INSP!R Asia speaks out regarding the Global Accelerator in the Asian Pathfinder countries

INSP!R Asia intervened today on the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions, during its 4th online Steering Group Meeting.

We took the initiative with our own resources to organize Asian Pathfinder meetings regarding the Global Accelerator twice already. The 1^st meeting was held in Jakarta, Indonesia on April 19, and the 2^nd meeting in Kathmandu; Nepal on September 10, 2024. We’d like to thank the GA National leading Ministries in Indonesia and Nepal, the ILO, ITUC, GCSPF and the Belgian embassies of Jakarta and Delhi who participated and supported these meetings. INSP!R Asia plans to organize the 3^rd meeting in the last week of November 2024 in Cambodia.

In Asia, INSP!R Asia works with 54 organizations of Trade unions (affiliated to ITUC or Global Union Federations), member-based CSOs (such as women’s organizations, youth, people with disabilities, migrant workers, health organizations and mutuality, etc.) and National networks on Social protection.  INSP!R Asia has members in 6 countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal and the Philippines; 4 are Pathfinders countries. We actively participate in various international/ continental events such as Labor20-Civil20, ASEAN People Forum, Asia-Europe People Forum, International Labor Conferences, COP, and now regarding the Global Accelerator. 

Trade Unions and Civil Society organizations are important pillars in advocating for state policy making, because they can strengthen accountability, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of programs in its design, monitoring, implementation and evaluation by providing constructive criticism, different perspectives, and alternative problem solving. However, for this to happen, there must be sufficient democratic space for meaningful engagement and social dialogue. What we have observed so far in the 4 pathfinding countries, is that there are differences in the level of democratic space and involvement of trade unions and CSO. While Trade unions involvement is more straightforward because of the existing tripartite mechanism and applying the most representative status of trade unions, this is not the same for the involvement of CSOs. For example, in Indonesia, there are 5 Trade union confederations such as KSBSI which are members of the National committee, but there is no clear representation of CSOs in this committee. However, INSP!R Indonesia/ YPSI (Indonesia Social Protection Foundation) has been invited in the public consultation during the finalization of the GA roadmap, and we’d like to thank BAPPENAS as the leading ministry in Indonesia for this.

2.      From the 2 Asia meetings on GA that we organized, we’d like to convey the following key messages:

1.       In the GA progress report 2023-2024, only 12% of the SDG targets are on track. The GA is a ‘Rescue Plan’ to save the SDGs with the ambitious goal of creating 400 million jobs and extending social protection coverage to 4 billion people by 2030 -just 6 years from now. You can have beautiful dream but even if 100% of GA’s objectives are achieved in 17 pathfinder’s countries -which is not possible, GA initiative will only create 44 million jobs (11% from GA objective to create 400 million jobs) and extend social protection coverage to 962 million people (around 24% of GA objective to extend social protection coverage to 4 billion people). Furthermore, since the GA was launched in Sept 2021, only 21 million USD has been collected from 3 countries: Belgium, Germany and Spain. One third of this budget is allocated for the management of the GA by the UN agencies and World Bank. Please remain realistic.
2.       While GA seeks to expand the coverage of social protection, the new business model of the platform economy is massively leaving millions of workers out of the social security system. For example, in Indonesia of the 20 million workers working in the platform economy, only 1% are covered by social security. We call on GA to pay more attention to the ‘missing middle’ and the ‘non-take-up’ groups, namely the working poor, workers in the informal economy, migrant and domestic workers, caregivers, home-based and self-employed, people with disability, as well as workers adversely affected by climate change, automation and AI. GA does not work in a vacuum, there are changing contexts that we need to adapt to.
3. Our network advocates for Climate reparations based on historical emissions. The Loss and Damage Fund must be able to contribute to the development of Adaptive Social Protection and strengthen people’s resilience. The devastating impacts of climate change are unbearable for countries like Nepal which are vulnerable to avalanches or flash floods -like those that occurred last week in Kathmandu, or 20 typhoons a year in the Philippines, or the impact of slow onset-event such as rising sea-levels in Indonesian archipelago, which makes 90% of Indonesia’s sea areas dangerous for small boats.
4. We also want to see debt cancelation that would provide fiscal space to the poor countries, and progressive and fair taxes for the private sector and the super-rich.

In a multipolar world where human security is a priority for many countries, we must be more innovative in our approach. How reassuring it is that this GA initiative can reverse the deteriorating situation in terms of employment and social protection, amidst declining respect for international humanitarian and human rights law, as well as a weakening of UN institutions. The GA initiative is a ‘Rescue Plan’ to save the SDGs; therefore, we can’t act like it is ‘business as usual’.

Thanks, Bismo Sanyoto, INSP!R Asia