Event: Improving synergies between social protection & public finance management

The European Union, the International Labour Organization, UNICEF and the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors  are implementing a thematic flagship programme aimed to strengthen Social Protection systems and ensure sustainable financing while improving Public Finance Management. Currently, the overall programme is being implemented in 18 partner countries. The programme immediately reoriented funds to respond to Covid-19 needs.

A virtual conference taking place on 1st December 2020 will mark the launch of the programme "Improving Synergies Between Social Protection and Public Finance Management". The event will be opened by Ms Henriette Geiger, Director B - People and Peace. A high-level technical panel will be held with the participation of representatives of the partners engaged in the programme, followed by a discussion about the role of Social Protection during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, feeding into Human Development on the way forward.

Register here.

Speakers

Henriette Geiger, Director People & Peace, DEVCO B

Shahra Razavi, Director of the ILO Social Protection Department

Natalia Winder Rossi, Associate Director and Chief of Social Policy, UNICEF

Bart Verstraeten, Political Secretary of WSM, GCSPF member

Valérie Schmitt, Deputy Director of the ILO Social Protection Department

Doerte Bosse, European Commission, DEVCO B3

e-GCSPF # 46 - November 2020

Launching event of the Civil Society Call for a Global Fund for Social Protection       The global community of nations has long decided to ensure the Human Right of all people to social protection. Studies have shown that ensuring a basic level of social protection for all is affordable for most countries and definitely for the global community of nations. A solidarity-based Global Fund for Social Protection could support countries to design, implement and, in specific cases, co-finance national floors of social protection. This side event offers civil society and academic perspectives on the proposal of a Global Fund for Social Protection and gives room to discuss ways and means of turning this idea into reality. Moderator: Alison Tate - Speakers: • Valérie Schmitt (ILO) • Gabriel Fernandez (APSP) • Markus Kaltenborn (Ruhr University Bochum) • Sulistri Afrileston (ITUC) • Michael Cichon (GCSPF) • Marcus Manuel (ODI) Watch the video           The GCSPF at the Civil Society Meeting – FfD in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond       Nicola Wiebe spoke on behalf of the GCSPF at the Civil Society Meeting “Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond” held by the UN Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General with civil society on 2 November 2020. She spoke about the rationale and need for the Global Fund for Social Protection, details of the civil society call for this were shared and responded to in the meeting and the GCSPF SPF film was shown in the course of the meeting. The video of the intervention on Social Protection is here and the PDF version is available here. The High-level Meeting provided the opportunity to comment on the menu of options, strategize on how to strengthen the role of the United Nations in economic governance and explore how to keep the momentum for FfD in the coming period. The video of the event is here. Read more Members of the Global Coalition also participated in the meeting: Dialogue 1 – Climate: The UN role in promoting a Just Transition David Boys, Deputy General Secretary, Public Services International Dialogue 2 – Fiscal Consolidation/Austerity and Privatization of Public Services Magdalena Sepulveda, Executive Director, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) Open Dialogue with interventions from the floor Helen Saldanha, VIVAT International on behalf of the NGO Committee on FfD Interlude 3 – Video on Social Protection Floors Closing Segment Peter Kamalingin, Pan Africa Program Director, Oxfam International           Universal social protection floors are a joint responsibility       By Michelle Bachelet, Olivier De Schutter and Guy Ryder Building back better from the pandemic so that we have greater resilience against future crises’ requires international solidarity and better social protection for all, that covers the poorest and most marginalized as well as those who currently have resources to pay. Social protection floors for all are affordable. The financing gap for all developing countries – the difference between what these countries already invest in social protection and what a full social protection floor (including health) would cost – is about $1,191 billion in the current year, including the impact of COVID-19. But the gap for the low-income countries is only some $78 billion, a negligible amount compared to the GDP of the industrialized countries. Yet the total official development assistance for social protection amounts to only 0.0047 per cent of the gross national income of donor countries. Read more           Call for reactions: Proposal for a Global Fund for Social Protection       The idea of a Global Fund for Social Protection starts from the finding that social protection floors are affordable, provided low-income countries receive international support in order to complement their own efforts to mobilize domestic resources. The desirability and feasibility of a new international mechanism in support of social protection floors remains debated. On 22-23 September 2020, Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, organized jointly with the French government a High-Level Expert Meeting on this topic, which brought together 12 governments, 18 international agencies, social partners, civil society, and academic experts. The questions listed here are informed by the views expressed during that meeting. The Special Rapporteur would be grateful for answers to be provided before 1 December 2020. On the basis of the reactions received, he intends to present the Human Rights Council with a mapping of the positions adopted, and to identify ways forward. The GCSPF will submit its contribution which will be based on “A Global Financing Mechanism for Social Protection”.           Financing gaps in social protection: Global estimates and strategies for developing countries in light of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond       More than three quarters of the global population had no access to comprehensive social protection and for even more people, income losses have been only partially mitigated. These large and persistent gaps in the coverage, comprehensiveness and adequacy of social protection are linked to significant financing gaps that have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has both increased the urgent demand for social protection and eroded government resources by diminishing tax and social insurance revenue. A range of government action is under way to cushion the most adverse health and socioeconomic effects of the pandemic, including the introduction of many (though largely temporary) social protection responses (ILO 2020). This brief summarizes the results of the 2020 working paper entitled “Financing Gaps in Social Protection: Global Estimates and Strategies for DevelopingCountries in Light of COVID-19 and Beyond”. It provides global and regional estimates of social protection financing gaps, which indicate the order of magnitude of the financial challenge that needs to be addressed in order to realize the human right to social security and achieve SDG targets 1.3 and 3.81. Read more           Report A Rights-Based Economy: Putting people and planet first       Choosing between people or the economy has become a persistent theme in political debates as the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic. Across countries, movements and world views, people are clamoring to rethink how our economies should function and who they should serve. To advance this debate, the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) and Christian Aid are launching a new publication, A Rights-Based Economy: Putting people and planet first. It asks a radical question: what would it look like if we had an economy based on human rights? Read more           Jordan: Quality measures needed to halt growing unemployment rate       On the occasion of the World Day for Decent Work, celebrated on October 7, the Jordan Labour Watch (JLW) issued a new report, demanding the new government expected to be formed within a few days to take quality measures to halt the growing unemployment rate. In the report, the JLW said that unemployment rates have reached unprecedented levels due to the coronavirus crisis and due to the “ineffective policies” each government has implemented in the past. The decent work standards in the Kingdom suffer from many gaps, which have been there before the crisis began in March, where unemployment rates were already high and only increased further in the second quarter of 2020 to 23 per cent; 21.5 per cent among males and 28.6 per cent among females, the report said. Read more           Welcome to new member       AbibiNsroma Foundation, Ghana       AbibiNsroma Foundation (ANF) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation established in 2020 in Ghana, and committed to identifying, promoting and empowering grassroots to develop innovative solutions for the developmental challenges in Ghana and Africa.  Through capacity building, training, research, advocacy and community development in the areas of energy, climate change and environment, natural resources, education, health and agriculture, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene to enhance Sustainable Development in Ghana and Africa as whole. Further information can be found here. Contact information: Robert Tettey Kwami Amiteye, Executive Director info@abibinsromafoundation.org and abibinsromafoundation@gmail.com

JOIN US TO ACHIEVE SOCIAL PROTECTION FOR ALL GLOBAL COALITION FOR SOCIAL PROTECTION FLOORS - GCSPF For comments, suggestions, collaborations contact us at: anaclau@item.org.uy To stop receiving this newsletter send a message with the subject "unsubscribe" to: anaclau@item.org.uy

Nicola Wiebe spoke on behalf of the GCSPF at the Civil Society Meeting “Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond” held by the UN Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General with civil society on 2 November 2020. She spoke about the rationale and need for the Global Fund for Social Protection, details of the civil society call for this were shared and responded to in the meeting and the GCSPF SPF film was shown in the course of the meeting. The video of her intervention on Social Protection is here and below and the PDF version is available here. Members of the Global Coalition also participated at the High-level meeting.

On 28 May 2020, the Prime Ministers of Canada, Jamaica and the Secretary-General convened a High-Level Event on “Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond” to join forces with Heads of State and Government, international organizations, and other key partners to enable discussions of concrete financing solutions to the COVID-19 health and development emergency, guided by the roadmap set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Six Member States-led Discussion Groups, including civil society representatives, produced a comprehensive and bold menu of policy options to survive and build back better from this crisis, which were presented to Finance Ministers at a High-Level Meeting on 8 September and to Heads of State and Government at a Leaders’ Meeting at 29 September.

The Civil Society FfD Group actively contributed to all stages of this process and provided inputs to all six discussion groups and all High-Level meetings (find them here). In this context, the UN Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General convened a meeting with civil society to provide the opportunity to comment on the menu of options, strategize on how to strengthen the role of the United Nations in economic governance and explore how to keep the momentum for FfD in the coming period. This process was also triggered by the Open Letter that was prepared by the CS FfD Group and widely endorsed in the lead-up to the Heads of State meeting.

On 2 November 2020, the UN Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General held a meeting with civil society to provide the opportunity to comment on the menu of options, strategize on how to strengthen the role of the United Nations in economic governance and explore how to keep the momentum for FfD in the coming period. The agenda is here.

Link to video recording of the event.

Nicola Wiebe spoke on behalf of the GCSPF, her intervention on Social Protection is below, the video is here and the PDF version is available here.

Members of the Global Coalition also participated at the High-level meeting. See the information below.

Dialogue 1 – Climate: The UN role in promoting a Just Transition
David Boys, Deputy General Secretary, Public Services International

Dialogue 2 – Fiscal Consolidation/Austerity and Privatization of Public Services
Magdalena Sepulveda, Executive Director, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR)

Open Dialogue with interventions from the floor
Helen Saldanha, VIVAT International on behalf of the NGO Committee on FfD

Interlude 3 – Video on Social Protection Floors

Closing Segment
Peter Kamalingin, Pan Africa Program Director, Oxfam International

Source: Civil Society Financing for Development (FfD) Group.

CIVIL SOCIETY MEETING

Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond
Monday, 2 November 2020

Dialogue 2 – Social Protection

The PDF version is available here and the video is here.

Nicola Wiebe, Social Protection Advisor
Bread for the World and Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors

Thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute on behalf of the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors - a global network of civil society organizations, trade unions and think tanks.

Millions of people have fallen into poverty due to the health and socioeconomic crisis caused by COVID-19. The global pandemic illustrates more drastically than ever that there is an urgent need to set up Universal Social Protection Systems, starting from Social Protection Floors (SPFs).

SPFs guarantee access to essential health care and provide minimum income security, hence protecting the human right to social protection of each individual. At the same time, they also protect society as a whole. Among many beneficial effects, social protection reduces the duration of economic downturns by means of counter-cyclical spending. This is why governments and social partners in the aftermath of the global financial crisis unanimously adopted the ILO Social Protection Floor Recommendation 202.

In principle, States bear the overall responsibility to establish and sustain SPFs. Yet, there is an important role for the international community of nations, as backed by extraterritorial state obligations agreed upon in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

There is an international responsibility to enable countries to collect due taxes that presently escape their fiscal systems. There is also a human rights obligation to protect social protection spending from imposed austerity measures. The obligation to protect human beings from hardship has precedence over debt obligations.

Beyond this, an international, solidarity-based financing mechanism for social protection is urgently required. In most countries, it is a matter of priorities to allocate resources for SPFs. But, there is the legal and moral obligation to support the few countries that cannot finance their social protection systems yet.

A Global Fund for Social Protection should be endowed with resources according to the financial capacity of states and disbursed according to social needs. Decisions regarding design and implementation have to be taken by the government of the recipient country, based on national dialogues with social partners and civil society.

The UN and its specialised agencies need to play a leading role in setting up and governing a Global Fund for Social Protection.

Social protection floors for all are affordable now. 0.05 percent of GDP of high-income countries or 1.4 percent of illicit financial flows would suffice to close the financial gaps.

Social protection is a key instrument for the successful implementation of Agenda 2030 and for confronting this pandemic and future crises.