Promoting and Building Social Protection and Employment Services for Vulnerable Groups (MAPS)

Project outcomes

• Greater awareness and interest to develop social protection floors and systems among ASEAN Member States.
• Endorsement of the Assessment Based National Dialogue’s recommendations on social protection and employment support by the Government of Mongolia.
• Adoption of concrete recommendations for the design of a national policy aimed at promoting employment, income security, and social protection for young people.
• Decision on concrete measures to extend old-age pension coverage to herders, self-employed and informal economy workers.
• Recommendations and steps towards the ratification of the ILO Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No.102).

Beneficiaries

Policy makers, managers and technical staff in Mongolia and ASEAN member States involved in the policy formulation discussions. Youth and elderly from Mongolia’s herder families and informal economy; people at all age, in particular among the vulnerable groups, in ASEAN countries.

Partners

• Ministry of Labour (MoL) of Mongolia
• Ministry of Population Development and Social Protection (MPDSP) of Mongolia
• Mongolian Employers’ Federation (MONEF)
• Confederation of Mongolian Trade Unions (CMTU)
• ASEAN Secretariat
• ASEAN Senior Labour Officials Meeting (SLOM)
• ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Social Welfare and Development (SOMSWD)
• ASEAN Trade Unions Council (ATUC)
• ASEAN Confederation of Employers (ACE)

Background

ASEAN member states have recognized social protection as one of the key priority areas to achieve growth with equity and “integration with a human face” by 2015. At country level, a number of ASEAN governments have already started designing and reforming their social security systems and employment services, including measures to provide protection to those who have lost their jobs. However, coverage provided by social insurance schemes very often remains limited to formal employment; hence innovative measures to tackle the needs of vulnerable workers are still needed.

In Mongolia, with its sustained growth rates, the government has measured the critical importance of strengthening social policies and establishing at least a social protection floor (SPF) to close development disparities. Mongolia has already in place a well ramified social security system, with a compulsory social insurance scheme, extended to herders, self-employed and informal workers on a voluntary basis. The country is also equipped with a mandatory social health insurance, a universal child allowance and a number of social welfare programmes, as well as recent policies to expand employment promotion and local development programmes. However, the administration and delivery of social security benefits and employment services across a very sparsely populated country is challenging, leaving more than 80 per cent of herders, self-employed and informal economy workers with insufficient income security.

The project supports the shared need among the ASEAN and Mongolia’s governments and social partners for further exploring, designing and implementing strategies and schemes that will increase access to income security and employment for vulnerable workers and their families. More specifically, the project contributes to the implementation of the recently adopted ASEAN Declaration to Strengthen Social Protection. In addition, by facilitating South-South knowledge sharing and cooperation, the project supports Mongolia's efforts to design social protection and employment promotion measures for young herders, and extension of old-age pension among vulnerable groups, as well as to improve policy coordination and integrated delivery of social services.

Events

Upcoming

• Defining a monitoring framework for measuring progress in extending social protection in ASEAN
• ILO-ASEAN tripartite seminar on the potential of social protection to prepare and respond to natural disasters, Philippines, 2016
• Pension reform in Mongolia
• National dialogue for the possible ratification of the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No.102)
• National workshop on improving income security of herders in Mongolia, an integrated approach, Ulaanbaatar, May 2016

Past

ASEAN

• Launch of the report on the state of social protection in ASEAN at the dawn of integration
• Tripartite Seminar for Enhancing Social Protection in an Integrated ASEAN Community, 23-24 November 2015, Jakarta, Indonesia
• Training Course on Designing and Implementing Unemployment Benefits Linking with Active Labour Market Policies, 19-28 October 2015, Malacca, Malaysia
• Executive course on designing and expanding universal pension systems in Asia and the Pacific, 9-13 February 2015, Bangkok, Thailand
• ASEAN Tripartite Seminar on Strengthening Social Protection, 17-18 November 2014, Bangkok, Thailand
• ASEAN-Mongolia Exchange Of Experiences In Implementing The Single Window Service
• ASEAN Trade Union Workshop for Strengthening Social Protection in ASEAN Community

Mongolia

• The Launch of the UN/Government report on Social protection assessment based national dialogue: Definition and cost of a social protection floor in Mongolia
• The national High level workshop on extension of old-age pension to herders and self employed
• The national technical workshop on the possible ratification of Social Security (minimum standards) Convention, 1952 (No.102)
• Assessing the cost of a Social Protection Floor in Mongolia: Introduction of Final Results and Draft Report
• National consultation on: Old age pension extension for Mongolian herders, self-employed and informal economy workers
• Launch of Project Promoting Social Protection and Employment Services for Vulnerable Groups in Mongolia
• Assessing the cost of a social protection floor in Mongolia: Methodology and preliminary results

For further information please contact:

Ms Celine Peyron Bista
Chief Technical Adviser
Tel.: +662 288 1740
Fax: +662 288 1023
Email: [email protected]