10 October 2011
Workers, health and social protection
Half of the world’s workers – nearly 1.53 billion people – are in vulnerable employment. These workers do not tend to have formal work arrangements or receive social security and health benefits. [Source: United Nations: the Global Social Crisis (2011), pages 1, 32].
Extending social protection to all people, through the United Nations (UN) Social Protection Floor initiative, is a fundamental strategy to support action on health inequities and other global priorities. A social protection floor approach promotes nationally defined strategies and comprises a basic set of social rights, services, and facilities that every person should enjoy. The UN suggests that a social protection floor could consist of two main elements that help to realize human rights:
- services: geographical and fi nancial access to essential services such as water and sanitation, health, and education;
- transfers: a basic set of essential social transfers, in cash or in kind, to provide minimum income security and access to essential services, including health care.
The UN Social Protection Floor Initiative (SPF-I) provides a framework for the systematic build-up of more comprehensive social protection systems as countries develop further and economies recover from recent crises. The SPF-I is supporting a growing number of countries in their endeavours to build social protection systems at any stage of the process. The tools for the planning and implementation of such action have been developed. SPF-I actors have collected evidence, documented experiences, and developed tools (for example, social Protection expenditure reviews, social budgeting, actuarial models, needs assessments, costing assessments, capacity-building, and monitoring and evaluation) to support countries in their endeavours to build their own social protection floor. Requests for technical assistance can be directed to any of the participating un agencies. Several international and national organizations have endorsed the SPF-I. This initiative provides a model for intersectoral action on social determinants, transcending the mandate of any individual UN agency. The SPF-I is being implemented through a coherent, system-wide approach involving joint UN country responses, with each UN agency offering cutting-edge advice in its respective areas of expertise to ensure the optimal use of experts, resources, and logistical support.