GLOBAL COOPERATION NEWSLETTER
July 2010
In this edition
Social protection floor initiative moves ahead
ADB Seminar on Promoting Inclusive Growth through Social Protection
From the OECD: Wanted - 15 Million Jobs
Steps out of the global development crisis
European conference of ICSW - together with ENSACTUNRISD launches UNRISD News and more from UNRISD
Policy Brief: Reconnecting the MDGs to the development agenda
Social protection floor initiative moves ahead
In the June edition of the Global Cooperation Newsletter I outlined the concept of the social
protection floor initiative (SPF-I). I reported on the adoption of the initiative by ICSW General
Assembly as an enhancement to the ICSW global programme. The SPF-I was adopted as part ofthe future Agenda of the International Association of Schools of Social Work, ICSW and theInternational Federation of Social Workers.
The SPF-I is promoted (in English, French and Spanish) on the Global Extension of Social Security(GESS) website http://www.socialsecurityextension.org On this site, amongst much material, is abrochure outlining the initiative. ICSW dedicates part of its website to the SPF-I. Information can befound through a link on the home page - www.icsw.org
Since the world conference in Hong Kong I attended a meeting in Turin where national
representatives shared their experiences on the social protection floor. Papers on social protection
initiatives came from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chile, China, Columbia,Ecuador, Ghana, India, Mexico, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa and Thailand.

Christian Jacquier of the International Labour Organisation when outlining the aims and objectives of
the workshop emphasised the four dimensions of the SPF-I: – social protection as an affordable
human right, and as a social, economic and political necessity.
Supporting the SPF-I is a global coalition of 19 UN agencies and other partners including regional
development banks, bilateral partners (Finland, Germany, Brazil, etc), INGOs including ICSW,HelpAge International and the private sector. The activities being generated include awarenessraising and advocacy to bring the SPF into the policy debate and taking stock of knowledge
management.
National action:

Global Cooperation Newsletter

Page 1

Large scale and successful flagship building blocks of the SPF are already in place in manycountries: basic health, basic education, basic pensions, family or child benefits, employment
guarantee schemes, unemployment benefits, food security and nutrition…
Most emerging economies are already moving toward a comprehensive SPF: Mexico (Vivir mejor),
Argentina, Brazil, Chile (Red Protege), Uruguay (El plan de Equitad), Colombia, China, India,Thailand, Indonesia, South Africa etc.
An increasing number of least developed countries have decided to start their own SPF: Rwanda,Burkina Faso, Togo and other West African countries, Honduras, El Salvador, Cambodia, Bolivia,Paraguay, and Ecuador etc.
What we know about the SPF:
• SPF should be based on a coherent, explicit, guaranteed, realistic, articulated and relevant basicpackage.
•A well designed SPF is affordable even in the poorest countries (it costs from 3 to 5 % of GDP).
•SPF has a positive and rapid impact on poverty and inequality reduction, on economic growth,
on social and health outcomes and on the achievement of the MDGs.
•It requires a strong political commitment, a sustainable fiscal space and political consensus.
•
Financial and technical support from donors is necessary for the poorest countries. It should beadequate, predictable and sustainable.
•
SPF is a cost-effective investment.
•SPF should be country-specific.
•SPF is a long term process which starts modestly and builds progressively.
•
Necessary ingredients of SPF include: investments in social budgeting, social dialogue, careful
gender-sensitive design, capacity building, SP education, people empowerment, civil society
participation, monitoring and evaluation.
•Creating linkages between SPF building blocks and with social security is a necessity•
Knowledge management, knowledge sharing and South-South exchanges are essential.
All the national experiences presented at the workshop will be published in English, French andSpanish. I will keep you posted on when the publication is available. The workshop was sponsoredby the ILO, the UN Special Unit for South-South Cooperation, GTZ (Germany) and the ILO
International Training Centre (Turin).
(Report written by Denys Correll ICSW Executive Director)

ADB Seminar on Promoting Inclusive Growth through Social Protection
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) conducted a seminar on Promoting inclusive growth throughsocial protection. UNRISD Director Sarah Cook said at the seminar appropriately designed social
protection can provide a way out of poverty and promote more equitable growth. Many social
protection interventions focus on protection against specific shocks rather than addressing theunderlying causes of vulnerability. Social protection can be designed to achieve developmental
outcomes. For example, programmes designed to maintain and strengthen the productive assets ofhouseholds, together with the universal provision of basic public goods and services, can better
protect households. A key issue is how to ensure the critical linkages between protection andproduction
orenhanced
livelihood
capabilities.
Cook outlined three key lessons of the Asian financial crisis of 1998: strong state-led policies arenecessary for economic growth to be inclusive; the nature of these policies matters; and the criticallink between social protection and inclusive growth lies in the extent to which social protection
interventions can go beyond protection and address interconnected issues of production, distribution
andreproduction.
Social protection is usually introduced as a response to vulnerability and to protect againstcontingencies. Vulnerability has many aspects: material deficit in basic needs; exclusion; uncertainty
and insecurity; and “traps” that arise when these intersect. Because institutional and politicalarrangements and the nature and source of vulnerabilities vary, there is no “one-size-fits-all”
solution.
In the light of this complexity, Cook talked of the need for developmental measures that provide abasis for greater economic security and contribute to wider economic development goals; andtransformative measures that address the underlying power imbalances that create and sustain
Global Cooperation Newsletter

Page 2longer term vulnerabilities—for example, anti-discrimination legislation, secure rights andentitlements and strengthening the ability of citizens to claim rights. She also stressed theimportance of an expanded role for the state in reducing, mitigating and responding to risk.
(http://www.adb.org/AnnualMeeting/2010/Seminars/Presentations/S-Cook-presentation-4May.pdf)

From the OECD: Wanted - 15 Million Jobs

While economies in many developed countries may be starting to recover slowly from the recession,
the jobs crisis looks set to last a while. By the end of 2011, OECD countries will need to create 15
million new jobs just to get employment levels back to where they were before the crisis hit. Read
more at https://community.oecd.org/community/factblog/blog/2010/07/07/jobs-gap-wanted-15million-posts

Steps Out Of the Global Development Crisis
The financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009 only reached the developing world with a time lag. At
least in parts of the Global South the crisis is having a huge social and economic impact. As a result,the prospects of achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), by 2015, are receding ever more into distance.
In a new publication of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung titled "Steps Out of the Global Development
Crisis - Towards an Agenda for Change", ( http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/global/07311.pdf ), Jens
Martens, Director of Global Policy Forum Europe, outlines a comprehensive programme for change
to combat what he sees as a global development crisis.

European conference of ICSW - together with ENSACT
The next joint regional European conference of ICSW - together with ENSACT, the European
Network on Social Action - will take place from 10 to 13 April 2011 in Brussels. Herman Rompuy,the President of the European Council, will be one of the key note speakers at this Conference.
The Call for Papers has been published - the deadline is 31 October 2010.
For more information on themes of the conference and registration of proposals, please visit theconference website www.ensact.eu

UNRISD launches UNRISD News

Global Cooperation Newsletter

Page 3

In the first edition there is a message from the new UNRISD director Sarah Cook. Other content
includes headlines; events; meet a researcher (Youssoufou Congo, visiting research fellow at
UNRISD from Burkina Faso and is working on microfinance; and publications – including briefs(Combating poverty and inequality and Why care matters for social development), books and papers.
The web version can be found at: http://www.unrisd.org/publications/e-bulletin1 And if you wish to
subscribe go to: http://www.unrisd.org/myunrisd

More from UNRISD
Podcast: Financing Social Policy: Mobilizing Resources for Social Development. In this
episode, Katja Hujo talks about her recent book on Financing Social Policy: Mobilizing Resources forSocial Development, part of UNRISD project on social policy.
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BF3C2/setLanguageCookie?OpenAgent&langcode=en&url=/80
256B3C005BE6B5/search/59798D5B6A35A5C9C12577510046422A?OpenDocument
UNRISD Flagship Report 2010: Combating Poverty and Inequality
UNRISD will launch its 2010 Flagship Report 'Combating Poverty and Inequality' on Friday, 3
September 2010 at the UN Office in Geneva, Room XII. The report is the culmination of three yearsof work from over forty contributors and the whole of UNRISD in-house staff, providing a synthesis of
the research commissioned under the original Project on Poverty Reduction and Policy Regimes.
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BF3C2/setLanguageCookie?OpenAgent&langcode=en&url=/80
256B3C005BD6AB/search/90DF168624C41E22C1257736004F70D1?OpenDocument

Policy Brief Reconnecting the MDGs to the development agenda
The UNCTAD Civil Society Outreach Team has produced a Policy Brief entitled Reconnecting theMDGs to the development agenda: A four-pronged approach.
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/StartPage.asp?intItemID=2068
The content of this Global Newsletter may be freely reproduced or cited provided the source isacknowledged. Views do not necessarily represent policies of ICSW.
Newsletter Editor: Denys Correll, Executive Director.
ICSW C/- MOVISIE Netherlands Centre for Social Development
PO Box 19129
3501 DC Utrecht
Netherlands
Website www.icsw.org Email: icsw@icsw.org
If you wish to cease receiving this newsletter, please click 'here' providing your name and email
address

Global Cooperation Newsletter

Page 4