ILO launches Global Report on Social Protection, WSM was there

The International Labor Organization (ILO) officially launched its Global Report on Social Protection 2017-2019 on 30 November. 71% of the world's population, according to the report, has still no access to proper social protection. Africa is lagging far behind, with more than 82% of the population having no form of social protection. WSM, together with the European Commission, employers and employees, shared its findings on the report and analysis on the world's social protection level during its official presentation in Brussels on 30 November 2017.

Three years after the first Global Report on Social Protection, the ILO draws up a second state of affairs on social protection in the world. Although several countries have taken important steps in the political field, by strengthening their social protection policy and by implementing ILO Recommendation 202 on Social Protection floors, progress is still slow. Since the first Report in 2014, the number of people without access to social protection has only dropped by 2%, from 73 to 71%. Hence, if we want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, which include social protection for everyone (SDG 1.3.), then we will have to take serious steps forward.


This slow progress, according to the report, is mainly due to a lack of investment in social protection. In Africa, Asia and the Arab world, less than 5% of the Gross National Product is spent on social protection. In comparison, almost all European countries are above 15%. But even in countries where social protection is a reality, it does not come free. The financial crisis and the logic of making short-term cuts that resulted from it led many countries to cut into social protection. A wrong strategy, according to the ILO, which has a negative impact on the socio-economic development of countries in the longer term.

In addition to these general trends, the report maps, country by country and on the basis of a lot of data, which social protection people enjoy (or do not) during the different phases of their lives: from children, over the people of active age to retirees. While many countries have made great efforts to guarantee a minimum pension (almost 70% of the world's elderly have a pension today), there remain major challenges to also give children and the population of active age access to social protection. Only 41% of the mothers have maternity protection, only 28% of the disabled can fall back on a benefit. For the unemployed, this figure is 20%.

The way forward?
For WSM, the way forward is clear: if we want to provide the 71% of the world's population access to social protection, then we have to look and listen to organizations that already focus on these groups today:

• health insurance funds organize people around solidarity health insurance, 
• initiatives from the social economy ensure that their members can earn an income, 
• unions organize employees who are in precarious work situations and guarantee their access to social protection. 
• Trade unions and other social movements organize employees and workers from the informal economy - in Africa about 90% of the population! - and seek ways to give them access to social protection.

The future of social protection depends on the will of governments to structurally involve these social organizations in the development, implementation and follow-up of the national social protection policy. They can ensure that the existing systems of social protection are adapted to the reality of people in the informal economy.

The Sustainable Development Goals are clear: if we want to achieve them, then there is a need for a renewed global partnership (SDG 17). Well, our social movements are ready to take on this challenge because nobody should be left behind!