How to Expand Social Protection - Sustainably

Since the 2008 financial crisis, unemployment and inequality have crept up, at the same time that funding for social protection policies has been stretched thin. Vulnerable groups have borne the brunt, and drawn attention to the fragility of social protection – the array of schemes from child benefit to pensions aiming to mitigate risks across the human life cycle. Rethinking its funding and delivery is key to meeting the mantra of post-2015 development, ‘leave no-one behind’.

“The international community now recognises the importance of social protection as a cross-cutting way of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,” says Alicia Martin-Diaz, programme officer in DEVCO’s Employment, Social Inclusion and Migration unit. “International recognition is an important step. But there’s a long way to go in terms of implementation.”

Less than a third of the world population is adequately covered by social protection policies, and only 1% of the population in Sub Saharan Africa. Implementation in developing countries has often been haphazard, with limited coverage, high start-up costs and no economies of scale.

“Countries are now moving away from a panoply of small fragmented programmes mostly managed and funded by donors or implemented by NGOs in very small local contexts,” says Nicholas Taylor, former head of Social Inclusion and Employment in DEVCO B3 and co-author of a new concept paper on the subject. “[They are moving] into a very different framework where countries want to have this as part of national social policy.”

“Most countries, including the least developed countries in the world and the partner countries we’re working with, are developing national systems of social protection,” says Taylor. Designed for the often informal economies of developing countries, these often differ widely from European-style social protection systems. “Finding appropriate solutions is essential.”

With this in mind, the EC saw a need to raise awareness among development practitioners of the history, challenges, and potential models for social protection strategies. Their new concept paper traces the evolution of social security, from Bismarck and Beveridge (see below) to financial crisis-era Europe. It examines the existing frameworks for social protection systems and their funding, before outlining elements which should inform EU programming.

“Understanding the background helps us to understand the politics and practicalities of the world we’re faced with and the influences on governments trying to take forward national systems,” says Taylor. Tying in with the post-2015 agenda, Sustainable Development Goals and newly-launched EU Social Protection Systems Programme, “now is a good time to make sure we understand what we’re talking about.”

Read the full article in the "Voice & Views" section on Capacity4Dev, available here.