Activation programmes and the economic crisis
Activation measures should be accompanied by improved access to higher education, continued professional development and “social investment policies”
The financial and economic crisis is striking by its suddenness, its scale and its global reach. In the broader context, this crisis has exposed a world that is increasingly unstable, with high unemployment rates, the persistence of the informal sector and increased poverty and vulnerability.
Labour markets are, therefore, having to deal with changes which are not only limited to the risks associated with the unpredictable economic and financial environment but which are also, more importantly, of a structural nature. In the light of these changes, activation programmes are needed more than ever if the requalification of the workforce is to succeed. And yet, when taking into account the budgetary impact of the crisis on social security (particularly in terms of pressure on expenditure), the rising number of job seekers calls into question the sustainability of increasingly costly programmes which become less effective as the guarantee of securing employment fades.
The role of activation programmes
Activation measures have two main characteristics:
- they target individuals who are of working age, unemployed and able to work, and who receive income-replacement benefits;
- they make the payment of benefits conditional upon meeting certain obligations as regards availability for work and seeking work.
The impact of these strategies on unemployment is due, on the one hand, to the fact that they ensure that unemployed workers participate in services linked to employment and, on the other hand, to the possibility of countering the disincentivising effect that benefits may have by imposing obligations to participate in activation programmes, by ensuring that entry conditions are respected and by threatening the imposition of temporary sanctions (OECD, 2010).
The Scandinavian activation model tested by the crisis
Sweden, Finland and Denmark implemented activation policies at the beginning of the 1990s. They were initially piloted on the more vulnerable sectors of the population, such as young people, immigrants and the long-term unemployed, and gradually extended to all unemployed workers (Bonoli, 2010).
The Scandinavian model has managed to combine economic growth with social protection and so make “flexicurity” an expression synonymous with successfully combining adaptability to a changing international environment with a social protection system capable of protecting individuals from the more direct consequences of this structural change. However, the pressures on governments today to reduce social budgets and the general impact of this new context on activation programmes should not be underestimated:
- the sustainability of these policies has been called into question: the cost-effectiveness of these policies is seriously jeopardised when increased expenditure, linked to the growing numbers of beneficiaries, accompanies a shrinking labour market;
- these policies also lose their effectiveness during periods of recession, because as the number of unemployed workers increases, public employment services find themselves faced with having to reduce the frequency of their interventions with job seekers;
- from the beneficiaries’ perspective, the qualifying conditions for unemployment benefits are becoming more prescriptive (shorter indemnity periods) while at the same time the number of obligations imposed on them are increasing (for example, more employers to meet each week, more training courses to attend and increased pressure to move to a new area or into a new profession).
The crisis, however, has also highlighted a much deeper problem: the strong dynamism these measures imply – which enables workers to change jobs more frequently and which, more importantly, enables employers to lay off workers without having to make redundancy payments or create a social plan – has led to the constant scruting of worker productivity. Under these conditions, some “groups” of workers are increasingly excluded from the labour market (Daguerre, 2006; Sereni, 2009).
In fact, with the emergence of an ageing society, where one third of the population is over 60 years of age, senior citizens will become increasingly marginalized if activation programmes fail to target the particular needs created by this new demographic context. More generally, these programmes should form part of a new “management of ages”, in other words, a new way of addressing an ageing population still able to work.
Furthermore, the growing prevalence of a highly productive economy in an increasingly globalized and competitive world has added to the vulnerability of young people entering the labour market for the first time and increased pressure on this new economically active population to enhance their general skills and knowledge. Activation measures should therefore be accompanied by improved access to higher education, continued professional development and “social investment policies”: targeting child poverty and guaranteeing children living in poverty better conditions for learning could help to reduce exclusion and create a better-trained, qualified and flexible workforce, which is able to meet the needs of a highly productive economy.
So as not to lose sight of the original idea which underpinned activation programmes (the retraining of the workforce without breaks in employment or unemployment), these measures should be included in proactive and preventative social security policies. They should be adapted to meet the current socio-economic context and, in so doing, increasingly target those sectors of the population which are at risk, such as older workers, the mentally handicapped and young people entering the labour market for the first time.
Experience has shown that we must at all costs avoid allowing those who lose their jobs to enter the vicious circle of dependence and fall into the trap of unemployment, whether through the payment of disability benefits or pre-retirement pensions. Professional re-integration programmes are thus even more important, particularly for the most vulnerable. A more preventive approach emphasizing activation should facilitate both increased integration into the labour market and greater employability, mainly through investments in education, training and orientation.
References:
Bonoli, G. 2010. The political economy of active labour market policy (RECWOWE Working paper on Reconciliation of Work and Welfare in Europe). Edinburgh, Reconciling Work and Welfare in Europe. <http://www.socialpolicy.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/39268/REC-WP_0110_Bonoli.pdf> (consulted on 18.05.2010).
Daguerre, A. 2006. «Les politiques de retour à l’emploi aux Etats-Unis, en Grande-Bretagne et en France». Critique internationale 2006/4-6, No 31, p. 69-94. <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2005/06/DAGUERRE/12554> (consulted on 13.05.2010).
OECD. 2009. Tackling the jobs crisis: the labour market and social policy response: Theme 2: Maintaining the activation stance during the crisis (Background document – OECD Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting). Paris, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. <http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/54/48/43766121.pdf> (consulted on 18.05.2010).
Séréni, J.-P. 2009. La social-démocratie à l’épreuve: Les parts d’ombre du paradis danois. <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2009/10/SERENI/18225> (consulted on 13.05.2010).
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United States adopts historic health-care reform
The law introduces significant changes to the regulation of the health insurance market
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After decades of unsuccessful attempts by previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican, President Obama signed the most comprehensive health-care reform legislation in United States’ history on 23 March 2010. This historic reform will provide health insurance coverage to an estimated 30 million individuals who currently lack it and will introduce a series of measures to slow future increases in national health-care expenditures.
Comprised of over 2,000 pages, the law introduces significant changes to the regulation of the health insurance market, the promotion of preventive health care, the establishment of the nation’s first long-term care insurance programme and a major investment by the federal Government in measuring the effectiveness of medical treatments and pharmaceutical products. In view of the complexity of the legislation, implementation will be in phases, with some measures effective immediately while others will be in place by 2019.
Cutting costs
One major motivator for health-care reform is to cut the spiralling costs. The United States has gone from a surplus budget position to deficits of USD 13 trillion dollars in the past 10 years. Citizen fears of increased national debt resulting from health-care reform were stoked by political adversaries, significantly contributing to the difficulties in passing the legislation. However, the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan government entity which calculates projected costs of legislation, estimates that the bill will cut the deficit by more than USD 1 trillion over 20 years.
One source of savings expected from Medicare is a shift from payment to doctors for each service or treatment provided, to what’s called “bundling”, or payment for treating, for example, high blood pressure comprehensively. Payment for quality outcomes, taxing generous employer-based plans, and increasing competition among private plans through the state exchanges (see below) are merely some examples of vehicles to cut costs for individuals, employers, and the nation overall.
The politics of health-care reform
The adoption by Congress of the landmark legislation followed a year of intensive negotiations between the US House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as a vigorous national debate in which all the major stakeholders – doctors, hospitals, health-insurance companies, drug manufacturers, etc. – made their views known through the media. Health-care experts point out that a major difference between the Obama health reform efforts and those of President Clinton, which ended in failure in 1994, was the position taken by employer and business representatives. In contrast with the near total opposition to the Clinton reform plan, employer and business interests worked actively to promote their own health-care reform alternatives, alarmed by the ever-increasing health-care expenditures in the United States, which currently amount to 16 per cent of GDP, the highest rate among the OECD countries. American business’s competitiveness was being stifled, and health-care costs were a critical hurdle that could now be crossed.
Republican and Democrat lawmakers were both leading and reacting to their voters’ views. Democrats holding control over the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives attempted to lead public opinion and tackle as many elements to reform as possible. However, a backlash which Republicans seized on occurred as the global economic crisis, high joblessness, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan lead to high budget deficits. Among a number of controversial elements in the legislation were two that Democrats, including the President, fought hard to include: 1) a “public option”, the option for those under age 65 to buy Medicare coverage if no other insurance option was available, and 2) make insurance coverage mandatory for all Americans. Conservatives who believe in small government stoked fears that reform would lead to higher deficits, higher taxes, government funded abortions and increased “government involvement” in health care. “Socialism” had arrived on the shores of the United States.
Republicans, however, found that key moderate Democrats in the House and Senate shared concern over the mounting budget deficit. In a compromise among Democrats themselves, the public option was dropped to gain support from moderate Democrats, much to the vocal opposition of other Democrat legislators.
In spite of the active participation of all the major stakeholders in the health-care reform negotiations, a bipartisan consensus was not reached in Congress: the reform legislation passed in a 219-212 vote. All 178 Republicans opposed it, along with 34 Democrats.
Expansion of health-insurance coverage
A primary objective of the new law is to cover the uninsured population. Beginning in 2014, all individuals will be required to have health insurance, except those who have religious or other allowable objections. Those who do not have coverage will be required to pay a yearly financial penalty of either USD 695 per person or 2.5 per cent of household income, whichever is greater.
The Medicaid programme, which provides means-tested health-care benefits to low-income individuals will be expanded to include all individuals younger than age 65 with incomes up to 133 per cent of the federal poverty level. This Medicaid expansion, estimated to bring into coverage about 16 million persons, will create a universal eligibility threshold across the states and will eliminate the limitation of the programme that previously prohibited adults without dependant children from enrolling in the programme (as under previous Medicaid regulations, undocumented immigrants will not be eligible for this expanded coverage). Individuals with incomes above 133 per cent of the poverty level who do not have access to employer-sponsored insurance will obtain coverage through the newly-created state health insurance exchanges.
States will be required to create health insurance exchanges where individuals can purchase insurance and where small employers can contract for plans to cover their employees. To the disappointment of many health-care reform advocates, the state-run health insurance exchanges will not be required to offer a public plan to compete with the privately managed health insurance plans. However, health insurance plans in the exchange will be required to offer benefits that meet a minimum set of standards. Insurers will be required to offer four levels of coverage that vary based on contributions, out-of-pocket expenditures and the range of benefits provided by the plan. The four tiers will offer essential health benefits, and range in reimbursement levels of between 60 to 90 per cent of the cost of other care provided.
The Federal Government will provide contribution subsidies to families with incomes between 100 and 400 per cent of the federal poverty threshold. Workers already benefitting from health insurance coverage through an employer-sponsored plan will not however be eligible for the contribution subsidies unless the employer plan does not meet specified standards to be established by regulation. Moreover, the law states explicitly that federal contribution subsidies cannot be used to purchase coverage for abortion. This federal ban on the funding of any coverage of abortion developed into a major point of discord and threatened for a time the passage of the proposed legislation by Congress.
New regulation of the private insurance market
The refusal of coverage by private insurance companies because of “pre-existing medical conditions” will no longer be legal. New regulations will prevent health insurers from denying coverage to people for any reason, including their health status, and from charging individuals more based on their current or past health status and gender. Health insurers will be prohibited from imposing lifetime limits on coverage and will be prohibited from terminating coverage, except in cases of fraud. Young adults will be allowed to remain on their parent’s health insurance until age 26, which addresses the coverage gap that often occurred when young adults finished attending school, but had not yet found employment.
Another important innovation is to require health insurance plans to report the proportion of contribution dollars spent on clinical and quality services and to provide a rebate to the consumer if the amount of care and services covered by the insurance plan is less than 80 to 85 per cent of the contribution rate. The law will also set up a process for reviewing proposed increases in health insurance plan contributions. If proposed increases in contributions are found not to be justified, the plan will be excluded from participation in the state-run health insurance exchanges. The Government will establish a Website to help citizens to identify and choose among health coverage options. Health insurance plans will be required to follow standards developed by the Government for the presentation of information on plan benefits and coverage.
Additional innovations: “Work in progress”
In view of the political and fiscal complexity of the health-care reform legislation, it is hardly surprising that a number of significant innovations have yet to be fully aired in public discussions. A leading example of such a significant innovation is the CLASS Act, which establishes a national voluntary insurance programme for purchasing long-term care community living assistance services. Following a five-year implementation period, the programme will provide a cash benefit to individuals with functional limitations, initially estimated to be about USD 50 per day, to purchase non-medical services and supports necessary to maintain living in the community. The programme will be financed from voluntary payroll deductions: all working adults will be automatically enrolled in the programme unless they choose to opt-out. The United States has thus taken the first step towards the establishment of a national long-term care insurance system.
Another area of important change will occur in the area of preventive health. A National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council will be established to coordinate all federal wellness activities. The Council will be responsible for developing a national strategy to improve the nation’s health. Coverage of preventive health, without patient cost-sharing, will be expanded in both Medicaid and Medicare. Qualified privately-managed health insurance plans will be required to provide a range of preventive health-care benefits without cost-sharing by the patient. Employers will be eligible for cash grants and technical assistance to establish wellness programmes for their employees. All chain restaurants and food sold from vending machines will disclose the nutritional content of each item listed for sale. Finally, a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute will be established to identify research priorities and conduct research that compares the clinical effectiveness of medical treatments, including preventive care. The Institute will be overseen by an appointed multi-stakeholder Board of Governors, which will issue guidelines and recommendations regarding different treatment alternatives. The proposal to create such a research institute drew considerable criticism from certain quarters of the medical community who viewed it as a potential threat to patients’ and doctors’ freedom of choice regarding treatment procedures. The legislation, however, explicitly rejects this criticism and limits the role of the research institute to that of an advisory body.
How will it be financed?
The initial legislation provides new government funding to both the federal and state governments to set up the health insurance exchanges and to put in place the mandates on individuals and employers that will come into force. Additional revenues to fund the reform will come in part from new taxes on households with income over USD 250,000 per year and from taxes on employees who benefit from “Cadillac” insurance coverage from their employer (plans considered to provide over-generous coverage will be subject to this new tax which may exceed 40 per cent of the contribution rate). Funding of the reform will also come from projected savings in the Medicaid and Medicare programmes over the course of the next decade. The long-range financing objective is however to achieve real savings in the health-care delivery system by reducing inefficiencies in the health insurance market and in the health-care delivery system itself.
Text by Ladan Manteghi, an expert on the global over-50 market, income security, health, and retirement, and the former President of the AARP Global Network.
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Social Security Reforms
From Belgium, Bolivia, the European Union, India, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, the Maldives, Romania and the United Kingdom
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A selection of recent reforms in social security schemes worldwide compiled by the ISSA Social Security Observatory, with links to a full description of the reforms in the ISSA country profiles.
Belgium: Measures to discourage early retirement
On April 1, a new law went into effect that seeks to discourage employers' use of certain early retirement programs in Belgium by increasing the contribution rate for participating employers.
Full article >>
ISSA Country profile: Belgium >>
Bolivia: Government intends to nationalize private pension funds
The Ministry of Economy and Public Finance has announced the nationalization of the country's private Pension Fund Administrators (AFPs).
Full article >>
ISSA Country profile: Bolivia >>
European Union: Improved EU Directive on parental leave
On 8 March 2010, the Employment and Social Affairs European Council adopted a new Directive on parental leave which implements the revised framework agreement concluded in June 2009 by EU social partners. According to EU officials, this move reflects the changes that occurred in the society and the labour market since the original Parental Leave agreement was signed in 1995, and will contribute to a better work-life balance as well as to promote gender equality.
Full article >>
India: IT enablement project under implementation
The Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has taken up a massive IT enablement project called "Project Panchdeep", which is currently under implementation. Once completed, most of the operation of the ESIC Scheme (such as identification and registration of employers and employees, payment of contributions, determination of entitlement to benefits, online payment facilities and various activities connected with the administration of the scheme) will be through electronic transaction.
Full article >>
ISSA Country profile: India >>
Ireland: The pensions insolvency payment scheme implemented
On February 1, the Irish government implemented the Pensions Insolvency Payment Scheme (PIPS) for a 3-year trial period. PIPS is designed to safeguard benefits of defined benefit pension plan members (those employed and retired) when both the pension plan and plan sponsor have become insolvent.
Full article >>
ISSA Country profile: Ireland >>
Japan: Establishment of the “Japan Pension Service”
On 1 January 2010, the Japan Pension Service (JPS), a public corporation that manages public pensions, succeeded the Social Insurance Agency (SIA). This new entity was established in order to provide appropriate public pension administration and to regain public trust.
Full article >>
ISSA Country profile: Japan >>
Lithuania: Cuts in social security benefits
A provisional Act on the recalculation and payment of social benefits for the period of 2010 - 2011 entered into force in January 2010. In accordance with this Act, a number of social security benefits decreased.
Full article >>
ISSA Country profile: Lithuania >>
Maldives: The first stage of the pension reform implemented
On February 1, a new noncontributory pension program went into effect that provides a monthly pension of up to MRF2,000 (US$156) to all resident Maldivian citizens aged 65 or older. (The pension is reduced by an amount equal to 50 percent of all other pension income received). The program, called the Old-Age Basic Pension, represents the first of a two-stage pension reform law ratified by parliament in May 2009.
Full article >>
ISSA Country profile: Maldives >>
Romania: Overhaul of the public pension system to reduce budget deficit
On February 10, the Cabinet approved a draft law for Romania's public pension system that would equalize the retirement age and contribution requirements for men and women, change the calculation of "special pensions" for certain public-sector workers, reduce the incentives for early retirement, and improve the disability assessment process. If approved by Parliament, the law is expected to come into force on January 1, 2011.
Full article >>
ISSA Country profile: Romania >>
United Kingdom: Fathers to get additional paternity leave
The new scheme for additional paternity leave (APL) and Additional Statutory Paternity Pay (ASPP) will apply to children born on or after 3 April 2011 and will allow fathers and partners of those giving birth or adopting a child to share the maternity or adoption leave and pay if the mother returns to work early, for up to 6 months. It is estimated that between 4 percent and 8 percent of those eligible for the new leave will take it.
Full article >>
ISSA Country profile: United Kingdom >>
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Improved knowledge exchange as an enabler for better service delivery
Good Practice Award for Europe: Optimizing service through information and knowledge platforms
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It is a fact of modern life that the volume of information, and the potential for knowledge exchange, has increased dramatically. For all service organizations, the effective and efficient communication of information to enhance knowledge exchange is paramount, not only to remain competitive but also to ensure quality service delivery. It is no surprise therefore that social security organizations should increasingly be striving to improve the internal flow of information and knowledge exchange as part of a defined governance strategy.
In January 2008, two German social security bodies – the institutions for statutory accident insurance and prevention for the retail trade (BGE) and for wholesale trade and warehousing (GroLa BG) – merged. This merger resulted in the creation of the institution for statutory accident insurance and prevention for trade and distribution (Berufsgenossenschaft Handel und Warendistribution – BGHW). (1) Comprising 1,800 staff nationwide, who had previously been employed by the two distinct organizations with their own head and branch office networks, the BGHW was confronted with the major challenge of making available to all staff of the merged institution the information and knowledge that had been held independently by the two previous bodies.
Against this background, the BGHW identified that there was a need to establish an efficient information and knowledge-management system, which would ensure that all staff had access to all necessary data within seconds. Another aim of the platform was to better control and redirect on a daily basis the ever-increasing volume of new information (circulars, amendments to laws, new regulations, etc.).
A number of strategic considerations accompanied the realization of the new platform. The aims were:
- To provide incentives to motivate members of the project team and staff more generally.
- To achieve a corporate culture that was supportive of knowledge-sharing.
- To develop procedures that would help make “implicit” knowledge “explicit”.
- To identify “push” and “pull” mechanisms to support the pooling of information and knowledge.
- To ensure a targeted use of knowledge-sharing tools.
Another important strategic objective was to instil and strengthen the new corporate identity of BGHW, by involving staff in the development of the project. To this end, project implementation was entrusted to an internal team, composed of 30 staff members chosen on the basis of the requisite expertise. These individuals were not seconded to the project, but performed their project roles in addition to their ascribed daily work tasks. Of note, this approach required few additional resources given that the technical implementation was achieved using an existing Intranet system. Material costs were limited to some travel expenses and modest bonus payments to those staff directly entrusted with the implementation of the project.
An information and knowledge “unit” was established to act as a central hub for communicating information to, and for enhancing knowledge exchange among, staff. The central unit links into different work areas of the BGHW and ensures that the networked information is always up-to-date. The unit is responsible for sifting internal and external information and for identifying which information is relevant for the staff that are responsible for data processing. All staff are encouraged to provide information and suggestions for the improvement of the platform.
Important outcomes
One year after the implementation of the new platform, the workload of BGHW staff has decreased considerably. Duplication of work processes is being avoided as all staff can now search the same information base for required data, and do so more rapidly than was the case before. The processing of new information, and its flow to staff, is also accomplished more rapidly. Access to well-referenced information sources acts to help minimize risks in the work of BGHW. Last but not least, staff can devote more time to the task of case management and to developing responses tailored to clients’ needs, and thus spend relatively less time processing administration.
Key factors for success
According to BGHW, the project’s measured success has been anchored on a well-defined strategy coupled with an active and transparent process of change management. This has proven crucial to efforts to encourage staff to buy into the changes undertaken, in order that they may better identify with the corporate culture of their new organization. For their part, staff continue to provide voluntary support to the project and feed the platform with information and suggestions. Overall, technical or financial resources would appear to have been less decisive in the success of the process.
The importance of “good practice”
Although major differences in national contexts exist and although the driving forces behind choices concerning programme delivery can be varied and complex, information sharing on “good practices” presents, at the very least, opportunities for learning about specific solutions to what may be considered common problems.
The collection and dissemination of good practice examples enables actors involved in social security to build a culture of exchange about “what works” and, equally important, to diffuse understanding about “why, how and under what conditions”. However, and cognizant of their own specificities, it remains with national authorities to decide on what is worth learning from such examples, and how such learning should ultimately inform choices about policy design and implementation and programme delivery.
Importantly, by providing ISSA member organizations with greater access to knowledge about the experiences of others, organizations should be better able to reach informed decisions on the choices appropriate for their own circumstances.
The first two Good Practice Awards that accompanied the ISSA Regional Social Security Forums for Africa in 2008 and Asia and the Pacific in October 2009 underlined the commitment of ISSA member organizations to good practice knowledge exchanges (see Social Security Observer, No. 4 and No. 6). Here, we again draw attention to the commitment of ISSA member organizations by reporting on the joint-winner of the ISSA’s Good Practice Award for Europe 2010.
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ISSA Good Practices in Social Security Database
For the ISSA, a good practice is defined as any type of experience (e.g. an action, a measure, a process, a programme, a project, a technology) implemented within a social security organization that is focused on the improvement of administrative and operational capacities and/or the efficient and effective delivery of programmes. In November 2008, a new database on good practices in social security was launched by the ISSA, with the aim of providing a unique source of data on developments in social security practice. The database already contains over 100 good practices.
Good Practices in Social Security Database >>
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(1) The ISSA Good Practice Award for Europe was given to the BGHW for its new information and knowledge-sharing platform, called BGHW-INWI.
Brochure: ISSA Good Practice Award – Europe 2010: Competition results >>
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Dynamic Social Security for the Americas: Social Cohesion and Institutional Diversity
New ISSA report upholds impact of social security on social cohesion in the Americas
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Social security systems in the Americas region have had a positive impact on supporting social cohesion and equitable economic development, but further efforts will be required to ensure financial sustainability and to extend adequate social security for all, a new report from the ISSA says.
Dynamic Social Security for the Americas: Social Cohesion and Institutional Diversity, identifies and interprets the most important developments in social security in the Americas region. The report analyses the efforts of institutions to extend social security coverage and improve performance in the region, despite complex social and economic constraints, and growing public expectations and political demands.
The Americas region has experienced sometimes radical reforms to its social security systems in recent decades, notably in the area of pensions and health care, which have often challenged conventional international norms, according to the report. Dynamic Social Security for the Americas analyses the consequences of some of these policies, and gives particular attention to recent efforts to better combine contributions-financing and tax-financing in the provision of pensions and health care.
The report underlines that the diverse institutional forms of social protection in the region, and the innovative capacities of its social security organizations, provide a strong basis for the sustainable development of programmes. The report points to the need for the greater integration of social security systems within national social protection strategies, and underlines that efforts to extend coverage must be combined with the needs for greater political legitimacy, social equity and financial sustainability.
Download Dynamic Social Security for the Americas: Social Cohesion and Institutional Diversity
http://www.issa.int/aiss/Resources/ISSA-Publications/Dynamic-Social-Security-for-the-Americas-Social-Cohesion-and-Institutional-Diversity
Also available: Social Policy Highlight 13
Dynamic social security for the Americas: Strength through diversity >>
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Extending social security to all: A review of challenges and a guide to practice and strategy options
Forthcoming ILO publication
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Social security represents an investment in a country's human infrastructure, which is no less important than its physical infrastructure. This book outlines basic concepts such as the social protection floor and the social security staircase, analyses the affordability of various approaches, and examines the results of practices around the world, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The overall message is that such investment can benefit poorer countries as well as richer ones, and that even in times of tightened budgets and global economic crisis, the dividends are well worth the expenditure.
Publication details (external link):
http://www.ilo.org/global/What_we_do/Publications/ILOBookstore/Forthcomingpublications/lang--en/docName--WCMS_124454/index.htm
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Social protection in Latin America: achievements and limitations
New World Bank publication
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Social protection systems in Latin America have been transformed in the past two decades. Until the 1980s, those who were not covered by the social security arrangements available primarily in the urban formal sector received little public assistance beyond universal subsidies for some food or fuel purchases. Since the 1990s, the introduction of non-contributory social insurance programs (including "social pensions") and conditional cash transfers has substantially extended the coverage and improved the incidence of social assistance.
However, the organic growth of subsidized social assistance in parallel to the older social insurance system, financed largely out of taxes on formal sector employment, has led to a dual system that is neither properly equitable nor efficient. The twin challenges that now face social protection in Latin America are to better integrate those two halves of the system, and to develop programs that promote sustainable self-reliance, by moving from "safety nets" to "opportunity ropes."
Publication details and download (external link):
http://go.worldbank.org/1RHOYO0OT0
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Major ISSA Events 2010
In 2010, the ISSA is organizing the following major events:
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