The poor do not have the resources to pay for their own training. The experience of nearly twenty years of structural adjustment has conclusively demonstrated that merely 'getting prices' and creating the appropriate enabling environment' for farmers and microenterprises is not sufficient in order to ensure a strong 'supply response'. Public resources are urgently needed, therefore, to tackle the most serious constraints that are preventing high and sustained economic growth among the poor.
As discussed earlier, apart from poor, marginal farmers, the provision of formalised training inputs is not generally regarded as a top priority. In the competition for donor resources, NGOs have successfully made the case for microcredit as the most critical input that can immediately improve the livelihoods of the poor, and particularly women. There are those who have serious reservations with this argument, but for the time being at least, the current fashion for financial services is likely to continue.
EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING PAPERS 43 Learning to change: Skills development among the economically vulnerable and socially excluded in developing countries Paul Bennell Employment and Training Department International Labour Office Geneva First published 1999
To learn more about this author, visit International Labour Organization's Website.
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