Timor-Leste to extend its social security coverage to informal workers
The ILO supports the government of Timor-Leste strengthen its social security policies and programmes focusing on informal sector.
Representatives of senior managers and technicians from the Ministry of Solidarity and Social Inclusion, the National Institute of Social Security, other Ministries and Government institutions, social partners, municipalities, civil society representatives and professional associations and category gathered in Dili, Timor-Lest to participate in the ILO social security training. The training was also attended by the Minister of Social Solidarity and Inclusion of Timor-Leste, Verónica das Dores, the Vice Minister of Social Solidarity and Inclusion of Timor-Leste, Céu Brites and the Minister of Work, Solidarity and Social Security of Portugal, Ana Mendes Godinho.
The ILO social security training attended by relevant stakeholders. (c) ILO
Titled “How to Extend Social Security to Difficult Coverage Groups Through Formalization Policies”, this four-day training was conducted last July to strengthen diagnostic and analysis capabilities of these relevant stakeholders. The training was also aimed to define and implement policies and programmes for the extension of security social assistance to groups that were difficult to cover, with a focus on in the informal sector of the economy.
To date, in Timor-Leste only 30.6 percent of the population is covered by at least one cash benefit of social protection, leaving 69.4 percent of the population without any type of protection. Timor-Leste is currently below the effective coverage rate in Asia and the Pacific countries (44.1%).
Social security has been widely recognized as a fundamental human right and an essential component of economic and social development. However, this right remains unrealized for the vast majority of the world's population."
Rita Fernandes, ILO’s Senior Social Protection Technical Officer
Rita Fernandes, ILO’s Senior Social Protection Technical Officer, explained that social security has been widely recognized as a fundamental human right and an essential component of economic and social development. However, this right remains unrealized for the vast majority of the world's population.
Although countries in Asia and the Pacific have experienced advances in coverage of social Security in the last decades, important gaps remain, particularly in terms of the extension of population coverage with groups completely excluded from social security or with very low coverage such as rural workers, self-employed workers, microenterprise workers, migrants and domestic workers, among others.
The training concluded with the recommendations to extend social security coverage to facilitate the transition to the formal economy. The support of the ILO was given through the ACTION/Portugal Project which had designed and conducted this training opportunity for institutions and social partners from the PALOP and Timor-Leste.
