1. ITCILO Course A1-04027 Trade Union Training on Collective Bargaining for Union Leaders (Francophone & Anglophone Africa) 18 to 29 July 2011 Social Protection – a strategy for inclusive development

2. Overview This presentation focuses on four aspects: Africa’s key regional challenges; The right to social security and its role in social and economic development; The momentum for social security for all; The state of social security; The ILO’s response: The Social Protection Floor

3. Africa’s key regional challenges Poverty, unemployment, under-employment and hunger are daunting development challenges for many African countries. More 75% of workers in Sub-Saharan Africa are in vulnerable employment and over 85% of total employment is in the informal economy. Four out of five workers take home income is 2 US$ per day or less. Levels of deprivation remain high, affecting the speed of reducing poverty on a sustainable basis. The financial and productive asset base of the poor remains low.

4. Africa’s key regional challenges 21% of youth aged 15 to 24 are illiterate. High poverty, a low asset base and dependence on risky livelihoods mean that any attempts to build a better life are easily destroyed by a wide variety of serious shocks. Africa’s growth rate rebound after the crisis has not resulted in any meaningful poverty reduction and the creation of decent jobs. There is growing informality, which translates into high social security coverage gaps.

5. Africa’s key regional challenges Social security coverage and the range of social security benefits are highly limited. Less than 10% of the economically active population has access to social protection and less than one in 20 elderly receive an old age pension. Social security systems tend to be fragmented between different types of programmes. Most countries of the region lack protection against catastrophic health expenditure, a critical factor contributing to vulnerability and poverty. At the moment, there is no African country with a coherent national social security policies to guarantee universal coverage.

6. The right to social security Social security 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.” Article 25: …Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well being for himself and of his family... The ILO’s Declaration of Philadelphia charged the ILO with “...the extension of social security measures to provide a basic income to all in need of such protection and comprehensive medical care.” Even after almost 60 years that still remains a dream for 80% of the global population.

7. The right to social security Social security is a social necessity: 80% of people live in social insecurity, 20% in abject poverty. Economic growth does not automatically reduce poverty. Social security transfers are a powerful tool to reduce poverty and inequality – has reduced poverty by at least 50% in all OECD countries. Social security transfers are a powerful tool to achieve the MDGs. All socially and economically stable societies have extensive social security systems.

8. The right to social security Social security systems are an economic necessity: Economies cannot develop and grow without a productive workforce. In order to unlock a country’s full growth potential, one has to fight social exclusion, ignorance, lack of employment through social security benefits combined with active labour market & HRD policies. Access to social health protection and education improves productivity levels and has a positive impact on growth.

9. The right to social security The famous trade-off between efficiency and equity is a myth. Cash transfers in developing countries have multiplier effects on local markets. Social security benefits are widely recognised as social and economic stabilisers in terms of crisis. The social protection floor concept emphasizes a set of minimum social security guarantees for all including: -A minimum level of income for those in need, -Effective access to health care; and -Other social services.

10. The momentum for social protection The impetus in Africa: Renewed recognition by the ILO constituents of the importance of social protection as part of DWCP The 2004 Ouagadougou Declaration and Plan of Action; the 2006 Livingstone and Yaoundé Calls for Action; the 2008 African Union Social Policy Framework for Africa; 2009 Social Partners Forum on the GJP; 2010 the Social Ministers’ Khartoum Declaration on Social Policy Action Towards Social Inclusion; and 2010 Yaoundé Social Partners Forum on call for Social Protection Floor for all - are key milestones toward a pan-African consensus on the need and scope for social protection.

11. The state of social security Four major categorical challenges namely: The coverage challenge; The adequacy challenge; The financial and economic sustainability challenge; The deliverability challenge.

12. The coverage challenge

14. The sustainability challenges

15. Sustainability challenges

16. The deliverability challenge

17. The ILO response The objective of the ILO in social protection: Is the enhanced capacity of constituents, and particularly social security managers, to design sustainable social security schemes, and to manage and administer them more efficiently, with a view to the provision of better benefits and the extension of their coverage

18. The ILO response Key features which the ILO would seek to promote: Universal coverage of income security and health systems: all residents of a country should have gender- fair access to an adequate level of basic benefits that lead to income security and comprehensive medical care; Benefits and poverty protection as a right: entitlements to benefits should be specified in a precise manner so as to represent predictable rights of residents and/or contributors;

19. The ILO response Collective “Actuarial equivalent” of contributions and benefits levels; Sound financing: schemes should be financed in such a manner as to ensure to the furthest extent possible their long-term financial viability and sustainability; Responsibility for governance: the state should remain the ultimate guarantor of social security rights, while the financiers/contributors and beneficiaries should participate in the governance of schemes and programmes.

20. The ILO response Policy development: The pragmatic policy paradigm that is emerging from the policy development work recommends that countries which have not yet achieved universal or widespread coverage, should first aim to put in place a basic and modest set of social security guarantees, that could be called a social security floor, for all residents in a country. This includes: -Access to basic, essential health care; -Income security for children, facilitating access to nutrition, education and care; -Income security through basic pensions when old or disabled.

21. Emerging policy framework for the ILO campaign to extend social security to all: a staircase and a story of two dimensions Voluntary insurance Mandatory social insurance/social Security benefits of guaranteed levels for contributors THE FLOOR: Four essential guarantees: Access to essential health care for all Income security Assistance Income security children Unemployed Elderly & disabled & poor

22. The scope for increasing coverage to the population groups

23. The ILO response The evidence shows increasingly both that: Some level of social security can be afforded at early stages of national development. Social security systems remain affordable even when economies mature and populations age.

24. Costs for components of basic social protection package as a percentage of GDP for selected countries in Africa and Asia, 2010

25. Social Protection Floor A new approach providing a minimum set of guaranteed universal benefits based on access to social services: health, education, food security, sanitation, social security, income security and social transfers. A UN initiative adopted in 2009 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

26. Social Protection Floor 1.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 micro- insurance systems. 2.Basic child benefits – family/child benefits aimed at facilitating access to basic social services – food security, nutrition, education, housing, etc.

27. 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.

28. The Good News: growing fiscal space Increase of domestic public resources, selected African countries, 2002-2007 (percentage of GDP)

29. Social security for all Suggested principles for the campaign strategy: First:Basic coverage for all, universal but not necessarily uniform coverage Second:Overall responsibility rests with the government but delivery can be shared with private sector and communities except in failing states… Third: Rights based (“everyone has a right to social security,” Article 22 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Fourth:Accepting pluralism in organisation and financing Fifth:Good tripartite and financial governance

30. Thank you!