Social Protection: A central component of Decent Work

Vision: Social protection for all

Social protection is one of the four pillars of ILO Decent Work Agenda. Social protection for the vulnerable and needy is key in reducing poverty. Since only around 10 per cent of Africa’s labour force, principally those in the formal economy, are covered by statutory social protection, the enhancement of the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all is one of the key strategic objectives of the ILO-SRO Addis Ababa and a main priority component of the Ouagadougou Plan of Action - [pdf, 55 KB] for promotion of employment and poverty alleviation.

Within the region, majority of men and women work in poor and hazardous conditions. Based on available data from various sources, the ILO estimates that every year, more than 2 million people die of work-related accidents and diseases while the overall annual number of occupational accidents is estimated at 270 million. In addition, more than 160 million workers fall ill each year as a result of workplace hazards. While annual rates of such injuries and diseases are declining slowly in most industrialized countries, they are on the increase in developing countries, where small enterprises and the informal economy account for over 90 per cent of workplaces. Working conditions in such workplaces are often very poor and most informal economy workers do not have any form of labour protection. This presents a major challenge or ILO’s work in Africa.

SRO national social protection strategies in the framework of DWCPs include interlinked plans for social security, labour protection, HIV-AIDS at the workplace and migration issues. Under this joint sectoral/regional strategy is to improve and extend social security schemes and to contribute to the Global Campaign to extend social security coverage. In the area of occupational safety and health all activities are guided by the Global Strategy adopted in 2003 and Convention No . 187, which promotes a systems approach and continuous improvement of national occupational safety and health performance as a collaborative effort of the government, employers and workers particularly through the formulation and implementation of national occupational safety and health programmes. The ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work remains the framework for activities concerning HIV/AIDS at all levels. Work in the area of migration is guided by the Plan of Action for Migrant Workers contained in the resolution on “A Fair Deal for Migrant Workers in the Global Economy” adopted by consensus by the 92nd session of the ILC in 2004.

The 11th ILO African Regional Meeting - [pdf, 126 KB] (Addis Ababa, April 2007) agreed on the following targets related to social protection:

• All African countries adopt coherent national social security strategies, including for the introduction or extension of a basic social security package that includes essential health care, maternity protection, child support for school-age children, disability protection and a minimum pension.
• All countries in Africa have national HIV/AIDS strategies to ensure that the Workplace contributes to the overall objective of achieving universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support.
• Three-quarters of all African member States develop programmes for the improvement of working conditions, with specific national targets for reducing non-compliance with laws concerning hours of work and minimum pay, the reduction of occupational accidents, diseases and days lost to illness and accidents per worker, and a progressive increase in the number of labour inspectors in relation to workers.
• Three-quarters of all African States have policies to ensure that migrant workers have regular, authorized status and are fully protected by the labour legislation of the host country and granted equal treatment and opportunities by 2015.
• Three-quarters of all African States adopt strategies to formalize the informal economy and extend protection to informal economy workers. Such strategies should integrate, among other things, policies for the increased registration of informal businesses, skills development, improved and safer working conditions, the extension of social protection coverage and the encouragement of freely chosen associations of informal economy workers and employers.

To achieve these ambitious targets, Africa needs to sensitize both the populations at large as well as policy makers at the highest levels through an energetic campaigns such as the annual World Day for Safety and Health at Work. Such a campaign can only take place within the context of the formulation and implementation of coherent national occupational safety and health (OSH) policy and programmes based on a systems approach as outlined in the ILO Global Strategy on OSH - [pdf, 1.59 MB] and mainstreamed in the decent work country programmes.