DAKAR - Regional and national launches of the ILO Global Campaign, like the events held recently in Senegal and Mozambique, are intended to provide a platform for governments, and employers' and workers' organizations to make progress on the extension of social security.
"Social protection represents today a major challenge with regard to the choices to be made in the field of societal construction," said Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal, at the Dakar launch of the Global Campaign in West Africa. Speaking to government officials and representatives of trade unions and employers' groups, Mr. Assan Diop, Executive Director of the ILO Social Protection Sector added, "In our African societies, affected by numerous ills of different nature, we cannot build a sustainable economic and social development without a strong and inclusive social security policy."
President Wade also highlighted the need to improve public awareness regarding social protection. He noted that the ILO started this campaign in order to sensitize a wide variety of stakeholders, including the general public, on the tremendous challenge of extending social security to millions of Africans, as well as its potential benefits for national development and the reduction of poverty.
Participants at the launch for Portuguese-speaking countries, in Maputo, noted that social security coverage is so low in Africa because existing systems only include salaried workers, mainly working in the public sector, on a continent where most families rely on the informal economy for their incomes.
The launch coincided with the implementation phase of the ILO PROSOCIAL technical cooperation programme which, through training and new information technology, is introducing legal mechanisms designed to support social security policy and action.
"Everyone should have access to social security," stated Joaquim Chissano, President of Mozambique. "Our Government believes that social security is an asset rather than a liability; it is a way of helping to create a more equal society," he added.
Despite a lack of formal protection systems in Africa, ILO experience shows that even the poorest are willing to contribute some of their income to social security schemes; for example, microinsurance systems. "The problem of low coverage should be tackled with inclusive strategies on a community basis," said Mr. Diop in Maputo.
The Global Campaign on Social Security and Coverage for All, was launched in Geneva in June 2003, at the ILO annual International Labour Conference. Senegal and Mozambique have shown the way forward in francophone and lusophone Africa, both regions characterized by poor coverage and high informal employment. And now, similar launches are planned for Congo and Nigeria, where events will emphasize social security as an important tool in the fight against poverty.
The extension of social security will be high on the agenda of the African Union Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government on Employment and Poverty Alleviation in Africa, scheduled for September 2004, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.