Transcript What is social protection?

The Right to
Social Protection
Course A402565 “Employment & Informal
Economy”
Ginette Forgues
Manager, Social protection Programme
International Training Centre of the ILO
Turin, Italy, March 23, 2010
What is social protection?
The vision in Year 2000
“Protection organised by society for its
members through a set of public
measures”*
The vision ten years later
See the staircase later in the presentation
____________________
*World Labour Report 2000 “ Income security and social protection in a changing world”
Social protection in the
ILO
• One of the four strategic objectives of
the Decent Work agenda
• ILO actively
- promotes social protection policies
- provides its members states with tools
and assistance aimed at improving &
expanding the coverage of social
protection to all
ILO Strategic
Objective
Enhance the coverage and
effectiveness of social protection
for all
Thematic components of
social protection in the
ILO
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Social Security
Safety and Health at Work
Working Conditions
International Labour Migration
HIV/AIDS
Why is social protection
important?
1) A human right - UN Declaration on
Human Rights, Declaration of
Philadelphia, ILO standards,
national constitutions, international
frameworks
2) Poverty alleviation & prevention
(MDGs) – i.e social transfers
Why is social protection
important?
3. Essential part of economic growth &
performance – Declaration on Social
Justice for a Fair Globalisation –
2008, response to the financial crisis
4. Income security - G8 statement
5. Solidarity, social justice , social
consensus
What is the global
situation?
 20% of world population = adequate
coverage
 50% + of world population = no coverage
 Less than 10% covered in least developed
countries
 20 to 60% covered in middle-income
countries
 Close to 100% covered in most
industrialised countries
Options to extend
coverage
• 1) Extending formal statutory schemes
• 2) Introducing community based social
protection schemes
• 3) Extending tax financed schemes
(conditional &unconditional transfers,
means-tested, universal)
• 4) Basic social services for all
The formal social
security component
1) Convention 102 is key instrument,
though there are other instruments
also
2) Nine contingencies
3) Social partners play a strong role in
the management of social security
funds
Nine contingencies in
C102
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•
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•
•
•
•
Health care/insurance
Sickness
Old age
Invalidity
Unemployment
Employment injury
Maternity
Family responsibilities
Death/survivors
Benefits
Maternity Sickness
Unemployment
benefits
Medical
care Employment
injury
benefits
Invalidity Pensions
Survivors
Family
allowances
Option 1: Enlarging
coverage by extending
formal schemes
Does everyone benefit from schemes developed
according to C102?
- No cross subsidisation for the non covered part
of population (i.e informal)
- Primarily designed for formal economy - reaches
that part of the population (employer-employee
contributions)
- Could be extended to informal economy via
premium subsidization, i.e. Ghana for its health
coverage
Who is excluded?
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Self-employed & informal economy
Workers in micro and small enterprises
Temporary workers
Domestic and home workers
Migrant workers
Agriculture, services, transport,
construction, etc
• Indigents
Option 2: Enlarging coverage
by creating schemes for the
informal economy
• Offers possibility for increasing financial
resource base, i.e. health care
• Offers a chance to empower demand side
• Some possibility to tax the informal
economy, a step towards formalisation
• Not a stand alone solution: requires links
to national agencies
The community social
protection schemes
Examples for access to health acre
• Pre-payments
• Cooperative social programmes
• Welfare Funds
• Traditional solidarity
• Community social protection
Who runs these
schemes?
• Associations, CBOs, NGOs, cooperatives,
health care providers, villages, trade
unions
• West Africa – “mutuelles” managed by
members, moving towards universal
coverage
• Asia – NGOs, health providers, etc
• Note: organised by private organisations,
with many variations in size, benefits &
approaches
What kind of schemes?
•
•
•
•
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Mainly access to health care
Also, life (i.e with micro-finance)
Assets
Combined schemes (i.e VimoSEWA)
+/- 90 million people access some
social protection via community
schemes
3) Enlarging coverage by
extending tax financed
schemes
• Can reach out to entire population
sub-groups
• Require basic logistical capacity
• Some level of social security can be
afforded by all
• Probably the biggest potential at the
moment
Cash/social transfers – some key
programmes
Type of cash transfers
Countries
Number
Unconditional
Househould income
support
Chile, China
Indonesia, Mozambique,Pakistan, Zambia
6
social pensions
Argentina, Bolivia, Bangladesh, Brazil,
Chile, Costa Rica,India, Lesotho, Namibia
Nepal, South Africa,Uruguay
12
Child/family benefits
Mozambique, South Africa
2
Cash for work
Argentina, Ethiopia,
India, Korea, Malawi,South Africa
6
Cash for Human
Development
Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador
Honduras, Jamaica,Mexico, Nicaragua
8
Conditional
Social Protection Floor
A new instrument based on access to social services:
health, education, food security, sanitation,
social security, income security, etc
1)
2)
Universal basic essential health care for all,
through a set of sub-systems linked together:
basically a public health service funded by
taxes, social and private insurance and microinsurance systems
Basic child benefits – family/child benefits
aimed at facilitating access to basic social
services – food security, nutrition, education,
housing
Social Protection Floor
3) Income support – access to social
assistance for the poor and the
unemployed in active age groups
4) Income security- for people in old
age, invalidity and survivors through
basic pensions
Objective of Social
Protection Floor
Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of
social protection for all
Does NOT replace C102 package but creates
a minimum floor on which a country can
build comprehensive social protection
Is the Floor
affordable?
The Social Security Dept of the ILO has
conducted 22 simulations of basic social
packages
Results
- Most countries can afford some elements
- Institutional, political and economic
environment need to be organised
- Capacity building increased to manage
adequately
Examples of studies
Africa – Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia,
Guinea, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania
Senegal – can reduce poverty by 40% with
old age, disability and child benefits
Tanzania – can reduce poverty by 9% with
universal old age pension
Examples of studies
Asia – Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan,
Vietnam
Latin America – study of 10 countries,
modest package of conditional cash
transfers, universal pensions and basic
health care can be kept under 5%, while
poverty can be reduced by 50%
The case of Nepal
Nepal an example
Gross Cost
In %
of GDP
Univeral pensions
Basic
health care
Social assistance
Child Benefit
Administration
0,8
1,5
0,6
1,4
0,4
Total cost
4,7
Potential Domestic Financing
4,1
Existing basic soc. Exp.
Increase taxes on goods and services (2.6% points)
Increase collection of income tax
Health Insurance contributions
1,4
1
0,2
1,5
Deficit
-0,6
net increase of
Tax to GDP ratio by 2.6%-point
from 14.1 to 16.7%
The productivity
argument
 Social Protection Floor can pay for itself
eventually with the productivity increases
it triggers
 If productivity increases due to basic
transfers, this would translate into an
increase of GDP, then transfers would pay
for themselves as tax revenues increase
with GDP levels
Other examples
o Universal pension schemes in Botswana,
Brazil, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, Nepal,
and South Africa cost between 0.2 and 2%
of GDP
o Pilot cash targeted transfer programme in
Zambia shows that scaling it to national
level costs 0.5% of GDP (GTZ study)
Success factors
1. Political will
2. National social protection policies and
strategies, integrating Social Protection
in broader economic development
frameworks & comprising sequential and
step by step approach with immediate,
medium term and long term benefits
3. Active role of social partners
4. Capacity building of main actors
The vision in Year 2010
1. Basic coverage for all, universal but
not necessarily uniform coverage
(accepting pluralism)
2. Overall responsibility rests with the
state but delivery can be shared w/
private sector and communities in
states
The Vision Year in 2010
3. Rights based – “Everyone has the right to
social security”, Article 22 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
4. Social outcomes in terms of adequate
benefit levels have to be reached,
independent of the type of organisation.
ILO conventions are important as global
safeguards and benefit benchmarks.
The vision in Year 2010
5. Good tripartite and financial
governance is essential – capacity
building increased with that
objective in mind
The social security staircase
Voluntary Insurance
Contributory Social Security
Semi-Contributory Social Security
Income and Food
Security
Children Benefit
Assistance
Unemployed & Poor
The Social Protection Floor
Access to Social Services
Health, Sanitation, Education
Income Security
Elderly & Disabled
Capacity building in
social protection
1) ITC-Turin OPEN courses on pensions,
social health insurance, employment
injury, good governance, financing social
security, extension of social protection
to excluded populations
2) Courses specifically designed for
projects, organisations and institutions
Some key conventions on
social security/protection
Which of your countries have ratified?
C102 – Convention on social security (minimum
standards
C121 – Employment injury
C128 – Invalidity, old age and survivors
C130 – Medical care
C168 – Employment promotion
C183 – Maternity protection
What is needed?
• Existing social security Conventions, and in
particular C. 102
– embody an internationally accepted
definition of social security,
– have substantial influence at
international, regional and national level
• But:
fall short of providing universal access to
defined basic and priority benefit package
What is coming?
• A new mechanism is being worked on :
– achieving universal access to defined
priority benefits to combat poverty as
fast as possible,
– as first step towards more
comprehensive social security as
defined by C. 102
Thank you!