- 45 - working conditions and the reduction in the purchasing power of salaries have contributed to the deepening of social and gender inequality. 14. We caution that the policies implemented by our countries in the process of globalization sometimes do not achieve sustainability or reactivation of economic growth and, consequently, opportunities for employment are reduced. We recognize the importance of taking into account the impact of such policies on employment and the standard of living of the population. Social and employment policies should take priority in the political and economic agendas of our countries to permit the successful adaptation of our peoples to the global economy, and to ensure more equitable access to the benefits of globalization. 15. We also note that in many of our countries the opportunities offered by technological innovations and by the dissemination of telecommunications resources do not always translate into benefits to workers and their families. This can result in maintaining and even exacerbating the gulf between those that participate in human progress and those that are excluded from it. 16. We direct our attention toward the segments of the population most affected by economic crises. These tend to be the persons who also suffer from ills, such as illiteracy or limited formal education, lack of vocational skills, misinformation about the labor market, discrimination, lack of social protection and the breakdown of group and family ties. These factors, which often coexist, expose certain segments of the population to intolerable forms of work and condemn them to an existence that is incompatible with human dignity. For this reason, member states should take steps appropriate to their situations. Such steps could include the development of national action plans on decent work, with the assistance of the ILO, and action plans to effectively implement ILO Conventions 138 and 182, and to combat the sexual exploitation of and trafficking in persons, especially women, children, and adolescents, to eliminate forced and compulsory labor; and to promote dignified and productive employment among those working in the informal sector, women, adolescents, people with disabilities, persons living with HIV/AIDS, migrants, and ethnic and religious minorities, as well as generating an environment and conditions of work that are healthy and safe. 17. We are convinced that economic growth and social progress are interdependent and inter-related aspects of the same project for building prosperous, united and equitable societies. Aware of the challenges associated with the creation of decent and productive employment in the context of globalization, we propose to combine the capacities and efforts of our Labor Ministries and other Ministries in the quest for ideas and practices capable of integrating the economic, social and labor dimensions of the regional and national policies of our Hemisphere. 18. We propose a more active role for the Ministries of Labor in the region, one that takes into account the need for the integration of social, labor and economic policies, and the aspirations of countries of the Hemisphere towards deepening their relations in multiple areas, based on shared values and on the realization of common interests. We visualize this new role of the Labor Ministries in different but analogous and complementary levels: at the domestic level, it is important to establish and deepen the institutional relations of the Labor Ministries with the areas of the State in charge of creating and implementing economic policies; at the regional and hemispheric levels, the fundamental issue is to incorporate this focus into the regional and subregional integration and free trade processes. Furthermore, we uphold the connection between labor policies and those in the areas