Programmes & Projects

ILO technical cooperation activities are guided by the mandate of the Social Protection Department formulated in outcome 4 of the ILO’s Programme and Budget: More people have access to better-managed and more gender-equitable social security benefits. This is operationalized through the ILO’s two dimensional social security extension strategy. It is the means through which the Department provides support to member States. At country level, the Social Protection Department provides support at each step of the process related to planning and implementing national social protection strategies, including, depending on the national context and request received from constituents, through the following activities:

Awareness Raising: The ILO offers and updates periodically promotional material related to the extension of social security. It organizes conferences, seminars and workshops at global, regional and national levels to inform constituents and the public at large about the importance of social protection in general and about various technical aspects in particular.

National Dialogue and Consensus Building: The ILO facilitates national dialogue processes to assist countries in reaching consensus regarding their national priorities and measures to be taken to formulate and implement their national social protection strategies.

Policy design and Social Protection Strategy development: The development and dissemination of cutting edge knowledge on the design, administration, financing, management and monitoring of social security schemes is of crucial importance both as a direct service to countries working on reforming their social security systems as well as to inform the ILO technical advisory services. The ILO conducts research on various aspects of the design and implementation of social security systems, benefitting from being able to draw lessons from first-hand experiences in 183 member-states around the world.

Strengthening national capacities: The sound governance of a social security system is complex and requires skills in different domains including public administration, financial management, statistics, social work, law, health, labour markets, social dialogue, etc. The ILO trains staff from the development community as well as staff working in national social security administrations and institutions to build up the necessary expertise for an effective and efficient implementation of social security systems. The ILO, in collaboration with partner universities and through its International Training Centre at Turin offers a wide range of training courses in all areas related to the planning and implementation, the sound financial management and good governance of social protection systems. This includes Master courses in actuarial sciences and social policy financing, specific training courses on social protection issues as well as tailor-made courses.

Advice on implementation issues: The ILO supports countries in building up efficient and effective implementation structures, including building institutions for the sound administration, financial management and delivery of social protection benefits.

Support in the monitoring and evaluation: The ILO supports countries to monitor progress in implementing social protection systems and achieving other objectives of national social security extension strategies, including through tripartite participation and consultation with other relevant and representative organizations of persons concerned.

Public finance, actuarial and statistical services: The ILO supports governments in assessing existing social protection systems, identifying gaps in coverage (including with respect to the social protection floor guarantees), estimating the costs and simulating the impact on poverty and inequality reduction of closing the gaps and identifying the related possible sources of financing. The ILO develops and maintains a global statistical knowledge base and provides support to countries to collect and analyze data through the development of methodological tools and technical assistance

Legal analysis and advice: The ILO provides assistance to member States in the assessment of the compliance of their national legislation and practice with the ILO’s social security standards.

Following the recent adoption by the ILC of the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), the ILO provides technical assistance through the above activities to member States also on the design and implementation of national social protection floor policies.