Outcome of the ITUC-FES-WSM Financing of social protection seminar

 At the international level, there has been renewed and increasing commitment to extend social protection in recent years, most notably through the adoption of ILO Recommendation 202 (National Social Protection Floors) and Recommendation 204 (Transitioning from the Informal to the Formal Economy). The Agenda 2030 further strengthens this international commitment with references to social protection in 5 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).

However, the question of how such extensions to social protection should be financed and who should finance them has been relatively under addressed within international debates. It was within this context that the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and World Solidarity (WSM), decided to host a Global Conference on Financing Social Protection on 17-18 September 2018 in Brussels. The conference brought together over 100 participants from trade unions, civil society, academia, think tanks, international organisations and governments from across the world to identify the challenges to financing social protection and to explore the solutions available both at the national and the international level.

You can find the final report of this Global Conference here – it contains a whole number of very interesting insights as well as important recommendations for our future work on the issue of financing national, comprehensive and largely supported social protection policies. These recommendations can be further debated within the network on the right to social protection: we are convinced that with your feedback, your own experiences and suggestions they can be further enriched. Finally, when and where relevant, you are encouraged to use the findings and recommendations of the report in  much of the advocacy work of the network at national, continental and international level.

Here are some of the highlights which may prove useful for our joint work in the network:

• Overall, participants highlighted that financing social protection is economically feasible in the vast majority of countries, and that there are a range of options at governments’ disposal to create fiscal space for comprehensive social protection systems. Financing social protection is, therefore, a question of political will (pp. 2-5).
• Participants emphasised that expanding coverage of social protection systems to people who are left out, including informal economy workers and people living in rural areas, is imperative from a legal point of view - social protection is a human right – and from a moral point of view – we shall leave no one behind (pp. 5-8).
• Finally, the conference underlined the importance of strategic alliances for campaigning and negotiating for social protection reforms, in particular between unions, civil society organisations, and academics/think tanks. Such partnerships are crucial in order to generate political momentum for reforms, to demand recognition for the specific role that these organisations should play in the development, implementation and monitoring of social protection policies and can also serve to strengthen the evidence base for advocacy work (pp. 10-14).
• There is also a growing consensus on the need for a combination of different funding sources to achieve sustainable financing, both social contributions and taxes are needed.
• While much attention is being paid internationally to "cash transfers", the participants in the conference acknowledged that more attention should be paid to social insurance, an important solidarity mechanism between workers and their employers. It also ensures participation and ownership for those who contribute. These social insurances offer opportunities to get workers in the informal economy on their way to formalising their status.
• With regard to taxation or fiscal policy, the conference acknowledged that it should be fair, progressive and therefore redistributive; everyone must contribute in relation to his / her available resources (proportionality). Tax evasion and avoidance, tax havens and other shadowy constructions that jeopardise the sustainable financing of fully fledged social protection must therefore end.

Obviously, we also draw lessons from this Global Conference and we would like to share these points of attention:

• All countries in the world can in principle finance some form of social protection, but there is a continuing need for international solidarity to support countries with fewer resources in this endeavour. A "global solidarity fund" could offer relief, but there is still a lot of thought to be given to the conditions and modalities of such a fund. This requires more analysis and discussion, within the network but also together with other networks such as ITUC.
• What funding is also given to trade unions and civil society organisations to continue to play their role in the expansion of social protection (pioneer, service provider, facilitator, watchdog)? The European Commission has in any case announced that it wants to provide space for civil society in a new action programme. The “Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors” (GCSPF), of which WSM has been a member since 2016, would be asked to assume that role. We will soon be able update you on this matter.
• Despite the growing policy consensus between large international organisations about the need for sustainable financing, the different organisations continue to have their own specific focus in the field. And the focus is often on cash transfers rather than on a fully fledged combination of multiple financing mechanisms. This requires more and sustained advocacy work on our part.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone again who has contributed to the success of this global conference through their participation, exchange of ideas and networking on the ground. The expertise that WSM and the thematic network on the right to social protection have built up over the last 10 years has been valued during this conference. A special thank you to all the colleagues who have also actively contributed to one of the many panels; no fewer than 5 organisations came to share their experiences and expertise, including AMUSSOL / CASC (Dominican Republic), CNTB (Burkina Faso), CLC (Cambodia), KSBSI (Indonesia) and GEFONT (Nepal).