The Social Protection Floor Initiative

1. The Social Protection FloorInitiative The role of the UN and UN agencies in the initiative Bob Huber Chief, Technical Cooperation Unit Division for Social Policy and Development UNDESA

2. The Social Protection Floor Initiative • Promote nationally-defined strategies • Protect a minimum level of access to essential services and income security for all • Grounded in international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ILO Conventions on Social Security, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Two critical components: • Services: Ensuring availability, continuity, geographical access to essential services (water and sanitation, food and adequate nutrition, health care, education, housing, social services) • Transfers: Providing minimum income and livelihood security through a set of essential social transfers, in cash and in kind throughout the life cycle (childhood, working life, retirement), paying particular attention to vulnerable groups.

3. The Social Protection Floor Initiative • United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB)/High Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP) committed to multilateral action to address the global crisis (April 2009) • UN system participating organizations: 15 cooperating agencies and IFIs (ADB, FAO, IMF, OHCHR, UNAIDS, UN Chief Executives Board, UNDESA, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Habitat, the World Bank, WFP and WMO), some donors (BMZ, DFID, Finland, GTZ) and NGOs (HELPAGE, Save the Children).

4. The Social Protection Floor Initiative Activities undertaken by the UN system: • Global Advocacy • Training • Conceptual developments • Country developments

5. The Social Protection Floor Initiative • Global Advocacy • Awareness raising and building support • Briefing of various international meetings by ILO, WHO, UNDESA or UNICEF staff members • Seeking intergovernmental endorsement • Promoting social protection as a tool for development and poverty eradication • Gaining acceptance as a component of the overall social development strategy in the UN system.

6. The Social Protection Floor Initiative • Training • Dissemination of the concept to national governments • Rapid training programme for national social policy planners • Creation of training courses on the Social Protection Floor in Turin and Santiago de Chile. • Training courses held in November and December 2009. • Next one in November 2010 in Turin • It is hoped to reach about 60 planners from key target countries in three courses.

7. The Social Protection Floor Initiative • Conceptual developments • A SPF-I manual drafted and adopted at an Interagency workshop in Turin (13-15 October 2009) • The Manual submitted to the UNDG for dissemination to UN country teams. • An inter-agency advisory network formed to provide conceptual inputs to country-based initiatives. • Guidelines for country operations on the strategic framework for joint UN country operations • Concept of an indicator for the rapid assessment of national Social Protection Floor coverage is being developed

8. The Social Protection Floor Initiative • Country developments • Promote Social Protection Floor country-based activities. • All agencies that receive a request from Government should take up the initiative and invite other agencies to join national coalitions. • The UN Resident Coordinators will have a coordinating role in all country activities. • The SPF Initiative will become a building block of the UNDAF. • The network and the lead agencies will facilitate contacts between the different stakeholders and technical inputs as needed.

9. The Social Protection Floor Initiative • Country developments • Activities underway in Burkina Faso, Maldives, Mozambique and Nepal. Interest in joining the Social Protection Floor Initiative confirmed for Algeria, Botswana, Benin, Cambodia and Togo. • One or more members of the inter-agency coalition has started making contacts in 30 additional countries.

10. The Social Protection Floor Initiative The way ahead: • Extending the knowledge base: • Work on a rapid assessment indicator • Joint paper on “Can developing countries finance a social floor” • 15 case studies of SPF country examples compiled in collaboration with the UN South-South Centre • Interagency Social Protection Floor website • Strengthening national dialogue to encourage citizen, civil society, and potential beneficiary participation • Intensifying South-South Cooperation

11. The Social Protection Floor Initiative • Key challenges • To keep the topic on the international development agenda • To promote its long-term implementation in UN and national planning instruments • To convert political energy into concrete outcomes, particularly at the national level • To ensure and strengthen UN agency coordination • Resources are needed • To reach out effectively to UN Country Representatives • To develop a longer-term common UN agenda and strategy; • To develop practical ways of working which support and do not duplicate ongoing processes.

12. The Social Protection Floor Initiative Thank you Bob Huber Chief, Technical Cooperation Unit Division for Social Policy and Development UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs New York huber@un.org