ORGANISATION OF EASTERN CARIBBEAN STATES SECOND COUNCIL OF OECS MINISTERS FOR HUMAN AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 23 & 24 MARCH 2015 Presenter: David Popo, Head-OECS Commission-Social Development Unit Sandals Regency, La Toc Saint Lucia

OECS Social Protection Technical Committee (OSPTC) CONTEXT: Member States of the OECS recognize that social development and social protection should be an integral part of national development The establishment of the Council of Ministers for Human and Social Development and Technical Advisory Committee to serve as the sub-regional policy and legislative mechanism The Revised Treaty of Basseterre (Article 23) and the OECS Growth and Development Strategy and Action Plan provides a meaningful platform SP OECS Member States also recognize the need for an urgent and coherent response to social protection reform, There are comprehensive reform programmes initiated by Governments, Development Partners and the OECS Commission, within the Social Protection Landscape of the Eastern Caribbean Area Eastern Caribbean Development Partners Group on Poverty Reduction (ECDPG-PR) seeks to harmonize the efforts of all development partners

Joint Programme on Social Protection Focuses on equitable and integrated policies and legislation; evidence-based implementation; budgeting for the poorest and excluded; and inclusive education systems. Consider the partnership work on Multi- Dimensional Poverty Measurement Consider the World Bank Support to Social Protection and Poverty Work

OECS Social Protection Technical Committee The SPTC will be chaired annually by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Social Transformation of the respective Member States on a rotational basis. The OECS Commission will serve the role of Secretariat for the SPTC, which will be composed of two representatives from the Ministries primarily responsible for Social Protection (Social Transformation, Social Development or Social Care). Representation will be: Permanent Secretaries, Chief Technical Officers, Specialist of Development Partners integrally involved in the work of social protection and poverty reduction in the sub-region will participate as members of the Committee. The Working Group Secretariat will be housed in the Social Development Unit, with assistance from the Education Development Management Unit and the Economic Affairs Unit of the Commission.

Social protection floor for the poor and vulnerable groups; Legislative reform and policy development for social protection; Mainstreaming gender responsive and child sensitive programmes and policies; Harmonized data collection, analysis, management and utilization for evidence based decisions for integrated social protection systems; Rights based and equity approaches; Institutional development and capacity building; Learning and sharing of experiences; Budget and fiscal space analysis; and Monitoring and evaluation frameworks THEMATIC AREAS

FUNCTIONS OF THE SPTC 1. To facilitate development and coordination of technical expertise, support and assistance for the implementation of integrated social protection systems among Member States; 2. Advice on methods and avenues to strengthen the capacity of institutions for mainstreaming child sensitive, gender-responsive, equity and rights- based approaches;

FUNCTIONS OF THE SPTC 3. Facilitate the enactment and revision of model OECS social protection policies and legislation that redress socioeconomic inequity, and protect and promote the rights of men, women and children to a minimum standard of living; 4. Revision and adoption of an OECS framework that guides Member States Social Protection Policy and framework in order to facilitate the development of Member States National social safety net programmes;

5. To provide a forum for catalyzing financial, technical and material resources for the Social Protection Reform process, including Common Targeting Mechanisms, Management Information Systems, Central Beneficiary Registry, Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks ) 6. Establish linkages with the Multi-dimensional Poverty Measurement and the use of the Multi- dimensional poverty index for poverty, vulnerability and deprivations analysis; FUNCTIONS OF THE SPTC

7. Capacity strengthening on monitoring and evaluation for social protection systems, and improving on administrative data systems for social protection programmes 8. Identify new areas of focus and discuss new undertakings in social protection and promote and share good practice in national and regional approaches

FUNCTIONS OF THE SPTC 9. Introduce and implement fiscal space analysis for social protection floor in the member states in order to robustly estimate the budgetary room for investment in social protection policies and programmes; 10. Introduce and implement social budgeting approaches in Member States, in order to ensure that the financial resources necessary to fully implement and monitor social protection policies and programmes are earmarked in national budgets;

FUNCTIONS OF THE SPTC 11. Coordinate OECS Social Protection Agenda at the level of CARICOM; and 12. Advise on Social Protection issues within the context of Freedom of Movement of People in the OECS Economic Union.

Membership of the OECS Social Protection Technical Committee Permanent Secretary Ministry Social Transformation; OECS Commission (Secretariat); Civil Society Representative – Caribbean Policy Development Centre; Coordination Ministry: Ministry Social Transformation

Membership of the OECS Social Protection Technical Committee Representative of the Statistical Offices of the OECS Member States UN Agencies (ILO, UNICEF, UN Women, UNDP, FAO, UNESCO, UNFPA); Caribbean Development Bank; The World Bank;

Membership of the OECS Social Protection Technical Committee Inter-American Development Bank; European Union; Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); Department for International Development (DFID); United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Organization of American States (OAS)

The Council of Ministers is asked to approve the establishment of the OECS Social Protection Technical Committee (OSPTC)

THANK YOU!