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The article SDG 1: Mobilize the financial means for social protection systems for all by the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors is included at the Report Spotlight on Sustainable Development 2018 Exploring new policy pathways. How to overcome obstacles and contradictions in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda
by the Civil Society Reflection Group on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Download this chapter in pdf format here.
El informe se encuentra disponible en español aquí, vea aquí el capítulo ODS 1. Financiar los sistemas de protección social para todos.
The report is also available in Arabic, here.
By the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors
The international commitment is explicit and ambitious: “Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable“ (SDG target 1.3). Social protection systems include contributory and non-contributory schemes for children, people in active age and older persons, as for example child grants, health insurance or pension programmes. Social protection floors provide at least a basic level of income security and access to health services for all residents in all main contingencies along the life cycle, as defined in the ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation 2012 (no. 202).1
There is no doubt that social protection is a key instrument to end poverty and to give people access to opportunities for a self-determined life in dignity. National social protection systems can also contribute to achieving other SDGs, including food security, good health, decent work, gender equality, reduced inequality and cohesive communities.
The social protection target is ambitious as there is an extremely wide gap between the commitment and the current situation. The ILO World Social Protection Report 2017-2019 shows that only 29 percent of the world’s population is covered by adequate social protection.2 And yet many more countries than those who already have complete social protection systems could afford at least to complete their Social Protection Floors (SPFs). The forthcoming 2018 update3 of the SPF Index that the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors has published in 2016, finds that
In medium term, a number of countries should be able to close most of their social protection gaps, including:
In the longer term
However, even for countries that have the political will to close the gap and the organizational capacity to implement the required policies, a major challenge is to mobilize and maintain the necessary resources to cover the cost in a sustainable way, year in and year out, through good times and bad. Social protection spending is not a short-term effort but needs to be planned and guaranteed for the indefinite future.
Large differences in the funding of social protection
The ILO found large regional differences in the funding of social protection, ranging from about 15 percent of GDP in Europe to 4.5 percent in Africa on average. That funding is almost exclusively mobilized through taxation, social security contributions and other public revenues. Very little official development assistance (ODA) is used to support social protection in developing countries. Total ODA for social protection disbursed in the years 2010-2015 varied between US$ 1.9 billion and US$ 2.6 billion or only about 2 percent of total ODA.5
In many countries, contributory pensions, employer paid insurance for workers injured on the job and other social insurance systems provide social protection to some of the population, albeit usually not for all people and in particular not for people living in poverty in the informal economy, who are generally not in a position to pay the mandatory contributions. It is thus necessary to allocate government expenditures to social protection systems to protect people from poverty, for which countries need to build strong and fair national tax systems, increase efficiency in tax collection and administration, and end tax evasion and fraud. In some cases, budget expenditures can be reallocated from less essential uses to social protection. In some countries it will be necessary to raise taxes or other fiscal revenues, which should be done in a progressive manner, for instance through taxing personal and corporate income, as well as property and wealth.
Financing mechanisms for social protection
The choice of financing mechanisms should take account the administrative demands of their implementation and their impact on investments and economic performance. But it is essential also to consider the net fiscal impact and incidence of the combination of financing choices and transfer payments on poverty and on inequality.6 A well-designed mix of financing mechanisms and social protection transfer programmes can reduce both poverty and inequality as decades of experience in Europe and other parts of the world show.
Striving for universal social protection, some countries have used and improved the fiscal resources earned from extractive industries. A case in point is Bolivia, where the sharing of revenues of gas exports changed from 18 percent to the government and 82 percent to the producers to a revenue 50-50 split, which led to the pledge of additional funds to core social services, including a universal old age pension, and a cash transfer for children in public primary schools to compensate for the cost of books, uniforms and transportation.7
Political will as well as long term fiscal planning is needed to maintain social protection expenditures in the face of economic volatility (and increase them as conditions warrant). For commodity-dependent developing countries, some governments build up a reserve fund during boom times to draw down during bad times. It requires government discipline during boom times when there may be strong political pressure to expand government expenditure in unsustainable ways and in which the government administration might assume that the next crisis will fall on a successor government. The success of such a strategy requires good fiscal monitoring, including by civil society organizations.
Even if at first sight social protection seems to be a purely domestic public task, there is without doubt also an international responsibility to support developing countries in this regard, as backed by the extraterritorial state obligations agreed upon in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, Art. 2.1). One element of this responsibility is to help individual countries to collect taxes owed that presently escape their fiscal systems. Internationally coordinated efforts are required to effectively reduce tax evasion. Technical assistance is also beneficial to help countries design systems that prevent opportunities for legal, but unethical, tax avoidance schemes, and so not offer competing tax incentives to foreign investors that erode the national tax base in other countries and constitute a fiscal ‘race to the bottom’.
There is a human rights obligation to protect ongoing social protection spending in times of economic distress. Austerity measures typically taken after crises occur must not cut into social protection spending that protects people from the most disastrous fall-out of these crises. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in General Comment 19 (2008) has noted that states have a minimum core obligation to provide some form of social protection, which is not subject to availability of resources. The positive economic effects of social protection as investments in social and economic development must also be recognized, for instance, in terms of supporting skill development and employability, as well as sustaining aggregate demand. During the international financial crisis of 2008, for instance, we observed the stabilizing effect of social protection in some countries, preventing worse impacts on people and economies and enabling faster recoveries.
One reason social protection is threatened in crisis periods is that priority is given to continuing to pay government creditors. It is high time to re-calibrate the risk-sharing between involved parties. The obligation to protect people from intolerable hardship should take precedence over the obligation to honour debt payments when government revenues contract. However, we do not need to wait for sovereign bankruptcy and measures of last resort to protect spending for basic social protection. Proposals to design loans and bonds that automatically postpone or cancel debt servicing during periods of economic stress, called “State-contingent debt”, have many supporters but need to be put into practice. Moreover, the practice of lending conditionalities requiring States to scale back their social protection systems must be immediately reconsidered.
International ODA for social protection has to increase. Public funds will be usefully spent to contribute to national efforts to design, implement and finance systems of social protection. A reliable international funding mechanism for social protection could have added value, especially as a bridging mechanism for least developed low-income countries that might not yet have sufficient fiscal capacity. In this regards a Global Fund for Social Protection has been proposed that would aim at creating a solidarity-based financing mechanism for social protection floors.8 The Fund would be governed by a board consisting of representatives from different constituencies, including the UN, ILO, donor countries, recipient countries and civil society. ODA resources could be complemented by innovative sources of development finance, such as a financial transactions tax (FTT), carbon taxes, and/or a decision by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to issue new Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) for unrestricted use.
Mobilizing adequate public resources to cover the cost of social protection floors and social protection in a wider sense is a challenging terrain on the international as well as the national level. And yet, the challenge can be met because the requisite techniques and mechanisms of public finance exist. They will have to be implemented to guarantee that nobody is left behind.
The Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors is a network of around 100 NGOs and unions promoting the right of all people residing in a country to social security, regardless of documentation. It promotes social protection floors as key instruments to achieve the overarching social goal of the global development agenda (www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org).
Notes:
2 ILO (2017).
3 Bierbaum et al. (2018).
4 These estimates assume that all transfers are perfectly targeted on the people living below the poverty line.
5 UN (2017).
6 Inchauste/Lustig, ed. (2017).
7 Ortiz/Cummins/Karunanethy (2017), p. 13.
8 De Schutter/Sepúlveda (2012), Cichon (2015) and Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (2015).
Literature
Bierbaum, Mira/Schildberg, Cäcilie/Cichon, Michael (2018): Social Protection Floor Index – Update and Country Studies. Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stfitung.
www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/2017-Social-Protection-Index.pdf
Cichon, Michael (2015): A Global Fund for Social Protection Floors: Eight Good Reasons Why It Can Easily be Done. Geneva: UNRISD.
www.unrisd.org/road-to-addis-cichon
De Schutter, Olivier/Sepúlveda, Magdalena (2012): A Global Fund for Social Protection (GFSP), Executive Summary. Geneva: United Nations.
www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Food/20121009_GFSP_execsummary_en.pdf
Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (2015): A Global Fund for Social Protection. A proposal for the Conference on Financing for Development Addis Ababa. Geneva.
www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/FfD_GFSP14April2015final.pdf
Herman, Barry (2018): Sustainably financing social protection floors, Brot für die Welt, Berlin
https://www.brot-fuer-die-welt.de/themen/fachpublikationen/armut-sozialpolitik/
ILO (2017): World Social Protection Report 2017-2019. Universal social protection to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Geneva.
www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_604882/lang – en/index.htm
Inchauste, Gabriela/Lustig, Nora (Ed.) (2017): The Distributional Impact of Taxes and Transfers. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/27980/9781464810916.pdf
Ortiz, Isabel/Cummins,Matthew/Karunanethy, Kalaivani (2017): Fiscal Space for Social Protection and the SDGs: Options to expand social investments in 187 countries. Geneva/New York: ILO, UNICEF and UN Women.
www.social-protection.org/gimi/RessourcePDF.action?ressource.ressourceId=51537
UN (2018): Financing for Development: Progress and Prospects 2018. Report of the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development. New York.
https://developmentfinance.un.org/iatf2018
The article SDG 1: Mobilize the financial means for social protection systems for all by the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors is included at the Spotlight on Sustainable Development 2018 Exploring new policy pathways. How to overcome obstacles and contradictions in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda report by the Civil Society Reflection Group on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
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Social dialogue includes all types of negotiation, consultation and exchange of information between or among representatives of governments, employers and workers on issues of common interest relating to economic and social policy. Social dialogue gives people a voice and a stake in their societies and workplaces. It is, therefore, central to the functioning of the ILO itself.
In conjunction with the 107th International Labour Conference, this event seeks to raise awareness about opportunities and challenges associated with social dialogue, highlighting its potential and limits in our societies, as well as to facilitate a creative discussion on the different positions and approaches to reinforcing Social Dialogue within and beyond the ILO, at the national and local level. The event also intends to focus on cases where social dialogue is important to create new understandings for the need to protect informal workers and other vulnerable groups in precarious work situations.
For more information on the topic, consult ILO Reports “Social Dialogue and Tripartism” and “Ending violence and harassment in the world of work”.
Download here the flyer of the workshop.
Workshop
In conjunction with 107th Session of the International Labour Conference
Wednesday, 30 May 2018
10:00 - 13:00
ORGANIZERS
International Catholic Center of Geneva (CCIG), Kolping international/German Commission for Justice and Peace (GCJP), International Coordination of Young Christian Workers
(ICYCW), International Young Christian Workers (IYCW), and World Movement of Christian Workers (WMCW)
In cooperation with Women in Informal Economy: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)
And with the support of World Council of Churches (WCC)
PROGRAM
Moderation: Ms. Hildegard Hagemann, Kolping International/GCJP
10:00 – Welcome
Prof. Dr. Isabel Apawo Phiri, Deputy General Secretary for Public Witness and Diakonia, World Council of Churches
Ms. Maria D’Onofrio, Secretary General, CCIG
10:10 – Opening Remarks
H.E. Mgr. Ivan Jurkovič, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See at the UN
10:20 – Keynote speech: Social Dialogue as a means to promote decent work for ensuring non-violent places of work?
Ms. Jane Hodges, Former Director, Gender Equality, ILO
10:40 – Sharing of experiences of especially vulnerable groups challenging Social Dialogue: Addressing Gender based violence at the workplace - Ms. Leizyl Salem, Asia Pacific Coordinator, IYCW
Empowering migrant workers – Ms. Floriane Rodier, National Secretary, YCW France Collective bargaining and self-employed informal workers - the example of street vendors - Ms. Lorraine Simbanda, President of StreetNet, ZIMBABWE – partner of WIEGO
11:00 – Questions and Discussion
11:30 – Panel Discussion followed by Plenary Debate
Ms. Jane Hodges, Former Director, Gender Equality, ILO
Ms. Odile Frank, Representative, Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors
Ms. Anna Biondi, Deputy Director, Bureau for Workers’ Activities, ILO
Ms. Sarah Prenger, International President, IYCW
Employers’ Representative, TBC
12h55 - Concluding Remarks
Ms. Marilea Damasio, General Secretary, WMCW - TBC
Main Hall
World Council of Churches 1 Route des Morillons
1218 Grand Saconnex, Switzerland
Bus 5 and F – Stop: “Crêts des Morillons”
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Simultaneous interpretation in English and French.
Please confirm your attendance at: secretariat@ccig-iccg.org.
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Report on the panel on social protection as a human rights imperative, held on 30 April , 2018 during the 62nd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), Nouakchott, Mauritania
The organisers (the Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape, South Africa, Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER) and the Global Coalition on Social Protection Floors in conjunction with the Chairperson of the Working Group on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) proposed the panel to - create awareness among states and other stakeholders on the human rights importance of social protection measures; educate states and other stakeholders on the relevance of ILO Recommendation 202 on Social protection Floors in addressing poverty and inequality and; elicit debate on the provisions of the Draft Protocol to the African Charter on the Right to Social Security/Protection. The panel was the first of its kind on social security in the history of the African Commission and thus garnered a lot of interest, first for its relevance in the African context and secondly to garner support for the Commission’s draft protocol on social security.
The panel was moderated by Commissioner Jasmine King, the Chairperson Working Group on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. She also gave opening remarks on the relevance of Social Security and its Protection as a Human Rights Imperative in Africa. The first presentation was anchored by Ms Allana Kembabazi, representative of Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER), and focused on the Draft Protocol to the African Charter on Social Security and Protection: Lessons for Uganda. The second presentation was anchored by Ms Oluwafunmilola Adeniyi, joint representative of Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape and Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors. The presentation focused on the ILO Recommendation 202 on Social Protection Floors.
In summary, the presentations emphasised the parameters of a rights based approach to social security and how the draft protocol entrenches this. The presentations also highlighted the need for African states to move from a piece-meal, welfare approach to a human rights based, coordinated approach for social protection.
Many State representatives in response to the presentations, attempted to highlight their efforts towards social protection for vulnerable groups in their States, what seemed a common thread was the missing sense of coordination among these efforts and in some instances a human rights based approach. Participants questioned whether the draft protocol contained funding mechanisms, including minimum budgetary allocations, which states could employ to ensure the sustenance of whatever social protection measures they employed. Participants also questioned whether the draft protocol included provisions to combat corruption and diversion of resources allocated for social protection.
Download here the report (pdf version).
Funmilola Adeniyi
Doctoral Researcher
Socio Economic Rights Project (SERP)
Dullah Omar Institute
Law Faculty
University of the Western Cape
South Africa
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Discussion paper "Sustainably Financing Social Protection Floors" Toward a Permanent Role in National Development Planning and Taxation by Barry Herman, the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors and Brot für die Welt, April 2018.
Executive Summary
Social protection systems must be fiscally sustainable so they will provide all residents with adequate social protection in all the challenging situations over the life cycle that pose a risk to livelihood security now and in the future. This is often not the case.
There are two categories of financing of social protection, “contributory” programmes and “non-contributory” schemes. In many countries, contributory pensions, employer paid insurance for workers injured on the job and other social insurance provide social protection to some of the population, albeit usually not for people living in poverty, who are not in a position to pay the mandatory contributions or who do not work in the formal enterprise sector. It is thus also necessary to allocate government
expenditures to social protection systems that cover all people. In particular, tax-based financing is
needed to pay for “social protection floors” (SPFs), which are the parts of social protection that seek to provide at least a basic level of protection for all residents against each of the main contingencies along the life cycle, as defined in the 2012 Social Protection Floors Recommendation 202 of the International Labour Organization.
To help address that challenge, the present paper focuses on how countries may assure the sustainable
financing of social protection floors. It argues that countries need to build strong national tax systems, increase the efficiency in tax collection and administration, and end tax evasion and fraud. In some cases, budget expenditures can be reallocated from less appropriate uses to social protection, as in decisions to allocate savings from reduced fuel subsidies. In quite a number of countries, it will be necessary to raise taxes or other fiscal revenues, including on personal and corporate income, as well as
on property and wealth. Striving for universal social protection, some countries have improved the fiscal resources they capture from extractive industries. Other countries have looked to innovative sources of development finance, such as a financial transaction tax (FTT).
Even when sustainable over the long run, social protection outlays are often threatened during crisis periods when their need is greatest and tax collections plummet. One source of the problem in the case of many developing countries is dependence on volatile sources of tax revenue, as when taxes on a limited number of commodity exports form a large portion of their revenues. The paper thus notes disciplined efforts of some countries to build up reserves during boom times to draw down during times of economic bust. Another approach seeks to redefine the risk-sharing between governments and their creditors.
The paper argues for proposals to design loans and bonds that automatically postpone or cancel debt servicing during periods of economic stress or natural catastrophe, called “state-contingent debt”. These proposals have many supporters but need to be put into practice.
Even if at first sight social protection seems to be a purely domestic public responsibility, there is also an international responsibility to support developing countries in this regard. Indeed ‒ the global community of nations pledged in its 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development to give “strong international support” to help countries “meet the needs of all communities through delivering high-quality [social] services that make effective use of resources” and to “explore coherent funding modalities to mobilize additional resources, building on country-led experiences.”
In this spirit, the paper calls for increased donor government and international organization grants and subsidized loans (that is, “official development assistance”) to help countries develop their social protection systems. International public funds can contribute to the effort of countries to design, implement and finance national floors of social protection, to which end proposals have been made to create a special international fund for advancing social protection.
A related form of international cooperation is to help individual countries to capture more of their own taxes that escape their fiscal systems. Internationally coordinated efforts can effectively reduce tax evasion. Technical assistance is also beneficial to help countries design systems that do not allow opportunities for legal, if unethical, tax avoidance schemes. Additional international cooperation is needed to prevent countries from offering competing tax incentives to foreign investors that erode the national tax base and constitute a fiscal “race to the bottom”.
A third form of cooperation aims to assist developing countries during crisis periods when their social protection needs will be most intense. Thus, in response to the increasing number of environmental and humanitarian emergencies, developing countries and international institutions have established a number of quick-disbursing loan and insurance facilities. Furthermore, when universal social protection systems that disburse cash transfers are already in place, they can provide a ready channel for disbursing emergency funds to individual beneficiaries.
The paper concludes by emphasizing that sustainably financing social protection floors needs to be an
essential part of explicit national sustainable development strategies. Governments can draw upon a new generation of development planning tools and approaches in order to simultaneously address social, environmental and economic dimensions of development over a number of years. They may also consider the desired scope of government expenditures and the interaction of the policies, programmes and required taxation to address national development goals, not least regarding the complementarity of contributory and non-contributory national social protection programmes.
There can be no doubt that social protection is a key instrument to help end poverty and to give people access to opportunities for a self-determined life in dignity. National social protection systems can also contribute to achieve related sustainable development goals, like food security, good health, decent work, gender equality, reduced inequality and cohesive communities. Nevertheless, mobilizing adequate public resources to cover the cost of social protection floors is always contested and a challenging terrain for advocacy. And yet, the challenge can be met because the requisite techniques and mechanisms
of public finance are known to exist.
By Nicola Wiebe
Experts call upon Financing for Development Forum to focus attention on financing social protection. See here the webcast of this side event at the UN Headquarter from 23.4.2018.
There can be no doubt: social protection has been recognized as a key instrument to end poverty and to give people access to opportunities for a self-determined life. The international commitment is explicit and ambitious: “Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.” (SDG 1, Target 1.3)
However, the gap between the commitment and the current situation is extremely wide. The ILO World Social Protection Report 2017-2019 shows that only 29% of the world’s population is covered by adequate social protection.
A commonly cited problem for extending and improving social protection systems remains to create and protect fiscal space.
This side event to the Financing for Development Forum 2018 takes stock of the latest developments in financing Universal Social Protection, including Floors, and discusses the following questions:
Representatives from Governments, the ILO and the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors share their experiences, insights and proposals.
Speakers include:
Moderator: Peter Bakvis, International Trade Union Confederation
This side event is co-organised by the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors, International Labour Organization (ILO), Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Permanent Mission of Norway to the United Nations, NGO Committee on Financing for Develpment and actalliance.
Further information:
Webcast "Financing Universal Social Protection"
Flyer of the event.
Interventions are also available here.
The Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape, Initiatives for Socio- economic Rights and the Global Coalition for Social protection Floors in conjunction with the Working Group on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights cordially invite you to a panel discussion on Social Protection as a Human Rights Imperative in Africa during the 62nd Ordinary Session of the African Commission in Nouakchott, Mauritania
Panellists
Moderator/Opening Remarks on Relevance of Social Security/ Protection as a Human Rights Imperative in Africa- Commissioner Jasmine King- Chairperson Working Group on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The Draft Protocol to the African Charter on Social Security and Protection: What Lessons for Uganda-Allana Kembabazi, Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER)
ILO Recommendation 202 on Social Protection Floors- Olufunmilola Adeniyi, Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape/Global Coalition for Social protection Floors
Date: 30 April 2018 Venue: Main Hall Time: 10:40 am
Download here the flyer of the event.
Concept Note
The right to social protection or security is well recognised in international and regional human rights instruments including the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The right to social security is articulated in Article 9 of the ICESCR.[1] The Committee responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Covenant has clarified the nature of states’ obligations in this regard in its General Comment 19 on the right to social security. In that General Comment, the Committee notes that the right to social security implies two predominant categories of measures: social insurance schemes, where beneficiaries are requested to contribute financially; and social assistance schemes, non-contributory and typically taxation- funded measures which are designed to transfer resources to groups deemed eligible due to vulnerability or deprivation.[2]. According to the Committee, states must strive towards progressively realising the right to social security of every individual within their territories. The Committee has further noted that the realisation of the right to social security requires states to take measures to establish social protection systems under domestic law, ensure their sustainability, ensure that benefits are adequate in amount and duration, and ensure that the level of benefits and the form in which they are provided are in compliance with the principles of human dignity and non-discrimination.[3]
States are also expected to ensure that social protection is equally available to all individuals, and in this respect direct their attention to ensuring universal coverage, reasonable, proportionate and transparent eligibility criteria; affordability and physical accessibility by beneficiaries; and participation in and information about the provision of benefits.[4] In formulating the minimum core content of the right to social security, the Committee notes that states have the immediate obligation ‘to ensure access to a social security scheme that provides a minimum essential level of benefits to all individuals and families that will enable them to acquire at least essential health care, basic shelter and housing, water and sanitation, foodstuffs, and the most basic forms of education.[5]
Under the African Charter, the right to social security is not explicitly provided. However, a combination of rights such as health, education, protection of the aged and persons with disability guaranteed in articles 116-18 can be invoked to secure this right. Recently, the African Union mandated the African Commission to draft a Protocol to the African Charter on Social Security and Protection. This is a significant step forward, which will strengthen measures aimed at realising the right to social protection in the region.
In addition, to these binding human rights instruments there have been other developments at the international and regional levels relating to the realisation of the right to social protection. For instance, since 2009, the United Nations has given serious attention to addressing inequality and poverty through the launching of the inter-agency group on Social protection Floors Initiative with a view to addressing the global economic meltdown of 2009. In 2012, the International labour Organisation Assembly adopted Recommendation 202 on Social Protection Floors. This significant document enjoins states to ensure the adoption of social protection floors which should at least guarantee access to essential health care including maternal health care, basic income for children, active unemployed persons and older persons.
More recently, the international community has given impetus to the realisation of the right to social protection through the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, whose main aim is to combat poverty by 2030.[6] One of the targets of goal 1 is to ‘implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures to all, including floors and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.
At the regional level, the African Union Agenda 2063 aims at ensuring an economically endowed Africa based on inclusive goal and development. It further calls for ‘A high standard of living, quality of life and well-being for all citizens’ and envisages social security and social protection as a priority area.
The adoption of well-coordinated social protection programmes will go a long way in addressing poverty and inequality within a country as well as advance the realisation of socio-economic rights of vulnerable and marginalised groups. For instance, social protection can help in addressing food insecurity, thereby advancing the right to adequate food. Also, social protection programmes can help in realising the right to education of vulnerable and marginalised children. This is evident in cash transfer and school feeding programmes.
Experience has shown that social protection programmes can facilitate access to health care services in general and maternal health care in particular. More importantly, social protection programmes have been found to mitigate the impact of unemployment and poverty through cash transfers and other unemployment benefits. These beneficial impacts of social protection systems in advancing socio-economic rights of vulnerable and marginalised groups, testifies to the fact that there is a strong and symbiotic relationship between human rights and social protection. Sepulveda and Nyst have noted that ‘People living in poverty experience discrimination not only on grounds such as birth, property, national or social origin, ethnic origin, colour, gender and religion, but also because they are poor. From a human rights perspective, States are under a clear obligation to ensure that all individuals are able to enjoy access to a minimum essential level of economic, social and cultural rights, including an adequate standard of living, equally and without discrimination.[7]
Despite these benefits of social protection system, many African countries only pay lip service to ensuring the right to social protection for their citizens. In some situations, social protection programmes are implemented as a form of charity rather than a human rights imperative. This has robbed many Africans of their right to social security and avenues to escape poverty. Thus, the proposed Protocol to the African Charter on the Right to Social Security and Protection in Africa is a welcome development as it will further strengthen a rights-based approach to social protection in the region.
Against this backdrop, the Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape, South Africa, Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER) and the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors in conjunction with the Chairperson of the Working Group on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights propose a side event on Social protection as a Human Rights Imperative in Africa, to be held during the 62nd ordinary session of the African Commission. This side event aims at achieving the following:
Proposed Programme
ILO Recommendation 202 on Social Protection Floors- Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape/Global Coalition for Social protection Floors
The Report of the event is available here.
Notes:
[1] The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 1966,
[2] CeSCR, General Comment No. 19, para 4.
[3] Ibid para 22
[4] Ibid paras 23-27
[5] Ibid para 59.
[6] The Social Development Goals adopted by the United NATIONS IN September 2015
[7] M Sepulveda and C Nyst The Human Rights Approach to Social Protection (2012) 21.
Organizing partners:
Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF) ACT Alliance (Action by Churches Together)
NGO Committee on Financing for Development (NGOsonFfD) International Labour Organization (ILO)
Speakers
Isabel Ortiz, Director of Social Protection, ILO. See presentation here.
Stephen Kidd, Senior Social Protection Specialist, Development Pathways. See presentation here.
Carolina Dantas, Social Protection Officer, Trade Union Confederation of the Americas See presentation here.
David Coady, Chief of the Expenditure Policy Division at the Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF
Anush Bezhanyan, Practice Manager, Social Protection and Labour, World Bank Group
Moderator
Peter Bakvis, Director ITUC/Global Unions – Washington Office, International Trade Union Confederation
Notes from IMF and World Bank responses
IMF
Thanking the presenters for extensive and interesting input on the subject. In agreement with 90 % of it.
Would like to make a plea: “No Ministry of Finance should be allowed to say that they should increase tax without also saying what they will spend it on, and vice versa: no other Ministry should be able to increase social spending without showing how it will be financed – fiscal sustainability.”
Social protection is more than poverty reduction – it is both social assistance and social insurance.
The discussion should not concern errors of inclusion – that the rich are getting part of social benefits – but should instead focus on how to include the poor.
We need to broaden the discussion beyond spending: How is it going to be financed? IMF needs to see this for each country. When a country is in a fiscally problematic situation there are reasons for IMF concern. However, the response must be a medium-term strategy which takes into concern the need for social protection.
IMF Fiscal Monitor: Tackling Inequality, October 2017 discusses how fiscal policies can help achieve redistributive objectives. It focuses on three salient policy debates: tax rates at the top of the income distribution, the introduction of a universal basic income, and the role of public spending on education and health.
IMF participated in SPIAC-B and in the State of Social Safety Nets 2018 report
World Bank
Thanking the presenters and noting that there are more points in agreement than disagreement with the World Bank’s view on social protection. Invites the panelists and civil society to continue the conversation.
World Bank engages in partnerships and international agreements for social protection, for example the partnership with ILO on Universal Social Protection.
ILO World Social Protection Report 2017-2019 and World Bank The State of Social Safety Nets 2018 reports different numbers in social protection coverage.
We need to be mindful that many countries have limited capacities in delivering social protection with broad coverage. There are challenges for example in lack of registries and ID cards.
On the criticism of the World Bank’s support to building social registries: Registries should be mechanisms for inclusion rather than exclusion.
Q&A
Q: How can financing of Social Protection Floors be linked to pollution taxes, sin taxes etc? (CSO)
A: Sufficient taxation proponents, it should be fiscally neutral. There are opportunities to develop a package that is getting broad support (?) (IMF)
Q: Political economy: Do you focus on countries where it can be a constituency for social protection and do you give up in other countries? How do you go about promoting universal social protection? (CSO)
A: In a democratic context it is about enabling citizens to make these decisions in elections. Social protection grew through elections. The need to break down for decision makers the idea of deserving and undeserving of the poor. It is not wrong for the middle class and the rich to get access to the same social protection systems as the poor. (Development Pathways)
Graduation in social protection: graduation programmes do not work – not in the long term. Child grants and pensions eliminate the risk and fear of falling back into poverty.
A: IMF’s role is to create fiscal space that enables governments to do whatever they want to do in the social sphere. Governments have ownership but are affected by conditionalities. (IMF)
A: See expenditure from other sectors, but not at the expense of health or education. Expand the pie. (ILO)
Q: Explain the logic around promoting UBI (universal basic income) and at the same time promoting targeting in social protection. (CSO)
A: It depends on if your fiscal system supports it. (IMF)
A: The World Bank will also ask: How are you going to implement the social protections systems, do the countries have the right capacity for universal social protection? (World Bank)
Download the notes here (pdf version).
Further information is available here and here.
Side event to the 2018 ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development
This event will take stock of the latest development in financing Universal Social Protection, including Floors, and discuss the responses to the following questions:
What is the current situation of social protection financing worldwide? How can governments ensure adequate national fiscal resources to sustainably finance universal social protection (SDG 1.3)? How can social protection spending be protected in times of economic crisis? How might the United Nations Financing for Development Forum encourage initiatives to institute, foster, deepen and protect financing for universal social protection around the world?
The side event will take place on Monday, 23.04.2018 - 8 - 9:30 am, Conference Room 7 UNHQ
The webcast of the event is available here.
Speakers include:
Co-organized by the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF), International Labour Organization (ILO), Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Permanent Mission of Norway to the United Nations, NGO Committee on Financing for Develpment and actalliance.
Download here the flyer of the event.
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.
