This ILO flagship report: (i) provides a global overview of the organisation of social protection systems, their coverage and benefits, as well as public expenditures on social security; (ii) following a life-cycle approach, presents social protection for children, for women and men of working age, and for older persons; (iii) analyses trends and recent policies, e.g. negative impacts of fiscal consolidation and adjustment measures; and (iv) calls for the expansion of social protection in pursuit of crisis recovery, inclusive development and social justice.
The analysis draws upon information from country legislation; data on protected persons, beneficiaries, benefits provided, costs and financing from the registers and accounts of the institutions administering the various social security schemes; and household survey data from regular labour force surveys, household income and expenditure surveys, household budget surveys or surveys of similar type, or from surveys specially designed to monitor the coverage and impacts of social security.
Key Findings:
- While the need for social protection is widely recognised, the fundamental human right to social security remains unfulfilled for the large majority of the world’s population. Only 27% of the global population enjoy access to comprehensive social security systems, whereas 73% are covered partially or not at all.
- The lack of access to social protection constitutes a major obstacle to economic and social development. Inadequate or absent social protection coverage is associated with high and persistent levels of poverty and economic insecurity, high and growing levels of inequality, insufficient investments in human capital and human capabilities and weak stabilisers of demand in the event of economic shocks.
- Social protection policies contribute to fostering both economic and social development in the short and the long term, by ensuring that people enjoy income security, have effective access to health care and other social services and are empowered to take advantage of economic opportunities. Such policies play a key role in boosting domestic demand, supporting structural transformation of national economies, promoting decent work and fostering inclusive and sustainable growth.
- National social protection floors and broader social security systems provide an enabling framework within which to reduce and prevent poverty, as well as to redress inequalities. They are key elements of national policies to promote human development, political stability and inclusive growth.
- The ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), provides practical guidance for setting national social protection floors and building comprehensive social security systems. It reflects a consensus on the extension of social security reached among governments and employers’ and workers’ organisations from 185 countries at all levels of development.
- While there has been a global trend towards the extension of social protection, particularly in middle-income countries, the effectiveness of social security systems in a number of high-income countries is at risk as a result of fiscal consolidation measures.
Recommendations:
- More efforts are needed to step up measures to ensure income security for children and families.
- Ensuring effective access to quality maternal health care is of particular importance, especially in countries where the informal economy accounts for a large proportion of employment.
- Social protection, specifically social protection floors, is essential for recovery, inclusive development and social justice, and must be part of the post-2015 development agenda.
