The
Social Protection Sector has the responsibility of leading
the actions to achieve the ILO's Strategic Objective
3: "Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social
protection for all". To achieve this strategic
objective, the Social Protection Sector is responsible for
implementing two Operational Objectives:
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Operational objective 3a: (Social security). Member States
broaden the scope and the instruments of social security
schemes (including the informal sector and the poor),
improve and diversify benefits, strengthen governance
and management, and develop policies to combat adverse
effects of social and economic insecurity.
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Operational objective 3b: (Labour protection). ILO constituents
target and take effective action to improve safety and
health conditions at work, with special attention to the
most hazardous conditions at the workplace.
In
addition to an extremely wide range of specific actions,
programmes and projects leaded by the Social Protection
Sector, a series of activities with the other Executives
Directions within the ILO are regularly undertaken, as well
as with other agencies of the UN system, Breton Woods Institutions,
specialized NGO's and the academic community worldwide.
In
leading the actions to achieve the ILO's Strategic Objective3,
the Social Protection Sector is supported by the field and
regional units of the ILO and follows the orientations and
priorities set by the ILO constituents for the different
regions.
Africa
The Social Protection Sector's attention in Africa will
increasingly be focused on the problem of HIV/AIDS. Africa
is the continent most affected by the pandemic. People affected
by HIV are often victims of all kinds of discrimination,
particularly in the workplace and in trying to access employment
opportunities. Moreover, the overwhelming consequences of
the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa have made action a priority
of governments and of workers' as well as of employers'
organizations.
Still
the Social Protection Sector will continue to address the
other ILO priorities under Strategic Objective 3. That will
take place in the context of an environment in which working
conditions, and the situation of the health and safety of
workers are precarious in most African countries, particularly
in the rural and urban informal sector. Most labour ministries
need to enhance its capacity to fulfil their basic functions
in the field of labour and social protection inspection
and the application of labour standards related to working
and employment conditions and social security. Furthermore,
social security schemes are limited to a minority of the
total labour force. Many of the necessary frameworks for
large-scale, institutional schemes are not in place in much
of Africa. The Social Protection Sector will therefore continue
to design, implement and permanently enhance initiatives
that seek to find ways to increase the coverage of social
security and to reduce socio-economic insecurity.
The
Americas
The Fourteenth American region Regional meeting in 1999
adopted the conclusions that "Decent Work and Protection
for all" should be a priority in the region. It also
drew on the evidence that a "second wave of reforms"
and economic integration are under way that involve an explicit
awareness of the human impacts of these efforts. This means
that the ILO as a whole and the Social Protection Sector
in particular evolve in dynamic political, economic and
social environments with a range of challenges, opportunities
and partners.
One
of the challenges of economic integration is how to ensure
that people have access to social protection schemes that
are effective and well managed. At present, a large percentage
of working people in the Americas face social and economic
insecurity and addressing this is a regional priority. The
Social Protection Sector directs its efforts to reduce socio-economic
insecurity, to enhance and extend social security and social
protection schemes, in particular to excluded groups and
to the rural and urban informal sectors, excluded groups-
including migrant workers- as well as to improve labour
inspection, occupational safety and health and working conditions
and the environment.
Arab
States
The low rate of ratification and application of standards
related to working, employment conditions and social protection
in the region reflects poor legislation and commitment in
this field. Social security coverage is limited and sometimes
non-existent. The expansion of the informal sector and the
increase in migrant labour and domestic workers in a number
of countries add an additional burden to weak social protection
schemes.
The
Social Protection Sector addresses the regional priorities
by building and enhancing capacity to support adoption of
International Labour Standards related to social protection.
Additionally, the Social Protection Sector will contribute
in the design and implementation of policies and programmes
that address occupational hazards, support for social security
reform and reduce socio-economic insecurity.
Asia
and the Pacific
The diversity of social protection schemes implies that
the Social Protection Sector's activities must vary across
Asia and the Pacific. In transition economies, the Social
Protection Sector focuses in the redesign of social security
schemes in face of changing government role. In other countries,
the Social Protection Sector will reinforce and revitalize
existing schemes with traditional and innovative measures
to widen coverage, in particular to small enterprises and
the informal sector. The Social Protection Sector addresses
also the needs of vulnerable groups, particularly migrant
workers in both, sending and receiving countries. Other
social protection priorities in Asia and the Pacific include
safety and health in the workplace as well as developing
effective strategies and policies to address the HIV/AIDS
dynamic development and its impact on the workplace and
on socio-economic insecurity.
Europe
and Central Asia
The social protection sector in Central and Eastern Europe
and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is first
characterized by the difficulties facing traditional social
security schemes which were not adapted to the new conditions
resulting from transition from centrally planned to market
economy. There is still a widespread lack of coherence and
cohesion in benefit systems, managerial and administrative
deficiencies and problems of financing. In many countries,
important decisions are about to be made concerning the
future directions to be followed by social security schemes.
The Social Protection Sector promotes the discussion of
available options as well as the commitments and costs involved
in each option amongst its constituents and the international
financial institutions.
The
Social Protection Sector also addresses the need of the
most vulnerable groups, which, in most cases, are single
parent households, the long-term unemployed, and workers
in small enterprises or in the informal sector, the elderly
and pensioners, and contributes to the design of integrated
poverty alleviation policies and strategies at the national
level. The Sector equally addresses the issues related to
social protection of migrant workers, who are in growing
numbers throughout the continent.
Governments
in Central and Eastern Europe have indicated interest in
assistance of the Social Protection Sector with improved
occupational safety and health policies, including harmonizing
legislative and practical safe work measures to foster safe
work. Assistance has also been requested for the reform
of social security schemes in collaboration with international
financial institutions and in compliance with ILO and Western
European standards in the social protection field.
A
major component of the future technical cooperation programme
of the Social Protection Sector in this region will concern
HIV/AIDS and the world of work, since the pandemic in the
Central and Eastern Europe is unfortunately likely to affect
a growing proportion of the work force.
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