News

Improving Social Protection in Azerbaijan

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

In recent years, oil revenues have opened new possibilities to the poor in Azerbaijan. Although according to official data the proportion of the population living under the poverty line has decreased from about 50% in 2001 to about 20% in 2007, a lot remains to be done in order to fight poverty. Since 2006, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population has decided to introduce targeted social assistance for the poorest. The Programme for social rehabilitation of low income families has been set-up by the Ministry with technical assistance from the European Union's EuropeAid Tacis Programme. This project is implemented by a consortium of three European organizations: Helsinki Consulting Group Ltd. (Finland), Emergences (a French non-profit association), and BBJ Consult AG (Germany). As an initial step, Emergences has arranged for officials to go to France in order to study the European experience in the field of social assistance mechanisms aiming at sustainable poverty reduction. Nowadays the pilot initiatives including Case management practices and close collaboration between public institutions and civil society organizations are tested in selected regions. Today, one may be rather optimistic about the latest developments: in general the financial resources are available in Azerbaijan, even though the coordination of all the social actions will be a major challenge.Andrei TretyakExpert in economic and social development- ?mergences

Maternity

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

training workshop in Turin

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

a training course is organized by the social security department in order to train the members of the department in using the GESS platform

MIN INFOSHEET ABOUT MICRO INSURANCE PROGRAMMES IN ASIA

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

A whole collection of two page long infosheets about different micro-insurance programmes in Asia has been added to the GIMI library. The briefs on the left of the infosheets describe the schemes - eligibility conditions, benefits, premiums and other key features - as well as their main achievements and the challenges ahead. The fact sheets on the right provide an overview of each scheme (starting date, ownership profile, target group, outreach etc.), operational mechanisms, scope and level of health benefits and activity indicators (number of insured, women's participation, number of surgeries performed etc.) as well as development plans.
Indian schemes:

Andhra Pradesh: Healing Fields Foundation
Gujarat: Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA)
Karnataka: Swayam Krishi Sangam Health Scheme and Yeshasvini Co-operative Farmers Health Scheme
Madhya Pradesh: EHA's Prerana Health Insurance Scheme
Orissa: PREM's Health Micro-Insurance Scheme
Tamil Nadu: Kadamalai Federation Health Insurance Scheme (DHAN Foundation) and Self Help Promotion For Health and Rural Development Insurance Programme

ILO applauds India's effort to increase social security coverage

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

At the Asia-Pacific Regional High-Level meeting on strategies to extend social security coverage organized by the ILO which took place on the 19th adn 20th May in New Delhi, the ILO has praised India's efforts to extend social security coverage through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the recent launching of various insurance schemes targeting the poorest segments of the population. These include for instance the health insuarnce scheme "Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana" (RSBY) which targets below poverty line workers of the informal sector and their families and aims to cover 300 people in five years.

Extension of social security to BPL workers. Rashtrya Swasthya Bima Yojana Planning Situation

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Within the framework of the new Minimal Social Security Programme targeting unorganized workers, the Government of India released the guidelines to the implementation of a new health insurance scheme called Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), encouraging various State Governments to implement it. The scheme targets in its first phase workers living below the poverty line and their families - about 300 million people. Responding positively, almost all State Governments in India are now committed to be part of this Central Government sponsored initiative, and 11 States have started preparing for the implementation process. This discussion paper, prepared under the Communities-Led Association for Social Security (CLASS) initiative, provides an overview of the main features of the health insurance scheme and its operational mechanisms, assesses its development potential in the various States and reviews the main opportunities and challenges faced by the scheme; especially in relation to efficient partnership arrangements, which may be seen as a key element for the successful implementation of any health insurance scheme targeting the poor.

Read the Rashtrya Swasthya Bima Yojana Planning Situation

Visit the RSBY website

New resource available about Ecuador's social security system

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:00:00 GMT

This paper is a diagnosis of Ecuador's social security system in view of the recent constitutional reforms the country has gone through. It is based on interviews, on field work and observations. More info...

New resource available about Bolivia's social security system

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:00:00 GMT

This paper presents an analysis of Bolivia's social security system, including health insurance issues. Despite recent reforms of the social security system, the country has not met its goals and coverage is still weak compared to the rest of the region. More info...

This new GESS homepage offers users a global view of the services at their disposal and fosters dynamic interactions for sharing their knowledge

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Mission to Bangalore 11, 12, 13 February 2008

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:00:00 GMT

The mission report is now available.

India: Extension of Social Security to BPL Workers - Rashtrya Swasthya Bima Yojana Planning Situation

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:00:00 GMT

The present document, prepared under CLASS initiative, provides an overview of the health insurance scheme main features and operational mechanisms, assesses its development potential in the various States and reviews the main opportunities and challenges, especially in relation to the efficient partnership arrangements that may be seen as a key element for the successful implementation of any health insurance scheme targeting the poor.

General Assembly of the UAM

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:00:00 GMT

The next general assembly of the African Union of Mutual Organizations will be held on 25 and 26 June in Rabat, Morocco. You will soon find in its website useful links, various documents to download and much more.

Symposium on "Strategic contracting in health systems"

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:00:00 GMT

This symposium was organized from 9 to 11 January in Geneva by WHO's Department of Health Systems Financing. More than 60 experts from 27 countries attended. The symposium provided an opportunity for the presentation and discussion of a large number of examples of cooperation and contracting between the supply of public care and the private sector: subcontracting of certain health services in Morocco, implementation of specific anti-tuberculosis programmes, role of the Church in Ghana, delegation of management of the subsidized health insurance system in Colombia to mutual health organizations, performance contracts in Mali, etc.It tried to find answers to key questions such as: Does contracting lead to privatization and the disengagement of the State? How to prevent regulation (of contractual practices) from being perceived by health actors as a straitjacket that inhibits initiatives?
See the pages about contracting on the WHO's website.

ILO discusses the future of social protection in Latin America

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:00:00 GMT

The International Labour Office in Geneva, through its Department of Social Security, the Regional Office in Lima and the ILO Subregional Office in Santiago, Chile, convened a regional tripartite meeting on "The future of social protection in Latin America". It brought together the representatives of Governments, employers and workers of 10 countries of the region, various international observers and experts to discuss various subjects relating to the future of social protection schemes, the progress of reform processes undertaken in a number of countries and future challenges. The meeting was held from 12 to 14 December 2007 and was addressed by Mr. Juan Somavia, the Director-General of ILO. The meeting analysed the reform processes, and new trends and experiences in the area of social security in the region and in Europe.The aim of the meeting was to lay the foundations for a medium and long-term plan of action for social security in the context of ILO's Decent Work Country Programmes and the Hemisphere Agenda adopted in Brasiliia in 2006. The meeting ended with a consensus on priorities to be included in social security policies and on the setting of a social floor to promote the extension of social security. For ILO this constitutes one of the essential elements in order to face the challenges of globalization and the decent work deficits in the region.
Visit meeting pages (in Spanish)

The actuarial methods and social security financing training programme (QUATRAIN - AMERICAS) has been launched with a pilot project in Chile

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:00:00 GMT

From November 2007 to May 2008, senior officials from the Chilean Ministry of Finance, the Pension Fund Administrators Supervisory Agency, the Estimates Standardization Institute (INP) and the Insurance and Values Supervisory Agency (SSV) are participating in an advanced course on quantitative methods applied to social security.The course is an initiative deriving from ILO's QUATRAIN AMERICAS project, in conjunction with the Ibero-American Social Security Organization (OISS), the ILO's International Training Centre and the Subregional Office in Santiago. It is aimed at developing competence in the areas of actuarial methods and social security financing. The modules are dealing with the following subjects:
-role, functions and responsibilities of actuaries in social security systems ;
-economic and financial aspects of social protection;
-financial mathematics applied to actuarial calculation;
-probability and statistics;demography;
-international actuarial practice.
The course comprises 180 hours of sessions and 130 hours of distance learning via an electronic platform. In the second half of 2008 the project will be extended to all countries in the Americas.

Over 400 million peasants joining China's rural cooperative medical scheme

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Health equity is an issue that worries China's public health policy makers. The country's spectacular economic growth has been accompanied by a "slow down of improvement in population health and a rise in health inequalities," said Tang Shenglan, health and policy advisor to WHO in Beijing. This, he said, was due to a rapid increase in health care costs (in a predominantly fee for service system), poor population coverage by health insurance (less than 40% of the urban population are insured), and no medical safety net. Out of pocket payments for health care have risen steadily over the past 25 years and now account for 54% of total health care expenditure. This has put health care beyond the reach of many and impoverished many more. The aim of China's new health reforms, which were launched last week, is to enhance equity and access to health care, particularly for vulnerable groups. Reforms undertaken four years ago to increase the proportion of health costs borne by local governments has already resulted in "over 400 million peasants joining China's rural cooperative medical scheme," Shenglan said. He also pointed to the need for greater emphasis on community based primary health care - a call which many repeated, during the conference.

HEALTH PROTECTION NEEDS ASSESMENT SURVEY IN SRI LANKA

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Sri Lanka is still home to a large group of population left without any kind of protection against social risks. Recognizing that microfinance could be used as an efficient tool to fight poverty, the country has already built over the last few years a unique development experience using various methodologies and approaches to reach poor communities, especially poor women. Many organizations dealing with microfinance activities have already expanded the scope of their interventions to other areas including insurance services. The need for an effective health protection mechanism clearly appears everywhere to be a top priority. The ILO has therefore conducted a health protection needs assessment survey to fully explore the possibility of developing a new innovative microfinance and micro-insurance approach.

CONFERENCE: ASSURING QUALITY HEALTH CARE THROUGH SOCIAL HEALTH PROTECTION: THE ROLE OF PURCHASING AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT: 31 October-2 November 2007, Kigali, Rwanda

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:00:00 GMT

The conference was organized by the GTZ-ILO-WHO Consortium on Social Health Protection in Developing Countries in conjunction with the Rwanda Ministry of Health. It is in the continuation of the Consortium's discussions and work undertaken at the 2005 Berlin Conference and the 2006 Manila Conference. The aim of the Kigali Conference was to inform the development of policies and strategies for achieving quality in health care within social health protection by gathering, sharing and systematising evidence and experiences of purchasing and quality management as well as their impacts on quality health care. It provided a platform to review country cases, discuss policies and various tools. The conference was structures in five blocks:
(1) Setting the scene: Social health protection and quality health care
(2) Social health protection for strong purchasers: Buying quality health care
(3) Social health protection and demand side strengthening to increase quality in health care
(4) The role of quality management in social health protection
(5) Policy issues and recommendationsEach thematic block started with plenary presentations and was followed by parallel sessions and small group workshops where country cases were discussed. The conference included speakers from all organizing institutions and from other organisations, such as public health and insurance organisations, international organisations, academic institutions, donor organisations, health mutual organisations and private corporations.

Improving Social Protection in Azerbaijan

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Although according to official data the proportion of the population living under the poverty line has decreased from about 50% in 2001 to about 20% in 2007, a lot remains to be done in order to fight poverty.The Programme for social rehabilitation of low income families has been set-up by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population with technical assistance from the European Union's EuropeAid Tacis Programme. This project is implemented by a consortium of three European organizations: Helsinki Consulting Group Ltd. (Finland), Emergences (a French non-profit association), and BBJ Consult AG (Germany). As an initial step, Emergences has arranged for officials to go to France in order to study the European experience in the field of social assistance mechanisms aiming at sustainable poverty reduction. Nowadays the pilot initiatives including Case management practices and close collaboration between public institutions and civil society organizations are tested in selected regions. Today, one may be rather optimistic about the latest developments: in general the financial resources are available in Azerbaijan, even though the coordination of all the social actions will be a major challenge.Andrei TretyakExpert in economic and social developmentemergences

Michael Cichon demonstrates the efficiency of the extension of social security in the fight against poverty

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:00:00 GMT

At the World Social Security Forum which recently took place in Moscow, Russian Federation, the Director of the Social Security Department of the ILO (International Labour Office) demonstrated that the extension of social security was an efficient way of fighting against poverty. After presenting supportive evidence from the European experiences, he deconstructed three socio-economic misconceptions, namely that "poorer countries cannot afford social security, that social security expenditure acts to undermine economic growth, and that the benefits of national economic growth are systematically shared by all." See complete article on ISSA website

Designing and Implementing Social Transfer Programmes

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:00:00 GMT

A course for policy-makers, government officials and practitioners around the world. From 16 to 29 September 2007 Cape-Town, South Africa. More info

ILO, ISSA and AIM explore a promising approach

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:00:00 GMT

ILO, ISSA and AIM have jointly produced an article providing a typology of linkages between statutory social security schemes and community-based social protection mechanisms. This article will be presented in September during the World Social Security Forum (29th ISSA General Assembly). It identifies five types of linkages: financial, operational/administrative, governance linkages, linkages in health service provision as well as policy planning linkages.
It is available on the World Social Security Forum website and in the GIMI/GESS Library in English, French and Spanish.

Social Security Inquiry database

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 22:00:00 GMT

The ILO Social Security Inquiry collects statistical data on social security around the world. This includes expenditure and receipts of social security schemes as well as data on protected persons, recipients of social benefits and benefit levels. The database is a valuable tool for specialists in social protection for national and international policy formulation and research. More info

World Social Security Forum Moscow, 10-15 September 2007

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 22:00:00 GMT

Putting you at the heart of the social security debate The first World Social Security Forum is a major event bringing together more than 1,000 ministers, policymakers, administrators and academics from around the world. The forum will take place in Moscow (Russian federation) from the 10th to the 15th of September.It is hosted by the Ministry of Health and Social Development and other ISSA member organizations of the Russian Federation. Comprising the 29th General Assembly of the International Social Security Association, the World Social Security Forum will provide an interactive platform for experts to discuss today's challenges and tomorrow's solutions to a range of crucial and topical issues, including:
-developments and trends: supporting dynamic social security
-good practice and emerging policy responses to combat child poverty
-successfully managing change
-options for financing health care the solutions to high unemployment rates
-strategies for developing more sustainable pension systems
-social security in the Russian FederationA highlight of the World Social Security Forum will be a high-level summit where social policy leaders and strategists will exchange views on the future of social security.more info

Adoption of Convention No. 188 Concerning Work in the Fishing Sector

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:00:00 GMT

There are approximately 15 million fishermen in the world. The profession is generally associated with difficult working and living conditions. Most often, fishermen do not benefit from the social services available to those working on land and are very often unable to lead normal family lives. Although much has been done to improve their situation, both nationally and internationally, over the last three or four decades, fishing still remains, and probably will always be, one of the hardest professions. The natural disadvantages and risks inherent in the work are one more reason to spare no efforts to ensure that fishermen enjoy the best possible conditions in terms of employment, and that the risks and uncertainties linked to their work are reduced to a minimum. See Convention no 188 See Recommendation no 199

HIUR SCHEME: Launch of a new HI scheme aiming at covering up to 300 million people

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:00:00 GMT

A Conference on piloting a HI scheme for urban economically inactive residents (HIUR) was presided by Premier Wen from 23 to 24 July 2007 in Beijing. This is a follow-up activity to the decision of the Central Government on developing such a new HI scheme announced in March 2007.
After the launch of the NRCMI in 2003, this is the sole group left with no State-organized HI cover. It is estimated that this group has as much as up to 300 million people (Ma Kai, 2007), being composed of four sub-groups, namely children, the elderly, the disabled and other economically inactive working-age persons. Another characteristic of this group is its large proportion being those from poor and low-income households. The Government attempts to extend the HI coverage to this last vulnerable group by the HIUR system and aim to achieve a wide coverage by 2010.
When the State Council announced its decision on the development of the HIUR in March 2007, it laid out a number of principles as follows: a), It will be jointly financed by contributions from the insured and fiscal subsidies from the Government; b), The focus of the protection will, in principle, be placed on severe diseases-related medical care, both outpatient and inpatient cares include, and all other hospitalization cares; c), Unlike the existing urban HI for enterprises? employees, no component of individual savings accounts is to be included.
At the Conference, the Premier drew some detailed guidance lines for piloting the HIUR in selected regions: a), Each locally-designed and run scheme should determines a sound financing level and a sound benefit package, which is consistent with the financing capacity of the targeted people in different regions as well as the subsidizing capacity of the local governments. The financing of each local scheme may start from a relatively low level, which can be increased gradually at the late stage following the development of local economies. One of the primary objectives is universal coverage. b), The participation in this scheme is voluntary, but the local governments should encourage their people to join it through incentive policies. c), A range of regulations on financing and accounting need to be set up to secure an efficient management of the inflow and outflow of the fund. d), Government?s subsidies are to be reinforced. The subsidy from the Central Government will be transferred in full and in time, which is mainly allocated to the Central and Western Regions. The subsidy from the local governments should be fully and timely transferred too.
Premier Wen the development of the HIUR should be put into the ongoing reform of the whole health system and in particular, should made best use of the introduction of a community-based primary health care-provider mechanism.
According to Vice Premier Wu, Head of the Inter-Ministry Committee for the HIUR of the State Council, pilot proposals from 79 cities have been approved and are to be launched before the end of September 2007. The Committee will conduct an assessment of the piloting schemes and propose an extension plan in the early 2008.
For more information, see news.xinhuanet.com

Things are happening at the Coordination network

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:00:00 GMT

The coordination network (called "La Concertation" in French) between actors involved in the development of mutual health organisations in Africa has launched a new Internet site www.concertation.org, which provides information, resources and initiatives for the African mutual benefit movement, as well as the opportunity to participate online in the continous inventory of mutual health organisations in Western and Central Africa."La Concertation" has also published the 17th Coordination Network Newsletter (available in French). This 17th edition addresses the importance of a legislative framework for the WAEMU. It discusses the strategic issues surrounding the mutual movement. It also annnounces the implementation of The African Union of Mutuals ("l'Union Africaine de la Mutualit?") and stays close to mutual experiences in the field through examples from Senegal and Togo.

Access to Social Protection and Health Care for All. Step in Africa

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:00:00 GMT

This 30 pages document describes the STEP Programme's activities in Africa in the field of extension of social protection. Available in English and French.