Join us for the official virtual solution session “Universal Social Protection for a Just, Sustainable and Inclusive Future- Financing, Implementation, and Intergenerational Solidarity”.
Date: November 4th, 2025, 3:00 to 4:30 pm, Qatar Time Virtual
Speakers
Moderator: Paul Ladd, former Head of UNRISD (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development) and currently Director of Sustainable Development for the UNECE Region.
Isabel Ortiz - Director Global social justice "Advancing Global Social Justice: Solutions to Tackle Inequality and Finance Universal, Inclusive Social Protection"Background and Rationale
UN Deputy Secretary-General or other high-level UN representative – Global leadership and multilateral commitments.
Mr. Lok Bahadur Thapa, Ambassador of Nepal to the UN - “Regional Leadership and Multilateral Support for Social Protection in LDCs”
Government Representative from Tanzania - “National Pathways to Achieving Universal Social Protection: Policy, Practice, and Political Commitment”
Christina Behrendt – ILO “The role of the ILO in advancing the implementation and monitoring of social protection systems, including floors"
Prof. Sony Pellissery, Professor at NSLIU, Bangalore - “Universal Social Protection in South Asia: Challenges, Innovations, and the Way Forward”
Gray Panthers - “Social Protection Across Generations: Dignity for Older Persons and Intergenerational Solidarity”
Beena Pallical – Co-Chair Global Forum on Communities Discriminated by Work and Descent (GFoD) - “Innovative and Ethical Financing: Towards a Global Fund for the Most Marginalized”
The Copenhagen Declaration affirmed the centrality of human rights compliance, poverty eradication, full employment and decent work and social inclusion as essential pillars of social development, and provided for springboard for the global agreements on social groups and the SDGS. Despite global recognition of social protection as a human right, coverage is not yet universal. Political will and financing mechanisms are major constraints.
Currently, only 52.4 % of the world’s population is covered by one social protection benefit, leaving 47.6 %—about 3.8 billion people unprotected (ILO, 2024). This coverage gap undermines poverty eradication, resilience building, and[1] the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where Social Protection is stipulated in target 3 of SDG1; ‘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’ ‘.IN the words of Rev 2 of the Political Declaration of the Second World Summit for Social Development ‘Despite significant global progress in gradually expanding social protection coverage, including social protection floors, over three billion people still lack access to any form of social protection, including more than 1 billion children’
Supporting political momentum
Political will and sustainable financing for social protection system building is undeniably a major constraint to achieving universal social protection. It is therefore to be welcomed that the Compromiso de Sevilla, adopted at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), reaffirmed the urgency of scaling up public investment in universal, nationally owned social protection systems. It called for progressive taxation, debt justice, and global financial architecture reform to ensure sustainable financing—critical to addressing the triple challenge of inequality, exclusion, and climate vulnerability.
The Pact for the Future, the Political Declaration of the 2025 High Level Political Forum and the 2nd revision of the Political Declaration of the Second World Social Summit of Social Development also affirmed the need for social protection to be expanded to universal coverage.
This solution session will build on that momentum, positioning Universal Social Protection systems and their foundation of Social Protection Floors (USPFs) not as a standalone technical goal for the Summit outcome and also but as the transformative pillar for climate resilience, gender equality, intergenerational solidarity, and inclusive economic recovery.
Objectives
Share national best practices and elevate political commitment to adopting and financing Universal Social Protection and push social protection floor by 2030 (USPF).
Show grassroots success stories of social protection that drive policy changeandhighlight the realities of marginalized groups through an intersectional approach and strengthen civil society advocacy for inclusive, rights-based social protection systems.
Promote sustainable and equitable financing through international solidarity, fair taxation, and global financial justice mechanisms.
Organiser: Government of United Republic of Tanzania
UN Organisations: International Labour Organization (ILO), Universal Social Protection 2030 Partnership (USP 2030)
Co-Organisers: Awaz Centre for Development Services, LDC Watch, Global Forum of communities Discriminated by Work and Decent (GFoD), African Platform for Social Protection (APSP), NGO Federation of Nepal (NFN), CIVICUS, Tax Justice Network, Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), Asia Dalit Rights Forum (ADRF), South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE), Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF), Pakistan Development Alliance, Global Social Justice (GSJ), Asia Development Alliance
