium and long term to feed the growing world population”.
The world population will reach 8 billion in 2022
The problems experienced in the supply chains during the pandemic, the increasing costs and worse access to key materials such as fertilizers, “have made the importance of taking a broad perspective of ‘food systems’ clearer than ever,” says the statement.
To achieve a more sustainable agriculture in the long term, the heads of the G7 consider that it is important to “diversify international, regional and local supply chains” to strengthen the resources and agricultural production of each country and that the impact of external factors is less for those who are more dependent on food exports.
The Group of Seven also highlighted its commitment to the development of “fair, open, transparent, predictable, non-discriminatory and law-based” trade, as well as greater availability of healthy diets at affordable prices.
With global population growth in mind, the G7 agriculture ministers further noted the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reverse biodiversity loss taking into account the “high interdependence of climate change adaptation and mitigation” and the Agriculture.
The group advocated strengthening their commitment to comply with international treaties on climate and biodiversity, and highlighted several measures that can contribute to their recovery, such as organic agriculture, pest management without sole reliance on chemical pesticides or irrigation systems. more efficient.
The declaration also contemplates the importance of innovation and investment to transform the agricultural sector, including through the integration of technology, to create greater job opportunities that attract labor and help revitalize aging or depopulated rural agricultural areas.