Making social protection fit for the future
At an Infopoint organized by the European Commission, Valérie Schmitt, Deputy Director of ILO’s Social Protection Department, welcomed the new EU-funded flagship programme which aims to increase social protection coverage in eight priority countries.
The European Union (EU) has launched a EUR 23 million thematic flagship programme which aims to broaden universal social protection coverage by finding synergies between social protection and public finance management.
Universal social protection ensures that anyone who needs social protection can access it at any time. This includes child benefits, pensions for older persons and benefits for people of working age in case of maternity, disability, work injury or for those without jobs.
The project is financed by the EU and implemented jointly by the ILO, UNICEF and the Global Coalition for social protection floors. It seeks to enhance policy coherence in the design and financing of social protection and increase political recognition of its potential and value. This approach should eventually increase the longer-term resilience of beneficiaries to shocks. The project will focus on eight priority countries.
At an Infopoint organized by the European Commission, Valérie Schmitt, Deputy Director of ILO’s Social Protection Department, welcomed this new thematic flagship programme and presented the lessons learned from the Global Social Protection week.
Today, four billion people still live without protection against life’s most serious risks like sickness or unemployment. “We learned that closing the social protection gap is merely a matter of political will,” she said. China has achieved universal coverage for health and pensions in less than ten years. Mexico has extended coverage to 8.5 million pensioners in less than one year.
Coverage gaps are often linked to a significant underinvestment in social protection. Countries need to increase domestic resources for social protection by finding fiscal space, and by extending contributory coverage to workers in the informal economy and rural populations.
“Social protection needs to adapt to the evolving needs of people, facilitate labour mobility and protect workers and enterprises during challenges linked to the future of work,” she concluded.
Universal social protection ensures that anyone who needs social protection can access it at any time. This includes child benefits, pensions for older persons and benefits for people of working age in case of maternity, disability, work injury or for those without jobs.
The project is financed by the EU and implemented jointly by the ILO, UNICEF and the Global Coalition for social protection floors. It seeks to enhance policy coherence in the design and financing of social protection and increase political recognition of its potential and value. This approach should eventually increase the longer-term resilience of beneficiaries to shocks. The project will focus on eight priority countries.
At an Infopoint organized by the European Commission, Valérie Schmitt, Deputy Director of ILO’s Social Protection Department, welcomed this new thematic flagship programme and presented the lessons learned from the Global Social Protection week.
Today, four billion people still live without protection against life’s most serious risks like sickness or unemployment. “We learned that closing the social protection gap is merely a matter of political will,” she said. China has achieved universal coverage for health and pensions in less than ten years. Mexico has extended coverage to 8.5 million pensioners in less than one year.
Coverage gaps are often linked to a significant underinvestment in social protection. Countries need to increase domestic resources for social protection by finding fiscal space, and by extending contributory coverage to workers in the informal economy and rural populations.
“Social protection needs to adapt to the evolving needs of people, facilitate labour mobility and protect workers and enterprises during challenges linked to the future of work,” she concluded.