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Social Protection Sector
Implementation report 2000-2001
Strategic Objective No. 3: Enhance the coverage and
effectiveness of social protection for all
Operational
Objective 3d:
Scope of social security programs
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Indicator
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Target
and Outcome
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3d.1.
The number of member States initiating actions to
improve the financial architecture and governance
of their national social protection schemes and systems
following ILO intervention.
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Target:
10 member States
Outcome:
20
Poland
and Ukraine: social budgeting units have been
established as a permanent means of governance.
Lao
People’s Democratic Republic, Turkey and Viet
Nam: sound financing principles for new social
security schemes adopted.
Belarus,
Luxembourg and Cyprus: the International
Financial and Actuarial Service informed the public
debate on the future of its pension system;
Bahamas:
a new health care financing option was developed
and endorsed by the government;
Tonga,
Zimbabwe, South Africa, Jordan, Bahamas, Barbados,
Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Montserrat, Saint Lucia,
Saint Kitts and Nevis: Legislative changes/new
legislation on financing social protection were introduced
or are being processed following ILO intervention
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3d.2.
The number of member States that adopt reforms of
their official social security schemes to extend coverage.
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Target:
5 member States
Outcome:
10
Cape
Verde, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic,
United Republic of Tanzania, Turkey and Viet
Nam: reforms have been adopted.
Sierra
Leone: New social security schemes have been approved
and legislation enacted to provide social security
to previously excluded people in Sierra Leone.
Thailand,
Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria : Proposals to
extend the range of social security benefits or to
improve coverage have been approved
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Strategies,
Results and Lessons Learned
The
modest target for the first indicator under this operational
objective was easily met, which relates to member States
“initiating actions” regarding better financing and improved
governance of existing schemes and systems. This is well
below the actual number of member States in which the Office
is at work on these issues and is explained by a relatively
narrow emphasis on financial architecture issues only. For
the next biennium, while the wording of the indicator will
be unchanged, results under this indicator will encompass
work by the Office related to both financial and administrative
governance.
During
the biennium it was recognized that two separate strategies
had developed. Headquarters was focused more on questions
related to the extension of coverage and financing, with
special emphasis on Europe, while the Regions, and notably
the MDTs, devoted more efforts to the consolidation of and
improvements in existing social security schemes.
Informing
the pension debate in Luxembourg
In
April 2000, the Government of Luxembourg requested neutral
technical advice from the ILO on the financial status
of its national pension system. Based on a comprehensive
long-term demographic, economic and financial modelling
exercise, the ILO team advised the government that the
scheme would be financially sound under agreed economic
assumptions for at least 30 more years. In addition, the
scheme could afford some improvements. However, the analysis
also revealed that the scheme’s viability depended on
a sustained influx of foreign labour. The work of tripartite
consultative committee alongside the ILO team created
the base for unanimous acceptance of the technical results.
The report is now the factual basis for the deliberations
of the national round table on pensions.
Future,
better-coordinated action in this area is expected to be
facilitated by three factors. The first is the Resolution
of the International Labour Conference at its 89th
Session (June 2001) concerning social security that provides
clear guidance on priority fields for future ILO intervention.
The second is the significant progress made in completing
and disseminating the tools and instruments required for
quantitative analysis of social protection systems. The
third is the commitment of field and headquarters units
of the Office to increase attention to local capacity building
and knowledge transfer, which should lead to more efficient
ILO interventions. Country focused actions already conducted
in this area, notably in Eastern Europe, have already shown
promising results.
As
the second indicator under this operational objective (“The
number of member States that adopt reforms of their official
social security schemes to extend coverage”) overlapped
with indicator 3c.1, both are integrated for 2002-03. Achievements
under the existing indicator were almost double a fairly
limited target, with most of the results generated in Africa
and Southeast Asia. These results drew on technical expertise
provided through field and headquarters units. The work
in progress is responding to opportunities for social security
reform in a wider range of countries. Consistent with the
direction of the Resolution of the International Labour
Conference (89th Session) concerning social security,
future strategies will draw increasingly on cooperation
with the International Social Security Association and other
agencies. They will include efforts to gain support from
the IMF and the World Bank.
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