REPORT during the AEPF-8 and side events in Brussels, October 2010

By Network for Transformative Social Protection
31 October 2010

One of the major AEPF campaigns that had space at the AEPF-8 for exchanges among Asian and European civil society groups and with ASEM and European decision-makers on realities, analyses, and proposals is the campaign to Reclaim People’s Dignity or campaign for transformative social protection.

Transformative social protection takes on the expanded definition of social protection as a human right – not needs-based charity, but rights-based social justice that allows people to move out of poverty and deprivation, discrimination and abuse, as well as power imbalances, into an adequate life with dignity, equality, and freedom. It requires legislation, financial commitment, and accountability from the government and it puts emphasis on the people as central in the planning, implementation, and monitoring of these programmes. More than the realisation of economic entitlements, the campaign aims to strengthen social movements and help especially the poor realise collective economic and political strength from concrete gains, transforming them into active agents of social change through their exercise of power.

In the long term, the campaign – through the people’s forums – aims for an alternative regionalism where: basic public services are affordable and access to them is universal, people and planet come first before profit, social inequality is eradicated, and the countries and regions reclaim their sovereign right to set social redistributive policies and measures towards a more egalitarian society. It advances alternatives that challenge neo-liberal logic, and erects in its place a humanist logic of solidarity.

The Network for Transformative Social Protection (NTSP), formed in 2009 to pursue the Reclaim People’s Dignity Campaign, specifically demands job guarantee, universal health care, adequate food especially for the children, universal social insurance including pension for old age, humane housing, and access to water and electricity for all.

A number of activities on social protection were conducted during AEPF-8 and in the side events. These were: workshop on decent work, decent living for all (October 2); dialogue with the European Commission (October 4); seminar on right to the city during the open space day (October 3); side event on transformative projects (October 6); and the roundtable discussion on social protection (October 7).

AEPF-8, while looking at the culpability and accountability of corporate powers in the interlocking crises – financial, food, energy, and ecological – also highlighted the urgent social protection demands of the people especially the poor and marginalised. It stepped up the discourse and initial actions that began in AEPF-7 in 2008 where discussions on analyses and initial proposals to the financial and economic crises took center-stage. The urgent demands then – and around which concrete proposals how to realise these are being formulated – were on decent work for all and access to livelihoods, adequate food, and universal access to basic social/essential services especially health, housing, water, and even electricity – social protection programmes that are elements of life of dignity.

Representatives from grassroots peoples’ organisations (e.g. urban poor, fisher folk, women, and formal and informal workers), NGOs, activist scholars, and parliamentarians actively took part in the workshops and seminars, sharing their own experiences and analyses in addressing the chronic poverty, especially in Asia, and exchanging proposals such as on urgent and transformative social protection measures. The policy dialogue and roundtable discussion were also well attended by key representatives from the European Commission and by European and Asian parliamentarians who engaged in lively exchanges with representatives of Asian and European social movements.

Highlights of AEPF-8 activities on social protection

1. Workshop on decent work, decent living for all. First part of the workshop tackled decent work-decent life aspects with case presentations on decent wages and on short-term contracting, while the second part tackled workers’ rights and social protection as basic entitlements of every individual, not as needs-based charity. Problems and major issues were raised, and alternatives and people’s struggles in addressing these were also shared in the workshop. That the rights of the workers is placed at the core of the relationship between Asia and Europe and that the workers’ voice and message become an integral part of common views expressed by Asian and European leaders were also highlighted in the workshop.

2. Policy dialogue on social protection. EuropeAid Cooperation Director Francesca Mosca, civil society representatives from Asia and Europe Sandeep Chachra and Bart Verstraeten, a human rights and law professor in Belgium Koen de Feyter, an Indonesian Representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (Rafendi Djamin, and member of Malaysian Parliament Tian Chua were among the speakers in this lively dialogue that was chaired by former European Commission Director General of DG Regional Policy and now a Special Advisor to European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Paul Graham Meadows. The need for the European Commission and the European Union to have clear programs that will prioritise social protection through its development cooperation program was stressed at the dialogue. Key issues or items that also came up from the exchanges included: establish social protection as primarily a government responsibility; clear representations of civil society in structures in pressing for changes; need for further research towards developing more concrete proposals for the States to implement; and create a programme to identify priorities according to urgency.

3. Open space event: Seminar on right to the city. The event brought together scholar activists  and grassroots and movement leaders  with ongoing struggles for shelter and social justice. The presentations went far beyond housing rights and linked the struggle to space in the city to the resistance against neo-liberalism. The different case presentations (Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand) showed that crises accelerate urbanisation, urban migration, and uneven development. The urban poor need to realise their right to the city, where there are greater opportunities to have a humane and dignified life. It was stressed that many cities such as in France and in Southeast Asia are in turmoil, with increasing numbers of people living in precarious condition, social exclusion, and disempowerment. Thus, the need for political power and wealth redistribution was emphasised. Some proposals were also presented including a rights-based approach to urban development and social inclusion and stronger and continuing popular movement, highlighting that there is still no substitute to the strength of people’s organisations. The seminar was co-organised by the NTSP with the Philippine campaign network Life of Dignity for All and other networks in Southeast Asia, with the support of Comite Catholique Contre la Faim et pour le Developpement

4. Seminar: Acting for the transformation of our societies. This whole-day seminar organised by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation-Brussels Office in cooperation with the Network for Transformative Social Protection presented five transformative projects: Banco del Sur (Latin America), alternatives to current mobility sector and ideology (Europe), Basic Income Grant in Namibia (Southern Africa), National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India (South Asia), and the Reclaim People’s Dignity Campaign in Philippines and Southeast Asia. The seminar, which aimed at exchanging and analysing experiences with transformative projects in the field of financial, economic, and social policies, highlighted the commonality of our problems and presented a wide variety of solutions. These solutions aim at realising transformative impact including changing the current power relations to widen room to maneuvre for further progressive steps. A lively discussion among known scholar activists, community, sectoral, and movement leaders, and progressive parliamentarians followed every presentation.

5. Roundtable discussion on social protection at the European Parliament. This event involving a number of AEPF-8 participants was hosted by Greens/EFA MEP Ska Keller and was organised by the European Working Group on Social Protection in cooperation with the Network for Transformative Social Protection, primarily to highlight the importance of social protection programmes as well as impact of lack of social protection on people’s lives. Four Asian representatives from AEPF (Philippines on healthcare, Malaysia on 90-days maternity leave , Indonesia on wage and social security, and Thailand on universal pension for the elderly), three of whom were members of NTSP, gave testimonies on the need for urgent action to be taken by governments especially by European decision-makers to implement social protection programmes for all. Among the parliamentarians present were Veronique de Keyser (S&D) from Europe who opened the discussion, and Rep. Tian Chua and Sen. Ramakrishan Suppiah from Malaysia. A representative from ILO’s Brussels office also gave a presentation and stressed the need for EU to realise the decent work agenda through operational support for this, such as in the country strategy papers.

AEPF-8 contributed in broadening and strengthening the inter-regional campaign on transformative social protection. Through the various activities at the people’s forum, greater linkages were built and spaces were maximised for awareness-raising on the people’s issues, struggles, and proposals not only among Asian groups, but also between Asian and European organisations especially with the European Working Group on Social Protection and Decent Work Campaign Network. It also provided spaces for civil society groups to bring urgent demands and proposals for transformative social protection to leaders of ASEM, and opened engagements with key institutions such as the European Commission and the European Parliament. A proposal that was raised in the discussions – the global social protection floor – also caught the attention of many and is one of the AEPF-8 recommendations to be studied by ASEM, according to the ASEM-8 Chair’s statement.

Overall, the gains from AEPF-8 were not only in terms of networking and exposure of issues and platform, but more importantly in terms of enriching the discourse and agenda and opening engagements with institutions like EC and EU that play a major role in ASEM and in charting the course of development strategies not only in Europe, but also in many countries in Asia.

Background on the Campaign

The Reclaim People’s Dignity campaign is an inter-regional campaign that pursues transformative social protection as a human rights and democratic response to the chronic multiple interlocking crises. The need for this campaign came up from the caucus of representatives of poor people’s groups at AEPF-7 last October 2008 which reflected on the impact of the global financial crisis on the poor and marginalised and discussed analysis and proposals to address it. In early 2009, the AEPF International Organising Committee adopted the campaign and by latter part of the year, the Network for Transformative Social Protection was formed by key progressive social movement groups including activist scholars and parliamentarians especially in Southeast Asia in order to work together towards realisation of life of dignity for all, pursuing transformative social protection as a step towards this. The Network asserts the universalisation and immediate realisation of basic and fundamental human rights that are essential in living a life of dignity, and engages decision-makers and institutions at the local, national, regional, and interregional levels. Among these institutions are ASEAN, ASEM, EU, and EC, where discussions and policies shape, if not directly influence, the policies at the national level.

By early 2010, key social movements in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia had already begun to review existing government programmes and have come up with alternative proposals that can be presented to local, national, and regional bodies.

Rationale for taking up social protection at AEPF-8

Recent ILO figures cited even by the European Commission show that more and more are becoming poor, with 80 percent of the workforce in Asia already in the informal sector.

So far, only 20% of the world’s population has adequate social security coverage, and more than half lack the coverage. Moreover, globalisation and the recent global financial crisis have also fostered a race to the bottom of existing social protection coverage systems, e.g. among governments seeking foreign direct investments. Companies around the world try to cut costs and circumvent their social protection obligations by using all kinds of atypical forms of employment, e.g. short-term employment. This puts millions of workers in a precarious and insecure work situation that could push 200 million people worldwide into poverty and extreme poverty. The protection, establishment, expansion, and universalisation of social protection systems around the world have become an urgent need. Moreover, social protection can also help achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets.

Even among international agencies, donors, governments, and civil society organisations, there has been growing recognition that reducing poverty and promoting social and economic development should be achieved through social protection.

Likewise, the campaign network will participate/engage in people’s forums that address the above institutions not only to establish or broaden linkages, but also as venues to further promote the campaign for life of dignity.

The Network for Transformative Social Protection together with other networks brought to public attention during AEPF-8 the need for social protection for Asia's poor – the world's biggest number living in extreme poverty – so that they may live a life of dignity, especially in the context of continuing economic crisis and chronic poverty. AEPF-8 also provided an opportunity to expose this critical situation and present urgent demands and alternative proposals to the governments through dialogues with key ASEM officials and representatives of European Commission and European Parliament.