ABSTRACT
The most formative activity of the early years of the Institute of Development Studies was its involvement in the ILO employment missions to Columbia, Sri Lanka and Kenya, each lasting about three months in 1970, 1971 and 1972. The idea of concentrating on employment issues came from the ILO, which in 1969 was celebrating its 50th anniversary, being founded in 1919. The essence of Redistribution from Growth was that the core of economic strategy in Kenya should be gradual but sustained action to reduce inequalities, in favour of the poorest parts of the population, urban and rural. Inequality in Kenya grew further in the 1980s, as in most countries in the world, in large part because of the adoption of neoliberal economic policies throughout the world, encouraged by and often made a requirement of receiving loans or support from the World Bank and the IMF. In 2019 the ILO had a reunion meeting, looking back at the World Employment Programme.
