Looking back to look ahead: A rights-based approach to social protection in the post-COVID-19 economic recovery

The UN special rapporteur for Human rights recently issued a report on how the many measures governments have taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are in line with a human rights based approach. From the two page summary:

"In this report, submitted in response to resolution 44/13 of the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur argues that the world was ill-equipped to deal with the socioeconomic impacts of this pandemic because it never recovered from the austerity measures imposed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008-2011. The legacy of austerity measures is severely underfunded public healthcare systems, undervalued and precarious care work, sustained declines in global labour income shares, and high inequality rates coupled with average decreases in statutory corporate tax rates." ... 

"With public services in dire straits, one-off cash transfers are a drop in the bucket for people living in poverty, whether in developed, developing, or least developed countries. Maladapted, short-term, reactive, and inattentive to the realities of people in poverty, the new wave of social protection hype must hold up to human rights scrutiny. This report identifies eight challenges that must be addressed in order to bring social protection in line with human rights standards."

You can read the full report here.

At the continental level: what did the ANRSP focus on and achieve in 2019?

Continental meeting
The Asia seminar was held in Kathmandu in February 2019 with two participants from each of the WSM Asia partners. In addition, representatives from the Network on Transformative Social Protection (NTSP) participated, as well as from ILO Nepal, ITUC-Asia Pacific, who provided valuable input.  A keynote intervention was given through video by Reema Nanavati from SEWA, a member of the Global commission on the Future of Work.

During the first part of the seminar we focused on labour market policies. Social movements have a key role to play in the debate on which types of jobs are needed for a truly inclusive economic development. Industrial policies and employment strategies or not to be left to business and governments alone, but it should be a key issue in the social dialogue. Currently, too many jobs don’t fulfill the Decent Work criteria (labour protection falters, salaries are too low, there is no social protection, no respect for social dialogue or freedom of association, job creation doesn’t follow economic growth).
In the second part of the seminar, the focus was on the Future of Work and the ILO centenary conference. An overview was presented of the most important trends in the world of work and on what needs to be done to guarantee more decent work in the future. The need for a renewed social contract, guaranteeing a fair share of prosperity for all, was broadly shared by the participants.

What did we learn? Labour market policies are a new issue for most member organisations of the ANRSP.  The learning and the capacity strengthening aspects of the seminar were evaluated as most important for the participants. Nevertheless, the discussions on the broader issue of the future of work led to a wider sharing of the vision on economic development, on the essential role for civil society and governments in the shaping of the ‘world of work’ and was thus a new step in strengthening the ANRSP.

Asia in Corona times: general situation and for workers

Though the pandemic originated in China, many of the South and South East Asian countries were impacted only later by the virus. 7th of April, Indonesia already has 2.273 cases and 198 deaths, followed by Thailand with 2.169 cases and 23 deaths. Bangladesh has 88 cases of whom 8 died. Nepal so far has only 9 cases and nobody died.  Laos and Myanmar confirmed their first cases on the 24th of March, respectively 12 and 24 cases, but many analysts question the capacity of their healthcare systems to properly identify and track the coronavirus. In the Philippines, cases jumped to 3.414 and to a total of 152 fatalities. The situation is India is also getting worse, with 3.374 cases of whom 77 died.

Several countries in Asia avoided rapid-spread outbreaks like those seen in South Korea and Italy and only confirmed 755 cases throughout the first two months of the global outbreak. ASEAN countries reacted quickly to the news of the coronavirus spreading in China, applying several important lessons learned during the 2003 SARS outbreak.

However, a drastic rise in new cases in Asia starting mid-March foreshadows major challenges in transmissions. Charted out, the rapid rise in cases in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand starting mid-March indicates a shift in trajectory from a slow and manageable rise in cases towards a more serious outbreak in several Asian countries. The ILO’s latest analysis of the catastrophic effect of COVID-19 on working hours and earnings shows that in the next three months there could be a loss of 195 million full-time equivalent jobs, with 125 million in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Global Charter for universal Social Protection promoted towards the Asian Development Bank

ADB President Takehiko Nakao reads
the Global Charter for Universal Social Protection Rights and Principles
during the Meeting between CSOs and ADB Senior Management

NGO Forum on ADB was able to further the cause of the Global Charter for Universal Social Protection by bringing it to the 52nd Asian Development Bank (ADB) Annual Meeting in Nadi, Fiji last May 1-5, 2019.

1. The Global Charter for Universal Social Protection (and principles) was presented and given to ADB President Takehiko Nakao during the CSO Dialogue with the President.

Rayyan Hassan, executive director of the Forum, explained the need for the ADB to fully support and adapt the charter and the principles.  After the explanation, a copy was handed to President Nakao and NGO and Civil Society Center Head, Chris Morris. You can see the video here (social protection segment at 23:57).



2. During the discussion on ADB's Strategy 2030, NGO Forum on ADB also pushed for the adaptation of the Global Charter for Universal Social Protection especially in the area of "Addressing remaining poverty and reducing inequalities" (Operational Priority 1).  The charter and the principle was also endorsed and given to Ms. Wendy Walker, the lead person of operational priority 1.  She, in turn, said that she would like to hear more regarding the charter once we come back to Manila and it is expected that there will be a series of meetings between the office of Ms. Walker and NGO Forum on ADB re: social protection

3. The charter and principle was also a major part of the panel "Unpacking the Delivery of ADB’s Safeguard Policy Statement" where the Forum expressed its belief that there is no clear policy framework in ensuring safeguards in ADB supported projects. speciall those that are co-financed with other multilateral development banks. Emphasis was given by the speakers on the issue of social justice and protection.  Two individuals from the Indian National Rural Labor Federation (INRLF), Tamil Nadu State, India Sitaram Saini, President of All Himachal PWD & IPH Contractual Workers Union (AHPWDIPHCWU), Himachal Pradesh State, India with the assistance of Building and Wood Workers' International (BWI) was able to speak in the panel session and share their experiences (you can watch the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56qd_s3jRzo&feature=youtu.be).
Third, copies of the Global Charter for Universal Social Protection (and principles) were given out to the attendees of the NGO Forum sessions, and inquiries about the charter and principles were discussed by the Forum members, including why the Forum network is endorsing it.  There were dialogues around the charter and the principles amongst other NGO's attending the event, most significant is the interest of Pacific groups who shares thesame sentiments.

4. The charter was also given to the following ADB Officials:

1. Head of the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department (SDCC)
2. Board of Directors
3. Alternate Directors 

As of May 10, 2019 several ADB Officials expressed their intention to meet with NGO Forum on ADB regarding social protection including Alternate Director Helmut Fischer (alternate director for Austria / Germany / Luxembourg / Turkey / United Kingdom) and the Office of Director General Woochong Um.

Steering Committee members talk about the ANRSP

During the AEPF in Ghent in October 2018, we took the opportunity to interview some of the Steering Committee members of the Asia Network on the Right to Social Protection, asking three questions:

1. What are some of the main achievements?
2. What is the added value of the ANRSP?
3. How are we all connected?

The main achievement through the WSM support is that GEFONT was able to organize the young workers within the GEFONT rank and file. We held a first youth conference in Kathmandu and a youth wing at central as well as at province and affiliate level. Secondly, we receive support to organize the migrant workers, basically in Qatar and held a conference there. Another major issue we have been working on with WSM support is the social protection, where we were able to draft a position paper on behalf of the trade unions, which can be used as the main tool while bargaining with the employers and the government, and that I think led to a milestone of social security for Nepal. While GEFONT is a relatively young trade union, the first generation of leaders already crossed sixty years, so we have to bring the young workers in leadership positions, if not, we will not have a future. From generation to generation, a tarde union should be strengthened should keep its capacity to organize the working class and keep its capacity to influence the policies, which is why we create the young workers wings and train them as leaders. Because of the ANRSP, we are able to share our views, and we learn a lot from the other friends, both in and outside of the network. This way, we can implement new things into the ground reality. This is why the network is important and it creates a synergy effect to our movement. We are all connected, not only through the network, also through the different institutions and organizations. This network is a platform with regular coordination, communication and exchanges, which makes it the most important one. Ramesh Badal, GEFONT and Nepal Steering Committee member

We are connected, through WSM but also among the partners of WSM. Let me explain it in this way: GK is a single organisation, and when we partner with WSM, this is one kind of a connection we share, with the technical assistance and other. Then, we have become a network, the Asia Network on the Right to Social Protection. Through that we are connected with some more partners, and we enrich each other through sharing. Through this, we could participate to the Asia Europe People's Forum, and so we are connected in a bigger forum, so this is very helpful, not only for sharing, but also to raise our voice and supporting each other. – Dr Kadir, Bangladesh Steering Committee Member.

WSM contribution to YCW ASPAC is very helpful because as of now, we are continuing our struggle especially in organizing young workers, who are the most vulnerable, not only organizing them, but educating them on their rights and how they are going to develop their skills and capacities in terms of defending their rights. Also how they are going to live and compete in a society where you can only survive if you have skills. Many of the young workers are in the informal sector, they are unorganized.
Being part of the ANRSP brings an added value to our work in YCW ASPAC, for a few years, it has been our demands in YCW ASPAC, the right to SP. Even in our different national movements in Asia, it is our demand, for young workers to have access to Social Protection. But most of the young workers, they don’t understand what social protection means, that it is a right, they aren’t aware. So what we are doing is we are raising awareness on what is social protection, giving education and I think the network really helps us in terms of giving the analysis and giving examples from other members of the ANRSP which can help us to work on the specific alternatives or develop strategies and means to provide or help our members to have access to social protection and help them understand.
Right now, one of the key issues that we are facing is the increasing number of unemployment for young workers. One of the factors for this is the digitalisation of the world of work and also the contractualisation. We have seen that after three or five months, many of the young workers contracts are ended and they fall into the informal sector. This results in the young workers not to be organized or not be part of a union or association. It is really hard for us to organize young workers, they really need to be trained, to be informed and educated about their rights and which capacities they need to improve in order for them to have dignity. I feel like we are connected because we are all from different sectors. We from the YCW ASPAC represent young workers, and here there are members from the health sector, from trade unions, informal and migrant workers. It is very important that all of these sectors come together to jointly demand social protection. These are the sectors that are the victims of not having social protection. When we come together, it is really a good opportunity to learn from each other, to share different strategies on what we are doing in our different organisations. From there, we learn and we can use it in our own organisations. Not only that, coming together gives us power, to resist those issues that are really downgrading the dignity of the people’s rights. Being in this network really makes us connected, allows us to work together and take action together to receive our demands, especially for us to have social protection. Leizyl Salem, Steering Committee Member for the young workers.

Thanks to WSM and the cooperation we have with AREDS has been successful in creating practical alternatives in terms of food, security, and in terms of protection. The study we made with the WSM India partners on social protection for all has led the ILO to use out material and to initiate such kind of micro level studies on social protection for the informal sector. Also, this study has been an instrument to make AREDS and the other partners in India to be part of the Workers’ Charter at the national level, which has been a very great contribution.
The network is very important because the fact that in isolation nothing can be achieved. Only together, with a right minded process of collective nature can give us success, as history has shown us and we have to make it work. Only in solidarity can we achieve things. Being alone and micro-level initiatives, sporadically, spread in different directions cannot lead to policy changes, neither can it bring results for the people we are concerned with. We are connected in a very organic way, firstly because of the synergy the actions we do collectively in India. We also have the W-Connect newsletter that keeps us all together, in expressing and sharing what we do, in different part of the country and the region. Also, joining in many of the events that take place on common thematic workshops, seminars and conferences that are held at regional or international level is the best way to keep alive our thinking and our actions to move forward. Our common values build bridges and this is something that is very unique in my own experiences. Partners are made into one common network, sharing a connection, which I haven’t seen with other organisations or movements. WSM taking that initiative is most appreciated and that is something we need to continue, even through all the difficulties. Samy, AREDS and India Steering Committee Member.

NDWM believes in working in networking because our strength lies in joining hands with other organisations, like trade unions, civil society and faith based organisations, as well as international organisations, because the issues are many and alone we cannot achieve to bring any change. So it is very important that we join with other organisations, those working for our people, and raise our issues. It is not only on the state and national India level, even on the regional level, we need to network to achieve the rights of the migrant and the domestic workers since we feel these are global issues. We see the same issues faced by migrant and domestic workers worldwide. So it is very much needed that we build a network which works at state, national and international level. NDWM is very grateful to WSM and their international cooperation Through WSMs support we could achieve in India a lot of improvements for the domestic workers. Especially in different states we could lobby for domestic workers policies, like welfare boards and minimum wage for the domestic workers.  We are also very happy with the study we have carried out together with the partners with the support of WSM. Through that study, we could do lobby with the government to come up with social protection for the domestic workers, which we will continue, believing that we will one day achieve the demands of the workers. We are connected with each other basically through mails, through Whatsapps and through W-Connect, and through the synergy that we have built up among the India partners. We are also connected by inviting us to participate in different conferences workshops in different places. We feel the connectedness together, and we always feel more connected, person to person  Sometimes we share our good practices, how we are rescuing the migrants with other WSM partners, and we also learn from them, how they are organizing. This is the platform that I feel we give and take. I find this connectedness brings more meaning to us, to know one another, to learn from each other. Sister Vallar, NDWM India and Steering Committee member for migrant workers

When civil society speaks, will leaders from Asia and Europe listen? AEPF in Belgium

Mid October 2018 leaders of states from Asia and Europe meet in Brussels, as part of the Asia Europe summit which happens every two years. In its wake, civil society meets at the Asia Europe People's Forum, as well as business representatives or other lobbying groups. For the very first time, the three networks working on social protection in Asia organised a joint session during this forum as part of the social justice cluster. Hence, a twelve people delegation was supported to attend the 12th AEPF which took place in Ghent, composed out of six Steering Committee Members and a representative from the Network for Transformative Social Protection (NTSP) and the Asian Round Table on Social Protection (AROSP) network.

Topics which were discussed were, among others, trade agreements, climate action, migrants in Ghent, human rights, Palm oil plantations and many more. A part from the overall declaration, the Social Justice cluster came forward with a charter which includes many of the topics our networks have been lobbying for and will be presented to European and Asian leaders, as well as used to advocate at a global level.

The three networks also organized an open session on The right to Social Protection for All: Strengthening the right to social protection for vulnerable people in Asia & Europe. According to the ILO World Social Protection Report 2017-2019, only 45% of the global population (38,9% in the Asia–Pacific region) is covered by at least one social protection benefit. The right to health is not yet a reality in many countries, especially in rural areas. Lack of social protection leaves people vulnerable to poverty, inequality and social exclusion across the life cycle. Coverage gaps are associated with significant underinvestment in social protection.

At the same time, the world of work is rapidly changing following demographic evolution, globalization of production, international trade, digital economy and automation, urbanization, workers mobility and increase of non-standard employment (precarious contracts, on call work, etc). This comes on top of persistently high levels of informal economy in many countries. Extending social protection and its benefits, and increasing the availability as well as improving the working conditions are already manifesting as major challenges in the future in Asia and in Europe. In a world with widening inequalities and enormous uncertainties, social protection is needed more than ever; it is a must.

Both in Asia and Europe social movements are mobilising and campaigning for the right to social protection for all to be respected and realized. They are also making the way by establishing own initiatives and mechanisms for social protection. In both Asia and Europe there are some good practices were social movements managed to convince governments to strongly expand social protection coverage introducing various schemes ranging from universal health care, work and livelihood guarantees, unemployment and disability income-support, work injury insurance, old-age pensions, maternity protection, calamity assistance and others.

But given the many challenges and gaps remaining to fully implement and guarantee the right to comprehensive social protection for everyone, current policies will need to be improved and upgraded. Social protection policies should be rights and solidarity based, strongly involve the representative social movements and integrate their initiatives in universal social protection mechanisms so they can cover social protection rights throughout the whole life cycle for the entire population.

We should maintain and fully implement the principles of Social Protection that are globally agreed by the world’s leading organization on social protection standards, the ILO, and its Convention 102 and Recommendations 202 and 204. These and other human rights treaties and declarations clearly state Social Protection is a universal Human Right. It is also well integrated in the Sustainable Development Goals.

In this open space workshop we focus on how social movements assert the right to social protection, and make the way by establishing own mechanisms of social protection and influencing their governments to largely improve their social protection policies in line with the above mentioned principles and international standards.

Asian Networks on social protection meet EU Parliamentarians

Members of the ANRSP, together with the two other Asian networks on social protection, NTSP and AROSP, met with European Parliamentarians on the 26th of October 2018 in Brussels. Taking advantage of their stay in Belgium for the Asia Europe People’s Forum, this exchange on the situation in Asian countries regarding human rights, free trade agreements and social protection was done with the Global Progressive Forum (GPF), which is a common initiative of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament and the Party of European Socialists. Their network sprang up from the success of the first World Social Forum held in January 2001 in Porto Alegre and aims to bring together a diversity of people from Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America to discuss and propose alternatives to the negative aspects of the current Globalization process. The GPF had also invited members of the network of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, who contributed as Asian Parliamentarians. Invited by WSM, the Social Protection Expert of the European Commission DG DEVCO and a member from the Regional Affairs and South Asia of the European External Action Service (EEAS), also attended and explained their priorities.

 Our delegation highlighted the current situation in India and the dangers to the labour movement there, with an increasing criminalisation and deterioration of labour rights in the process of codifying the labour laws. NDWM also referred to the situation of domestic workers, with Sister Jeanne Devos explaining the history of their movement and their involvement in the process of the ILC189. Another big topic was the influence the EU can have through trade agreements which conditionalize import tariffs with the respect of human and labour rights, for instance in the Philippines (GSP+) and Bangladesh (Sustainability Compact). Bismo Sanyoto, Thematic and Political Coordinator of the ANRSP talked about the two issues of social protection: how to finance this (most countries still spend less than 2% of the GDP on social protection) and how to extend the coverage, also for informal workers.

Despite all the lofty declarations which put social protection as a priority for the development programmes of the EU, the representative from DEVCO said less than 1% of the overall DEVCO budget is dedicated to SP projects. He said the future global programme will focus on budget support, in 5 to 8 countries over the world, to link public finances and social protection. This would involve civil society organisations, also through the Global Coalition on Social Protection Floors, of which WSM is an active member.

Social Protection for all - ANRSP position on Social Protection

The world of work is rapidly changing following demographic evolution, globalization of production, digital economy and automation, urbanization, workers mobility and increase of non-standard employment (precarious contracts, on call work, etc) . Young ‘millenialmillennial’ generations will comprise 50% of the workforce in 2020 with a new behavior and mindset to adapt the changing nature of work. More women are entering the workplace and more people are working from home. New types of job which never existed before will be created, such as green jobs. The role of the government in providing social services to the people has been reduced in many countries and it is being replaced by private actors who commercially provide all kinds of services ranging from health insurance to pension funds for those who can afford them. Poverty and migration have provided an army of people who are willing to work any type of jobs at any wage, which undermines the existing social protection, and weakens the workers’ bargaining position.

According to the ILO World Social Protection Report 2017-2019, only 45% of the global population (38,9% in the Asia–Pacific region) is covered by at least one social protection benefit. The right to health is not yet a reality in many countries, especially in rural areas. Large coverage gaps remain for child and family benefits, maternity and unemployment protection and disability allowances. Lack of social protection leaves people vulnerable to poverty, inequality and social exclusion across the life cycle. Coverage gaps are associated with significant underinvestment in social protection. In the Asia-Pacific region, government expenditure for social protection to GDP is only 4.6%, compared to Western Europe’s 18.1%. Asia is young but is expected to age considerably in the next 15 years. While poverty is declining across Asia, a majority of workers are still working in the informal economy, with long working hours, low income and without social protection. Extending social protection and its benefits, and improving workers’ job quality will be among Asia’s major challenges in the future.

A decent income for a decent life - ANRSP position on Minimum Living Wages

In a context of persisting dependency on the informal economy for large numbers of people, worsening loss of livelihood because of limited access to the resources (land grabbing, pollution…) and growing precariousness in the formal economy because of increasing non-standard forms of work (short term contracts, on call work, zero-hour contracts, platform etc.), one could be tempted to forget about the level of income or wages. After all, ‘any job is better than no job at all’. And yet, it is precisely in this context we have to guard and guarantee the right of every person to have the necessary resources and income to lead a life in dignity.

We are aware of the important links between the remuneration of ones work, social protection allowances, access to quality social services like health. Low income, bad housing or limited healthy food leads to illness and health expenses and the incapacity to work and to earn an income and vice-versa. In this position paper we will however focus on the revenue one earns for work. The right to a Minimum Living Wage has been recognized in several international conventions and declarations, like the Constitution of the ILO (1919), the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR 1948), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESC 1966) and ILO convention 131 (1970).

As members of the ANRSP, we adhere to these international conventions and declarations and we consider a Minimum Living Wage to be a legally binding concept. It is a right that has to be respected whatever the situation, the form or statute of labor, without any discrimination. However, we have to acknowledge the international texts remain broad and are in need of specification. So far there is no globally accepted definition and methodology to calculate living wages. Enterprises often use this as justification for not paying a living wage and refer only to minimum wages set by national laws as legally binding concepts.

In reality, the current minimum wages are not sufficient to guarantee the needs for workers and their families and don’t allow to lead a life in dignity. They are also greatly insufficient to stop the current race to the bottom, fueled by global competition and businesses desire to maximize profits. The ILO constitution and the UDHR not only mention a ‘minimum living wage’, but also a just share of the fruits of progress to all and a ’just remuneration’. In addition to this, sustainable Development Goal 10 focuses entirely on the reduction of inequality. Apart from just taxation and redistributive social protection, a sufficiently high share of labor in the overall wealth is a key to achieving this objective.