GCSPF e-Newsletter # 56 - July 2021 - ILC & HRC

The GCSPF took the floor at the International Labor Conference (ILC) to call for the creation of a solidarity based Global Fund for Social Protection; to pool funds while supporting countries design and implement national social protection floors. A Global Fund is the adequate multilateral initiative needed to respond to the consequences of Covid-19 and to build a better future.
As an institution of global governance, the Fund would help pull together efforts and decrease the fragmentation of aid, leading to a consolidation of existing financing mechanisms and enabling domestic financing over the long term. Read more

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) annual ILC has concluded with the adoption of a strong and coherent response to the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A key opportunity to press forward this agenda will be through the convening of a major international policy forum, with other multilateral institutions.
The demand for universal social protection was reinforced in the resolution on social security. Important elements in that resolution include: the leading role of the ILO in the international system concerning social protection; social protection as a critical factor for recovery and resilience against future crises; the need for greater international solidarity in funding social protection and the engagement of the ILO in initiating and establishing a Global Social Protection Fund; and coverage of all workers in the formal and informal sectors, and increased action to formalise informal work. Read more

At the ILC, PSI has underlined the urgent need for a complete reshaping of the rules of the global economy, with a recovery based on rebuilding quality public services and workers rights. Read more

Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
On Saturday, June 19th, the ILC, the highest body within the ILO, voted to call on the ILO to develop concrete proposals for establishing a Global Fund for Social Protection. It’s a historic breakthrough for 55 per cent of the world's population – 4 billion people – who are still deprived of any form of social protection. Read more

The Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors submitted a written statement to the 47th regular session, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) (21 June to 9 July 2021) that considered the report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights on “The Global Fund for Social Protection: International Solidarity in the Service of Poverty Eradication”. The video is here. Read more

Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said a Global Fund for Social Protection should be set up to increase the level of support to low-income countries, thus helping them to both establish and maintain social protection floors in the form of legal entitlements, and to improve the resilience of social protection systems against shocks. Such a Fund was affordable. The video is here. Read more

Countries must prepare for future crises by setting up a Global Fund for Social Protection, a new international financing mechanism that will help protect their populations from the next pandemic, says a new report presented today by Olivier De Schutter, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on poverty, before the Human Rights Council. Read more

ATD Fourth World speaks out in favor of the creation of a global fund for social protection.
The International Movement ATD Fourth World strongly supports this initiative because it could bring about significant changes in countries or regions where poverty seems to be inexorably increasing. Read more

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the World Council of Churches (WCC), ACT Alliance and their partners worldwide submitted an oral statement to express that they are deeply concerned by the ongoing increase in extreme poverty, hunger and human suffering and the lack of most basic protection of impoverished communities, especially in low income countries. Read more