About the Project
Social protection creates a healthy and educated workforce that is productive and can access better jobs. Employment policies make more and better jobs available and social protection schemes possible and sustainable. Coherent and coordinated social protection policies and employment policies enhance one another’s impact and effectively reduce poverty in the short term and foster social development in the long term. Yet, in reality the two are rarely developed and applied together, especially in low-income countries, where the need is the most urgent.
Based on these premises, in 2010 the International Labour Organization and the European Union launched a project entitled “Improving social protection and promoting employment” (2010-2012) in three pilot low-income nations:
In each of these countries, representatives of workers, government and employers are brought together to discuss ways in which closer links between social and employment policies and programmes could be fostered. The dialogue is aimed at creating a national employment and social protection policy that is closely integrated into the national development strategy and based on a process of tripartite consensus building between the three social partners.
The dialogue is supported by in-depth diagnostic studies that evaluate how well existing policies in each country respond to the needs of the population and respect international social security and employment standards. The following studies are produced:
- Analysis of social protection policies, with two components:
- A Social Protection Expenditure Review that evaluates the coverage, adequacy and efficiency of existing social insurance and social assistance schemes and their past and current costs.
- A budgeting exercise that evaluates the cost of different policy options to extend basic social protection and access to essential transfers and services.
- Analysis of employment policies, consisting of a review of existing and planned strategies and schemes to tackle employment and underemployment in the formal and informal economies. Existing funding as well as future resource requirements are analysed.
These studies provide the government, workers and employers with reliable information, based on which they can subsequently decide upon future actions and formulate a meaningful social protection and employment strategy.
The experiences gathered in the project contribute to international policy exchange and learning. A global conference will be organised by the ILO and the European Union in 2012 to discuss the findings and develop policy guidelines for the wider application of this integrated policy approach. The project draws to a close in 2012.
Project Management
The project is funded by the European Union, and managed jointly by the Social Security Department and the Employment Policy Department of the International Labour Organization in partnership with the European Union delegations in the three countries. The core management team is based in the ILO headquarters in Geneva.
Project staff in Geneva:
Helmut Schwarzer, Project Manager (schwarzer@ilo.org)
Andrés Acuña Ulate, Actuarial Specialist (acuna-ulate@ilo.org)
Ivon Garcia, admin assistant (garciai@ilo.org)
Field staff:
Malika Ok, National Coordinator, Cambodia (malika@ilo.org)
Contact us
ILO/EC Project
Improving Social Protection and Promoting Employment in Low Income Countries
c/o International Labour Organization
4 Route des Morillons
CH-1211 Genève 22
Switzerland
Fax : +41 22 799 7962
Phone : +41 22 799 7619
Email : spestrategy@ilo.org