Transcript Social Protection Floor Initiative

The Social Protection Floor
Initiative
A decision of the
UN System Chief Executives Board (CEB)
in response to the
global financial and economic crisis
Isabel Ortiz, Gaspar Fajth and Jennifer Yablonski, UNICEF
Social Development Advisors Network meeting
New York, 8 January 2010
Session Objectives
I.
Rationale
II. What is the Social Protection Floor
Initiative?
III. Feasibility
IV. Potential Impacts
V. Next steps - Discussion
I. Rationale: social and economic
necessity
Social Justice Arguments
Unacceptable levels of poverty and inequality
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Half of the world lives below the $2-a-day poverty line
The poorest 50% of the world’s adult population receives 1%
of global wealth (UN WIDER, 2006)
Social protection is a human right:

Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
states: “Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to
social security”
=> But 80% of global population remains without access
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Article 25 including the right to health and well being
including food , clothing, housing and medical care and
necessary social services …special care and assistance in
case of motherhood and childhood…
Article 26 - universal right to education
But Also Strong Economic Arguments

Raising productivity

Inequality is economically inefficient / dysfunctional
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World problem of overproduction and global excess capacity in
the context of weak effective demand
Consumption concentrated in top income deciles
Raising the incomes of the poor increases domestic demand and,
in turn, encourages growth by expanding domestic markets
A Social Protection Floor can be an effective instrument to:
 Boost economic growth by raising domestic demand /
internal markets

Enhance human capital and productive employment - a
better educated, healthy and well nourished workforce.
… and Political Arguments

A Global Social Floor can be effective to
prevent conflict and create politically stable
societies
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Poverty and gross inequities tend to generate
intense social tensions and violent conflict

Other crisis: riots, violent xenophobia

The huge disparities in income inequality
encourage uncontrolled migration
Sri Lanka
Switzerland
Bangladesh
Norway
Nigeria
Netherlands
Mexico
Spain
Belgium
Kenya
Argentina
Portugal
France
United Kingdom
Indonesia
Israel
Egypt
Lithuania
Czech Republic
Slovenia
Poland
Peru
Chile
Canada
Sweden
Germany
India
Finland
Russia
South Africa
Taiwan
Philippines
Austria
China,P.R.:Hong Kong
Japan
United States
Malaysia
Singapore
Australia
Turkey
Korea
Tanzania
Vietnam
Honduras
Hungary
China
Fiscal Stimulus Plans Q4 2008-Q4 2009, %GDP
14.00
12.00
10.00
8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00
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As an average, 25% of stimulus plans spent on social support
(UNDP, 2009)
Mostly in high and middle income economies - what happens with
lower income countries?
1929 Crisis led to the New Deal
• Bank reforms

• Social Security Act (1935)
•
Universal old-age pensions
• Unemployment insurance
• Social assistance for poor families
• Employment programs (public works),
collective bargaining, minimum wages
• Farm/rural programs
2009-10: The Crisis as an Opportunity: Scaling
up Social Protection
 Social protection counter-cyclical
 Increasing incomes
 Raising domestic demand/expanding internal markets
 Social Protection reduces poverty FASTER => MDGs
II. A UN System Emergency
response to the crisis: The Social
Protection Floor (SPF) Initiative
l
On April 2009, the UN Chief Executives Board
(CEB) has agreed on nine joint initiatives to
confront the crisis, accelerate recovery and pave
the way for a fairer and more sustainable
globalization:
1. Additional financing for the most vulnerable
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Food Security
Trade
A Green Economy Initiative
A Global Jobs Pact
A Social Protection Floor
Humanitarian, Security and Social Stability
Technology and Innovation
Monitoring and Analysis
II. What is the SPF initiative?
.. As agreed in the concept note and the CEB
issues paper
Promotes a holistic and coherent vision of national social
protection systems as a key component of national development
strategies and seeks to
 Support countries in identifying and closing crucial protection
gaps through coherent and efficient measures that maximize the
effects of scarce resources on the reduction of poverty and
insecurity, through
 Concerted actions of UN agencies, national governments and,
stakeholders as well donor agencies in order to
 Alleviate the negative social impact of the crisis and increase the
resilience of societies against the impact of future crises through
the implementation of automatic social and economic stabilisers.

II. What is the SPF initiative?
The SPF Initiative aims at joint action to promote
access to essential services and social transfers for the
poor and vulnerable. It includes:
1. A basic set of essential social transfers, in cash
and in kind, to provide a minimum income and
livelihood security for poor and vulnerable populations
and to facilitate access to essential services, such as
health care
2. Geographical and financial access to essential
services, such as health, water and sanitation,
education, and other social services
II. What is the SPF initiative? …a
unique matrix of supply and demand
Means to ensure
availability of:
Rights and
transfers to
guarantee access
for:
Children
People in active age
groups with insufficient
income from work
Older persons and
people with disabilities
(e.g.pensions)
Health services
Water and
sanitation
Housing
Education
Food
Other social
services as
defined by
national
priorities
(including life
and asset saving
information…
II. SPF initiative: Who
participates?
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The Initiative will be owned by national stakeholders,
including governments (ministries of labour, health,
finance, agriculture …), social partners and national
NGOs, etc. with support of …
UN agencies such as ILO, WHO, FAO, IMF, OHCHR,
UN Regional Commissions, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNDESA,
UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNHABITAT, UNHCR,
UNODC, UNRWA, WFP, WMO, other international
organizations such as World Bank and Regional
Development Banks, and bilateral donors, and
International NGOs
III. SPF Initiative Feasibility:
Affordability
A Simulation exercise by ILO - Assumptions:
Basic
old age and invalidity pensions:
– 30% of per capita GDP capped at US$ 1 PPP per day
Child benefits:
– 15% of per capita GDP capped at US$ 0.50 PPP, for a max. of
two children in age bracket 0-14
Essential health care:
– based on a health system staffing ratio of 300 medical
professionals per 100,000 population, overhead 67% of staff cost
…
Basic social assistance for the unemployed:
– 100 day guaranteed employment paid at 30% of per capita daily
GDP to 10% of the population
Administration cost:
15% of cash benefit expenditure
III. SPF Initiative Feasibility:
Affordability
Cost of Old-Age Universal Pensions
($1 day) in 100 countries
Source: UN DESA, 2007: World Economic and Social Survey 2007, United Nations
III. SPF Initiative Feasibility:
Fiscal Space was growing
Sub-Saharan African countries increased on average
domestic revenue from 15% to 19% of GDP between 1997
and 2006
…and after Monterrey domestic resources increased
(source OECD and ECA)…

Projected Deterioration in Fiscal
Balance, 2007-09
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
-8
Latin America and
Caribbean
East Asia and Pacific
Sub-Saharan Africa
South Asia
Middle East and
North Africa
Europe and Central
Asia
Source: Prospects for the Global Economy database (June 2009), World Bank.
Counter-cyclical spending needed to provide social
support and ensure a recovery with a human face
III. SPF Initiative Feasibility: Cash Transfers
Schemes in Developing Countries - Covering 200
Million People
TYPE OF TRANSFERS
COUNTRIES
Unconditional
Household Income
Support
Chile, China, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zambia
Social Pensions
Argentina, Bolivia, Bangladesh, Brazil,
Bostwana, Chile, Costa Rica, India, Lesotho,
Mauritius, Moldova, Namibia, Nepal, Samoa,
South Africa, Tajikistan, Uruguay, Vietnam
Child/Family Benefits
Mozambique, South Africa, Mongolia, Senegal
Conditional
Cash for Work
Argentina, Ethiopía, India, South Korea, Malawi,
Rwanda, South Africa
Cash for Human
Development
Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia,
Ecuador, Honduras, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya,
México, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Phillipines,
Tanzania
III. SPF Initiative Feasibility:
Preliminary results of ILO Meta Study
on transfers in Developing Countries
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Number of countries in study: 28 - 8 in Africa, 9 in
Asia, 11 in Latin America
Number of studies: 80 studies during 1999 and
2008
Number of programmes: 63
Estimated number of total beneficiaries (primary
and secondary , at the end of 2008): between 150
and 200 million people
Expenditure starts at less than 0.5% of GDP…
III. SPF-I Feasibility: Emerging
comprehensive SPF
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Uruguay (El plan de Equidad)
Chile (La red de proteccion social)
Brazil
China
IV. SPF-I: Potential Impacts
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A basic package of modest pensions and child
benefits can reduce the poverty head count by 40
per cent in poor developing countries at a cost of 3-4
per cent of GDP.
In Latin America the cost of a modest package of
conditional child cash transfers, universal pensions
and basic health care can be kept under 5% of GDP;
the poverty headcount effects can reach a reduction
of more than 50%
South Africa Social Transfers Effective to
Reduce Poverty and Destitution – Cost 3% GDP
Source: Sampson, M. 2006, EFPRI South Africa
=> Social Transfers can make the difference between achieving
MDG1 of halving poverty by 2015 or not
IV. SPF initiative: Simulated Impacts
of basic package of pensions & child
benefits - Results of ILO Meta study
Criteria
Number of studies
that found Effect
positive
Effect
small/neut.
Effect
negative
Poverty/Vulnerability
Poverty
Inequality
46
5
9
1
-
Health/nutrition
25
1
-
Education
Enrolment
Quality
30
9
5
-
Labour Market Participation
9
5
3
Child labour
12
3
-
Prod. Investments/act’s
40
5
-
Social Status/bonds
23
1
2
Gender
13
4
-
IV. Child-sensitive social protection
impacts on achieving other MDGs also..
Nutrition
Health
Water and sanitation
Child
protection
Social Policy
Education
Social Protection 
Social
welfar
e
Source: UNICEF
IV. Potential impacts on achieving
other MDGs also..
For example:
• Increases in use of preventative health measures, e.g.
routine child check-ups, pre-post natal care – Mexico,
Peru, Honduras, Nicaragua, Columbia
• In review of 10 conditional and unconditional transfer
programmes, 7 out of 10 programmes show positive
impacts on stunting
• In families receiving South African pension, children
have 5cm greater growth on average
(Yablonski & O’Donnell 2009)
IV. Potential impacts on achieving
other MDGs also.. including protection
during crisis
Food security in Mchinji, Malawi – projected food stores (Miller et
al. 2008)
V. Next Steps - Implementation
of the SPF Initiative
 No best solutions or ‘one-size-fits-all’ formulas
 Each country has different social needs, development
objectives and fiscal capacity to achieve them, and
will choose a different set of policies
 We can learn from countries of the South who have
already successfully taken measures to introduce
elements of national social protection floors
V.
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Next Steps
National level: setting up of national SPF task forces
composed by representatives of governments, social
partners and other stakeholders, and supported by UN
SPF country teams, supported - if requested - by the UN
country reps:

to raise awareness ;
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to prepare diagnostics and assessments;
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to propose a country specific approach to the social floor;

to identify alternatives and make concrete proposals and to monitor
and evaluate the results
Integration into national, regional and global planning
process is fundamental, SPF country activities will not
build parallel structures. It should seek policy coherence
with United Nations Development Assistance Framework
(UNDAF), Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), and
the WB Rapid Social Policy Response.
To Conclude

The time to make a difference is now…
If the crisis can leave behind a broad-based
consensus that people in the global economy and
the global society have a right to a basic level of
social protection and that this is feasible, the
crisis has not been wasted.
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Urgent need for a recovery with a human face
Discussion
Does the SPF provide a new and useful
framework for an integrated approach to
realising social and economic rights?

What opportunities do you see for concretely
moving the initiative forward?

Thank you