Arab region builds social insurance capacities through new ILO training programme

AMMAN (ILO News) - The International Labour Organization (ILO), through its International Training Centre (ITC-ILO), has launched the first module of its Arab Region Capacity-building Programme on Social Insurance from 10 to 13 November 2025 in Amman, Jordan. The four-day training brought together delegations from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, the State of Palestine, Qatar and Syria. The participants represented a broad group of social protection stakeholders from ministries and other government institutions as well as from worker and employer organizations.

© ILO/ Nadia Bseiso

© ILO/ Nadia Bseiso

The capacity-building programme was supported by funding from the European Union, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the governments of the United Kingdom, Norway and the Netherlands, and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, enabling the ILO to support Arab countries to expand inclusive, financially sustainable and rights-based social protection systems that better serve both nationals and migrant workers.

Across the GCC and broader Arab region, countries are undertaking ambitious reforms to modernize their social insurance systems, expand coverage to diverse categories of workers, including migrant workers, and ensure financial sustainability amidst rapidly evolving labour markets. Despite this growing momentum, institutions face shared challenges: fragmented data systems, gaps in governance and administration, pressures on contribution collection mechanisms, demographic and fiscal shifts, increased labour migration, and the emergence of new forms of work that traditional systems were not designed to cover.

The ILO’s comprehensive regional capacity-building programme is designed to respond to these challenges by strengthening the institutional, technical and operational capacities of social protection authorities across the Arab region to implement and sustain meaningful reforms. In Amman, participants took part in the programme’s intensive 40-hour opening module on social insurance, focusing on the core principles of social protection, governance, financing, benefit design and alignment with international labour standards.

Specifically, the opening module introduced key building blocks of social insurance systems, including:

• the conceptual foundations and principles of social protection and the right to social security;
• assessments of coverage and adequacy gaps;
• sustainable financing models;
• the role of sound governance and administration;
• designing short-term and long-term benefits; and
• emerging reform challenges, particularly given increased labour migration in the Arab region.

“This initiative reflects the growing momentum across the Arab region to modernize social protection systems and expand inclusive social insurance for all workers,” said Ian Orton, Regional Social Protection Specialist for the Arab States. “The active engagement of participating delegations demonstrates their shared commitment to building resilient, financially sustainable and rights-based systems anchored in international labour standards.”

The module combined expert presentations, participatory exercises, knowledge exchange between countries and peer-to-peer learning, creating a highly interactive platform for dialogue among participating institutions. Through a final ideation lab, national delegations identified potential reform options to strengthen and broaden the coverage of social insurance systems and schemes. The training also fills a long-standing regional gap: a dedicated platform for peer learning and horizontal cooperation among Arab social insurance institutions. By bringing together delegations facing similar policy and administrative challenges, the training fosters a community of practice capable of generating home-grown solutions and accelerating regional convergence towards more resilient and equitable systems.

The training in Amman forms part of a multi-stage programme that will run until March 2026, encompassing:

1. An online programme on strengthening social insurance in the Arab States. This course aims to deepen technical capacities in emerging reform areas, including: pension reform and governance, digital transformation in social insurance and interoperability, resilience and continuity to ensure service delivery in challenging times, and the role of social dialogue and participation in the governance of social insurance. Expert coaches will support national delegations to apply this learning to their national contexts, in order to advance the potential reform options identified in Amman.
2. Advanced training on social insurance administration. This final component will concentrate on administrative excellence in the delivery of social insurance, data-driven management and governance. It will apply hands-on, practice-oriented learning rooted in real operational processes and service delivery.