The future of urban employment

Abstract This paper was originally written as a background document for the ILO's input to the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) held at Istanbul, 3-14th June 1996. In recognition of the active role of the ILO in preparation for Habitat II, the Habitat Secretariat called upon it to organise the Habitat II Dialogue (No 4) for the 21st century on the Future of Urban Employment as a contribution to the Istanbul Conference. The paper, ILO (1996), The Future of Urban Employment was specifically prepared for this Dialogue and was the subject of extensive discussions at the preparatory meetings prior to the Habitat II Conference and at the Conference itself. There are two reasons for publishing this revised version of the background paper [Singh (1995)] as a Discussion Paper. The first is that it presents in greater detail some of the analytical arguments put forward in ILO (1996). Secondly, the present paper takes the analysis further by responding to some of the main issues which were raised in the debates on ILO (1996) as a part of Dialogue 4.