The video of the virtual side event “Decade of Action to achieve Universal Social Protection by 2030” is now online. The side event on the Theme Austerity & Social Protection was co-hosted by the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF) and the Africa Platform for Social Protection (APSP) and it was held during the Global People's Assembly on 22 September, 2021.
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Panel participants
Read more: the concept note, the speakers bios, the invitation, Global People's Assembly.
Declaration
The Declaration of the Global People's Assembly 2021 “The COVID-19 Wake Up Call: We The People Resist Being Left Behind” is available here.
The chapter on Social Protection is below.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the decrepit state of existing social protection systems. Decades of broken promises, policies that prioritise profits over people and planet, and austerity programmes have gutted social protection, emergency safety nets and essential public services.
While emergency programmes provide relief in times of crisis, they are stopgap measures. The international community and national governments must create a comprehensive, social protection system if the Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved and bring the ideas of “Leave No One Behind” and “A Life of Dignity for All” to life.
Social protection systems are a proven, direct and fast-acting mechanism to end poverty and reduce inequalities. They unleash individual creativity and capacities, provide resilience in the face of ‘natural’ calamities, pandemics and economic crises, and are an investment in the long-term economic and social growth of countries and communities. Social protection is a universal public good and a human right!
Our Demands
Create and ensure a Universal Social Protection Floor for all, which ensures:
To realise a Universal Social Protection Floor, the international community must:
While international funding and technical support is important, it does not replace the responsibility of national and local governments to establish and finance rights-based, national social protection floors.
Governments must:
The Gender Dimension: The pandemic has made it clearer than ever that developing and resourcing gender-responsive social protection systems is central to combating poverty among women and girls. Social protection systems must cover informal sector workers, including those in unpaid care work. Social protection health schemes must include and cover services specific to the needs of women and girls, in all their diversity, including sexual and reproductive health (SRH), maternal and infant health services, sexual and gender- based violence services and safe abortion care.
Age: Social protection is essential to reduce vulnerabilities in old age. In many countries, older women are more likely to be impoverished than men, a result of lower wages, unpaid care work and longer life expectancy . . . Youth must be provided opportunities to be partners, as well as beneficiaries, in the development of policies and processes that affect their lives.
Marginalisation: Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent face intergenerational discrimination, exclusion from public resources and entitlements, and are routinely segregated despite constitutional and legal protective measures. Individuals from these communities are disproportionately affected by hunger, food insecurity and poverty. Cultural practices, child slavery and trafficking deny millions their right to quality education. Marginalised communities, including persons with disabilities, must be represented in local governments to ensure that their voices are heard and right to social protection realised.
Global People's Assembly, 21 - 23 September 2021
Co-hosted by the following partners:
Action for Sustainable Development (A4SD), Africa Platform for Social Protection (APSD), Asia Civil Society Partnership on Sustainable Development (APSD), Asia Dalits Rights Forum, Asia Development Alliance (ADA), Bread for the World, Germany, Bridging Ventures, CBM, CIVICUS, Coalition for the UN We Need (C4UNWN), CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE), Democracy Without Borders, EURODAD, No Profit on Pandemic, FORUS, Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF), GESTOS, Global Forum of Communities of DWD (GFoD), Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), Global Policy Forum, Gray Panthers, Latindadd, My World Mexico, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), SDG Watch Europe, Women Engaged for a Common Future (WECF), Women’s Major Group , TAP Network, Trust Africa.
The virtual side event “Decade of Action to achieve Universal Social Protection by 2030” (Theme: Austerity & Social Protection) co-hosted by the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF) and the Africa Platform for Social Protection (APSP) will be held during the Global People's Assembly.
The virtual Global People's Assembly is part of the Global Week of Action for the SDGs and is organised in parallel to the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
Decade of Action to achieve Universal Social Protection by 2030
Cohosted by the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF) and Africa Platform for Social Protection (APSP)
Theme: Austerity & Social Protection
Date and time: Wednesday 22nd September 12- 13.15 GMT / Virtual event
Link to Register: Registration for Global People's Assembly https://forms.gle/FS8SgXoJCmq2QY8w9
The virtual side event will be at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81154826226
French and Spanish translation will be offered.
Panel format
The event will take the form of a moderated dialogue between experts and activists, with conclusions and recommendations feeding into the GCAPs Peoples Assembly Declaration and to be used to support social protection advocacy with governments and civil society.
Moderation: Gabriel Fernandez: Africa Platform for Social Protection (APSP)
Panel participants
Read more: the concept note, the speakers bios, Global People's Assembly.
Background context
Social protection is essential to achieve the 2030 Agenda. Social protection is not only a universal human right, investing in social protection also brings high social and economic returns.
There is global commitment to SDG 1 target 1.3 ‘To implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable’. But half the world’s population currently does not have access to any social protection, with coverage remaining particularly limited in most low-income countries. Those who lack access to social protection guarantees - which include essential services and basic income across the life course - include workers in the informal economy, marginalized children, people with disabilities, older women and men, refugees and migrants, and homeless persons.
We are entering the decade of action to achieve Agenda 2030 under extremely difficult circumstances. The impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the depth and breadth of social and economic inequalities and is set to push up to 150 million people into extreme poverty , and 150 million children into multidimensional poverty . Governments have responded to Covid-19 by introducing or scaling up social protection measures to ameliorate the impact of job losses, impoverishment and the increase of inequalities in their countries.
Countries with established social protection systems have shown themselves to be in a much better position to cope with the social and economic fallout of Covid-19, to respond faster, more effectively and more efficiently than countries who have had to introduce new schemes on an ad hoc emergency basis. Covid-19 has focussed minds on the importance of social protection guarantees to health and income, enabling access to education, food and housing. The positive impact of social protection on long-term poverty and inequality has been demonstrated. Many countries are realizing the need for and the long-term benefits of universal, comprehensive and adequate social protection, based on sustainable and equitable financing, tripartite administration and anchored in law.
The Ministerial Declaration of the High Level Political Forum singles out social protection as a core policy to respond to Covid and to achieve Goal 1. The ILO has been tasked to recommend an action plan to achieve this for presentation to the International Labour Conference of November 2021.
However there is evidence that austerity plans are coming back into focus even though it is clear that their impact is heaviest on the poorest and their benefits are mainly for the already affluent, increasing already unacceptable levels of inequality.
Objectives of the panel
This panel will promote action on social protection guarantees by presenting evidence from experts and grassroots activists on why universal social protection is critical to the success of the 2030 Agenda, how social protection can prevent long-term poverty traps as a result of the ongoing crisis, how it will underpin resilient recovery and contribute to future crisis preparedness, how it will reduce inequalities and why efforts to introduce austerity programmes must be resisted.
The event will explore the role of national social dialogue and the global partnership for universal social protection. It will present the case for a global mechanism to support countries to create comprehensive systems, to collect necessary data and to mobilize finance to ensure universal coverage of social protection which is properly integrated into national development agendas, with funds used to transition social protection financing from being donor dependent to that of sustainable budgets within national budgets.
In the words of the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights: ‘The proposal for a global fund for social protection is not that taxpayers from rich countries pay for social protection in poor countries. It is, rather, to kick-start a virtuous cycle in which international support matches domestic efforts and contributes to capacity-building in low-income countries.’
The virtual Global People's Assembly is part of the Global Week of Action for the SDGs and is organised in parallel to the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
We are in the middle of a global inequality crisis. COVID-19 has made this worse - the vaccine inequality divides even more. We need a strong people's voice for global justice. Civl society including representatives from organisations of women, youth, older persons and marginalised people from all over the world will come together in the Global People's Assembly. They bring the perspectives from communities - including from People's Assemblies organised in 30 countries. The participants will prepare a declaration, which will be presented to the governments at the UNGA and the UN leadership.
Global People's Assembly, 21 - 23 September 2021
Co-hosted by the following partners:
Action for Sustainable Development (A4SD), Africa Platform for Social Protection (APSD), Asia Civil Society Partnership on Sustainable Development (APSD), Asia Dalits Rights Forum, Asia Development Alliance (ADA), Bread for the World, Germany, Bridging Ventures, CBM, CIVICUS, Coalition for the UN We Need (C4UNWN), CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE), Democracy Without Borders, EURODAD, No Profit on Pandemic, FORUS, Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF), GESTOS, Global Forum of Communities of DWD (GFoD), Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), Global Policy Forum, Gray Panthers, Latindadd, My World Mexico, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), SDG Watch Europe, Women Engaged for a Common Future (WECF), Women’s Major Group , TAP Network, Trust Africa.
The ad hoc group on IDA20 of the GCSPF has prepared a position paper on the draft policy commitments in the IDA20 replenishment document. The document is available here (pdf format) and here (word format).
The World Bank launched an early twentieth replenishment process of the International Development Association (IDA), its fund for the world’s poorest countries, aiming to support countries in their recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and transition to green, resilient, and inclusive development. The IDA20 replenishment will conclude in December 2021 with a policy and financial package to support 74 countries between July 2022 and June 2025.
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On August 2021 the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors sent a letter to Mathias Cormann, Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). See the letter below, pdf version here.
26 August 2021
Mr. Mathias Cormann
Secretary-General
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Dear Mathias Cormann,
On behalf of the entire membership of the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF), the Coalition’s core group of founding members congratulates you on your appointment to the position of Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
As a key actor in international economic and social policy and a major representative of a group of the highest income countries, the OECD has, as part of its mandate, a critical role in the definition and implementation of development cooperation, a task of overarching and fundamental importance.
The Global Coalition is a growing international civil society alliance of 110 non-governmental organizations, trade unions and think tanks working for social protection and, in the first instance, for national floors of social protection. There are large gaps in social protection worldwide, not only in low-income countries, but also in higher-income countries and member States of the OECD. Among other things, we are actively involved in current discussions on the establishment of a Global Fund for Social Protection to enable the lowest income countries to achieve social protection floors. Last year in September, the French government, together with the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, organized a High-Level Expert Meeting on "Establishing a Global Fund – Social Protection for All." OECD staff participated at this meeting in a very constructive way furthering discussion on a new international financing mechanism.
We note that full implementation of social protection floors in lowest income countries has been estimated by the International Labour Organization to cost roughly 0.13 per cent of the collective national income of OECD member States at the outset, far below their objective of giving 0.7 per cent of collective gross national income (GNI) as official development assistance (ODA) and even less than half of the current sum of OECD members’ ODA of 0.3 per cent of GNI.
Yet, the imperative to invest in sustainable social protection systems globally must be squarely addressed to put a stop to - and reverse - increasing inequality, essential to poverty eradication and to the eventual achievement of globally inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Positive conditionalities, the demonstrated multiplier effects of social protection and consequent increased financial capacity of recipient economies will be the pillars of the resilience and sustainability of social protection systems.
We note also the critical and remarkable progress spearheaded by OECD on international collaboration to end tax avoidance, and welcome OECD’s continuing active engagement in ongoing debates on global social protection in that context. We uphold the position that significant tax recoveries should benefit a new, dedicated international financing mechanism for social protection, fundamental to poverty eradication and inclusive economic growth, and believe that OECD is in the best position to enable that end.
Please accept, Sir, the assurances of our highest regard and sincere expression of our full collaboration.
Your sincerely,
on behalf of the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors
Over 200 civil society organizations and trade unions unite to call for a Global Fund for Social Protection to protect the most vulnerable during COVID-19 and beyond.
The programme Improving Synergies Between Social Protection and Public Finance Management provides medium-term support to multiple countries aiming to strengthen their social protection systems at a national level and ensure sustainable financing. The programme aims to support countries in their efforts towards achieving universal social protection coverage.
