Financing social protection floors: side event to the Commission on Social Development

  • Date: 3 February 2017, 1:15 pm - 2:30 pm
  • Location: Conference Room 11, UN Headquarters, New York

The Addis Ababa Action Agenda includes a new social compact. This compact contains two components: a commitment to deliver social protection systems and measures for all, including floors; and a package of essential public services. Paragraph 12 of the Addis Agenda contains a commitment by Member States to “strong international support” for delivering social protection and essential public services for all and to “explore coherent funding modalities to mobilize additional resources, building on country-led experiences.”

Under the auspices of the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development, the Financing for Development Office and the ILO organized an expert group meeting in November 2016 to explore coherent funding modalities for the social protection floor component of the social compact. It explored: modalities for international support for universal social protection floors, including the role of official development assistance; domestic and international options for countering the usual loss of public revenues during economic downturns and shocks and the ensuing pressure to cut back on social protection outlays, and; how to balance contributory revenues, often used with pension schemes, with general tax revenue for social protection finance.

As a result of the meeting, a paper is being prepared to present some of the policy options for Member States and to inform the 2017 report of the Task Force. This event seeks to update all stakeholders on the outcomes of the expert group meeting and seek comments and input from the attendees on the draft paper.

The event will also be webcast live via UN Web TV website at: http://webtv.un.org. For further information, please contact Mr. Peter Chowla (email chowla@un.org, tel 1 (212) 963-8618).

Further information is available on the Financing for Development website.

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