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OSH & Development
.....is the title of this newsletter. Or is it a journal? Well, we have not yet decided what it is. But nevertheless, this is the first issue. We hope to be able to publish at least one, maybe two issues per year. As long as there is an interest shown through responses and contributions. The idea is that OSH & Development will be a channel for communication between the Swedish National Institute for Working Life and the participants of the Institute’s international courses. Right now there are about 200 such participants from 40 countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Eastern Europe. To publish OSH & Development the Institute is supported by UFA and Sida, that is the Swedish Association for Occupational and Environmental Health & Development and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. UFA provides contacts and contributions (articles) both from Sweden and other countries. Sida is sponsoring the Institute’s international courses, and the printing of this bulletin/journal. Why this name, OSH & Development? Well, OSH is occupational safety and health and of course development is development. But what is meant with development? The concept of development is used in different disciplines: biology and other natural sciences, as well as philosophy and social sciences. We are here concerned with human development. The concept of human development also has different applications. One is the physical growth of a child from birth into maturity. But this is not our concern here. Our concern is human development as related to standard of living and quality of life. The concept of development is often used in relation to certain aims. Generally, the development is supposed or explicitly said to move in a positive direction. The concept of change, on the other hand, is often free from judgements. Theories of development have been associated with the concept of underdeveloped countries, or developing countries. In an early phase development was considered as a historical process following certain natural and thereby predictable principles. Later more attention was given to problems making this process difficult, which stimulated intervention from governments. The colonial heritage was emphasized, and the rich industrialized countries therefore were considered to have a special responsibility. During the 1980s the main tendency has been to play down the colonial background as an explanation to the poorness in "the third world". Instead the regimes of the third world countries have been blamed for curruption, autocratic way and erroneous economic politics. The North-South dialogue has changed character. Instead of development aid to compensate for a historical exploitation which has deprived the former colonies of resources and distorted their economic structures, the industrialized countries started to give economic assistance laying down conditions for a process of adjusting to rules of a deregulated world market. This is the main contents of the so-called structural adjustment, the aim of which is liberalization and a macro-economic balance. Why do we put OSH together with Development? Well, they are related and it is worthwhile to explore this relation. During the last ten years, there has been an increasing emphasis on highligthing the positive relation between OSH and productivity. This has to some extent been due to the increasing difficulties to sell the OSH concept with the traditional arguments of decency; health for all; workers should not only be provided with work but also with safe and healthy work; the production should finance the costs for occupational safety and health activities, etc. These difficulties may have something to do with an increasing unemployment in industrial countries. It may also have something to do with OSH efficiency problems: why all this fuss about OSH when workers never seem to be safe and healthy? The work is getting physically lighter. There are alot of rules against occupational safety and health risks, but it seems like the problems are never solved. These rules seem to be effective in preventing further development of production rather than preventing OSH risks. Measuring, measuring, and measuring risks, but what about the solutions? So, now the integration of occupational safety, health and productivity is sought for. This is a new situation. It was not long ago that productivity was considered an ugly word among specialists of occupational safety and health. Productivity and effectiveness was a concern for the engineers. The occupational safety and health experts were the good guys, caring only for the safety, health and well-being of the workers. The production engineers, managers, and capitalists were the bad guys, squeezing profit out of the workers without considering their safety, health and well-being. Nowadays, there are different views on productivity. Productivity and effectiveness are considered to be of common interest for the workers, employers, owners of industry, and for society. We want to find solutions to safety and health problems which do not decrease but rather increase the productivity and the effectiveness. We know that in many cases good solutions to safety and health problems are preconditions for higher productivity. We believe that, in other cases, the promotion of productivity is a necessary precondition for improving safety and health of the workers. We even believe that in the future work life it is impossible to have high productivity and good product quality without safety and health for the workers, and vice versa. OK, so much for productivity. But the question was about the relation between OSH and Development. Is increasing productivity the same as development? No, of course not. Productivity of an industry or a nation is the basis for economic growth for that industry or nation. But there is no automatic, positive link between this growth and human development. Human development is the end - economic growth may be one of the means. Economic growth expands the material base for the fulfillment of human needs. But the extent to which these need are met depends on the allocation of resources among people and uses and the distribution of opportunities, particularly employment. It has to be ensured that the economic growth is directed to supporting human development, for instance reducing poverty, protecting the environment and ensuring sustainability. Hhm. Tell me then, what do we mean with human development? Well, this is an introductory article, and it is already too long. We will come back to that in coming issues. We hope that this bulletin/journal will be a forum for interchange of ideas and experiences on the relation between OSH and human development. This requires first of all some general discussions. This article is an initial attempt in that direction. You will find other articles with the same aim. Ulf Ulfvarson (pages 11-16) has analyzed some indicators of human development. Other articles discuss other aspects of development. And most important, we look forward to your comments, your articles, and your opinions related to OSH & Development.
Kaj Elgstrand |