Today, only 45% of the world’s population are covered by at least one social protection benefit, while the remaining 55% – 4 billion people – are left unprotected. Coverage remains particularly low for vulnerable groups such as children, women, persons with disabilities, workers in the informal economy and migrants
The new programme, Improving Synergies Between Social Protection and Public Finance Management, is a joint partnership between the European Union, the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF and will be mainly implemented in: Angola, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Nepal, Paraguay, Senegal, and Uganda.
The programme will contribute to increasing public investments in social protection by linking the efforts deployed by the EU and other international organisations in order to strengthen our partner countries’ public finance systems and capacities to increase domestic resources for social protection. The programme will promote better investment in social protection systems by creating a common roadmap and improving coordination between ministries of finance, technical ministries, social partners and civil society on social protection and public finance.
Social protection is a right not a privilege
Social protection is a human right and a major tool to tackle poverty and social exclusion, reduce inequalities, including gender inequalities, promote human development, increase productivity and employability and contribute to economic growth. States have an obligation, under international human rights treaties, to provide social protection to prevent people from falling into extreme poverty and to better manage risks across the life-cycle.
Social protection is a powerful socio-economic stabiliser upon which states can rely on to strengthen socio-economic conditions and people’s resilience in times of crisis and shocks. It is also a key tool to build political stability and to help communities cope with structural challenges.
The potential of social protection, being so important in combating poverty and addressing life-long risks, is increasingly gaining importance in international cooperation. COVID-19 and its socio-economic impact is proving that national social protection schemes are a necessity and not just a privilege for a selected group of high-income countries.
The programme is expected to make a significant contribution to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 1 on No poverty and 10 on Reducing inequalities, and the broader 2030 Agenda , including goals on gender equality, access to health, education, skills and decent jobs.
Find out more on the programme website and watch the programme launch event here.
Read about our wider work on social protection here.