BACKGROUND

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

Social protection refers to a broad package of measures to prevent and reduce poverty, vulnerability and inequality. At present, 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 universalization of social protection systems around the world has become an urgent need. Moreover, social protection can also help to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets.

EU policy framework on social protection

While EU external documents have made a number of references to social protection, it does not have a coherent policy or strategy on the role of social protection in its development cooperation, or how it should be delivered. If the EU is to effectively fulfill its commitment to reducing poverty at a global scale, it is crucial that EU start developing a policy framework in which support for universal access to a social protection package be developed in a way that is appropriate to both country and context.

Given EU’s significant technical expertise gained through the implementation of a range of successful, context-specific approaches to social protection and being the largest donor in the world, it is in a good position to provide leadership and assistance in this area, and to facilitate cross-sectoral involvement.

EU ensuring access to social protection of more people worldwide is not an optional policy choice or a gesture of charity. It is an obligation that is enshrined in international human rights law (United General Assembly, 2009 Report), that anything less than universalization of social protection is disregard for poor people’s basic rights. Moreover, ensuring universal access to social protection is a sound economic decision. European countries have made investments in the last 60 years in measures which include social security. These enabled the poorest people to withstand shocks such as the global economic crisis. The EU can assist developing countries, in the same way, to provide their citizens with the same material security and sense of empowerment.

Key social protection mechanisms that can help reduce poverty and vulnerability and promote social and economic development are legislative measures that promote equality and social inclusion; social transfers; social insurance; social services; education and health for all; decent work; and access to financial services. The UN Social Protection Floor Initiative (SPF-I) can serve as a useful starting point in this regard. It comprises essential health care, family and child benefits, income support for the unemployed and poor in the active age group, old age pensions and disability grants. According to ILO calculations, this social protection floor is easily affordable: less than 2% of the global GDP would be necessary to provide this basic set of social guarantees to all of the world’s poor (ILO Social security Policy Briefings, paper 3, 2008). In order to contribute to this 2%, the EU must ensure social protection is part of the EU’s development cooperation strategy.

Social protection is affordable and has been proven a powerful instrument for poverty reduction and social cohesion. Particular to achieving the MDGs, social protection can help through:

• MDG 1-Nutrition: Regular and predictable income through cash transfers such as child benefit and old age pension to help those struggling with chronic poverty to sustain adequate levels of nutrition;
• MDG 2-Education: Social assistance to enable poor families to prioritise education and health spending, and help reduce the burden on children to augment family income, allowing them to attend school;
• MDG 3-Empowerment: Predictable minimum income to enable poor women and their families to plan for the future and make long-term investments, and empower them to renegotiate for favourable terms of trade or employment; and
• MDGs 4, 5 and 6-Health: Universal and equitable access to healthcare to enable the poorest people access to health services by increasing their ability to pay or reducing the cost of services’ delivery.

Role of civil society

The aim to achieve universalization of social protection worldwide will not progress, the way it has developed so far, in some countries without the active intervention and engagement of civil society and social partners at the local, national and international arenas. Civil society, however, has another crucial role to play at this historical juncture of the people’s struggle against poverty, hunger and unemployment that is, helping to strengthen a weakened people’s movement, equally, at a global scale.

Civil society and social partners have to continue working hand-in-hand with the poor and marginalized to help them understand that they (people) are not mere recipients of change but are central in making them. Hence, realize and exercise their collective economic and political strength. In the end, civil society should be able to, not only represent the people, but successfully push and enable the poor and marginalized to speak for themselves and lead the people’s movements at all arenas of struggle towards achieving universal access to social protection.

Recommendations

The EU has always regarded social investment – including investment in social protection – as fundamental to social cohesion and economic development. Without social protection measures, levels of poverty and inequality in OECD countries would be similar to those in developing countries.

The EU already recognizes the importance of social protection within the development process in several development cooperation policies and programmes. However, social protection must be a central component of EU development cooperation policy, with a clear strategy for implementation, if it is to achieve its goals with regard to poverty eradication and the MDGs.

An EU social protection policy would respond to requests from developing country governments for financial assistance and technical advice to implement and extend long-term social protection measures. The European Working Group on Social Protection and Decent Work in Development Cooperation calls on EU policy makers to listen to these requests and build on the progress made so far by making social protection a top priority in development cooperation policy. In order to do this, the EU should:

• Ensure greater coherence in external relations policies by developing a Communication on Social Protection in development cooperation which should be tied to a concrete, time-bound action plan with dedicated resources.
• The Communication should deliver a strategy to support the implementation of long-term and sustainable social protection systems in developing countries: the Communication should:
  • Reinforce the United Nation’s Social Protection Floor Initiative (SPF-I).
  • Capitalise on EU member states’ varying areas of expertise to provide more technical and financial support to developing country governments to implement and extend social protection systems.
  • Include social protection and decent work as focus sectors in more country and regional strategy papers by providing guidance for sector and budget support policy dialogue in this area. This will ensure that EU funds benefit the most marginalised people, including those living in chronic poverty and those working in the informal economy.
  • Ensure that social protection is a focus area in the post-2010 action plans of the EU-Africa strategy.
  • Devise mandatory training programmes for Commission staff, especially those in country delegations, on the role of social protection in reducing poverty and achieving decent work.

PROGRAMME:

Chair: Paul Graham Meadows (former EC Director General for Regional Policy)

PANEL:

from the European Commission: Francesca Mosca (Director, EuropeAid)
Sandeep Chachra (Country Director, Action Aid India)
Professor Koen de Feyter (Faculty of Law in Antwerp University)
Mr. Bart Verstraeten (World Solidarity Movement for the European Working Group on Social Protection)

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