GLOBAL COOPERATION NEWSLETTERJANUARY 2013
In this issue:
 Featured Article: It is our turn now: Civil society, the labour movement andthe stewardship of the social protection floor
 Useful resources and links
It is our turn now: Civil society, the labour
movement and the stewardship of the social
protection floor
By Michael Cichon, President of ICSWMichael Cichon is an actuary and economist by training.
He worked as an actuary and health economist in theMinistry of Labour in Bonn, Germany from 1978 to 1986.
He joined the ILO in 1986 and served as Director of theSocial Security Department from 2005 till the end of2012. Since January 2013, he has been teaching social
protection policy, governance and financing at theUniversity of Maastricht in the Netherlands and waselected President of the ICSW in 2012.
After decades of fringe existence in economic anddevelopment policy debates, social protection and social
justice have experienced a renaissance in global policy
debates. This has opened up a window of opportunity for political actors who promotesocial justice on a national and international level. Such actors can be found in civil society
organisations and trade unions. However, the window is closing rapidly, as the echos ofpast neo-classical economic and fiscal policies are resurfacing. This short article has four
key messages: there is a historical chance to make a difference, as we have a policy
instrument that is carried by global consensus, it is time to work together, time is runningout, and hence the time to act is now.
A new consensus on social protection has emerged…
While the origins of a new consensus on the role of social protection in national
development can be traced back to the discussions during the International Labour
Conference in 2001 and the G8 conclusion in 20071, it required – unfortunately – a global
1See ILO: The new consensus, Geneva 2001 and G8 Summit: Chair's Summary,Heiligendamm, 8 June 2007

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financial and economic crisis to trigger a social policy breakthrough. The crisis, unfolding
against the background of much bigger, structural and permanent economic uncertainties
and social tensions, has clearly shaken the certainties and agreed wisdom of economic
science and economic and financial policies. It has suddenly become widely accepted thatsocial and economic development itself could be at risk without sound social policies andstrong social protection systems. The international wave of support was triggered to a
substantial extent by the fleeting – as it turns out now – bad conscience of policy makers.
They became aware that the failure of national and the virtual absence of international
supervision of the financial sector had permitted the crisis to happen. The social fallout
could not be ignored, and hence policy makers, by and large, hailed and restored social
security systems as economic and social stabilisers. International agencies used theopportunity to adjust their development strategies. It is not accidental that the EC, theG20, UNICEF, the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) have alldeveloped new social protection strategies seeking to promote more inclusive growth2. All
these strategies are broadly compatible and no longer openly contradict each other atleast. All of them see an important role for social protection systems in national
development. A manifestation of the emerging global consensus in this regard is the newSocial Protection Interagency Co-ordination Board (SPIACB), which is co-chaired by theILO and the World Bank and includes UN agencies, bilateral aid agencies andrepresentatives of prominent NGOs that work in social protection as observers. HelpAge
International and ICSW, for example, are observer members. The Board was created inJuly last year at the behest of the G20. Its role is to co-ordinate the activities of thevarious agencies active in social protection on the international and the national levels. At
last, on the surface of international policy debates, this reflects a level of consensus on theimportance of effective social protection in national development that the world has notseen so far.
These developments have created a unique momentum that civil society has to use.
However, political momentum is a fuzzy concept, often consisting of underdeveloped andvaguely converging ideas, unfocused notions and a general unspecified consensus on a notvery clear objective. A momentum generally needs a condenser, a device that allows
political hot air and white noise to be compressed into manageable political action. The
101st International Labour Conference in June 2012 provided that new device.
…and found a potentially powerful new instrument
Perhaps the potentially most powerful new policy device for the extension of social
protection and the promotions of social justice that emerged from the above momentum isthe concept of national Social Protection Floors (SPFs). For years and decades, universal
social protection systems that provide a minimum level of social security for all wereconsidered unrealistic and unaffordable for many developing and even in some developed
countries. The SPF Initiative of the UN, launched at the height of the crisis in 2009, brokethat conservative political spell. The initiative made the simple case that there is virtually2

See World Bank: Resilience, equity and opportunity: Social Protection and Labour Strategy, 2012, UNICEF:Integrated Social Protection Framework, 2012, EU: The Role of Social Protection in EU Development Policies,Communications 2012

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no society that cannot afford at least a basic level of social protection for all, thus affording
at least basic subsistence and a minimum of dignity for all. The UN Initiative and the ILO
showed that reliable and sound floors for national social protection can be financed using afew percentage points of GDP3, and countries as different as Cape Verde, Brazil, China,Mexico, India, Nepal and South Africa have shown that basic systems of protection can beintroduced, if the political will can be marshaled. Internationally, there is now plenty ofrhetorical support (but less specific financial support) for the implementation of theconcept. In any case, the SPF made it to the top of the international social policy agenda.
In June 2012 the International Labour Conference unanimously adopted a newinternational instrument, i.e. Recommendation 202 on national floors for social protection.
More than 50 civil society organisations, among them the ICSW, the Friedrich Ebert
Stiftung and HelpAge International, have supported the Recommendation and have evenmanaged to modify and add clauses to the original draft submitted by the InternationalLabour Office. The Global Labour Movement has firmly aligned itself behind the concept.
The contents of Recommendation 202 are much more comprehensive and far-reaching
than initially meets the eye. It is more than just a definition of the basic level of social
protection that everyone should enjoy. It sets out its objectives as4: …”to provide
guidance to members to…
a) establish and maintain, as applicable, social protection floors as a fundamental
element of national social security systems, andb) implement social protection floors within strategies for the extension of socialsecurity that progressively ensure higher levels of social security to as many
people as possible, guided by ILO social security standards.”

The Recommendation defines the SPF in terms of four essential social security guarantees,
which basically provide the core content for the human right to social security, as
expressed in articles 22 and 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: i.e. accessto essential heath care for all residents and income security for all children, people inactive age and people in old age. It draws a careful line between the need for global
guidance and the need to leave space for national implementation and policy decisions.
This includes, in particular, the national definition, implementation and monitoring of social
protection floors, ensuring that national social protection floors are in line with nationalcircumstances. However, it also puts the SPF Initiative in the context of wider social
security extension strategies that countries are required to adopt, and identifies a set ofprinciples for national social security extension strategies. These principles essentiallydescribe the characteristics of national social protection systems to be ensured under the
primary responsibility of the state and range from the principles of the universality ofprotection, adequacy, the obligation to define benefits by law, non-discrimination,
progressivity of implementation, acknowledging the diversity of methods and approaches,
and the need for tripartite participation and public consultation on benefit levels andconditions, while demanding respect for the dignity of the people covered, efficient3

See inter alia: ILO....(report to the Conference in 2011)
See ILO: The strategy of the International Labour Organization: Social Security for all: Building
social protection floors and comprehensive social security systems, pp.31 – 39, Geneva 2012
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complaint procedures, transparency, and financial, fiscal and economic sustainability.
Essentially, Recommendation 202 is the most complete and comprehensive internationallyagreed upon description of how universal, effective and equitable social protection systems
should be built. In many ways it is a Magna Carta of social protection.
Recommendation 202 is an unparalleled document of good will. That new global legal
instrument reflecting the new consensus on social protection was unanimously adopted by
the member states of the ILO (with one abstention) in June 2012.
So far, so good. Never before - perhaps not since the period of the Great Depression or
the period of economic and social reconstruction after WWII - has there been so much
public support for social protection and greater acknowledgement of its role in national
development strategies, as well as in the management of economic, social and politicalcrises.
…and as an old threat re-emerges…
However, there are serious signs that the window of opportunity for the real improvementof social protection worldwide is already closing again. As soon as the economic andfinancial crisis turned into a fiscal crisis – principally, but not entirely triggered bygovernment efforts to stabilize national economies through fiscal spending and byshrinking revenues – the tide changed. Austerity measures strongly resembling the policyrecipes that had sprung from the Washington Consensus—believed to be long dead-- took
the top slot on the political agenda again. Social spending cuts re-emerged as national
coping strategies, in stark contrast to the wide-spread lip-service paid to social protection
on the international agenda. There is a real risk that the fiscal costs of the crisis will beborne by workers, pensioners, the sick and disabled, the unemployed and the poor
through lower wages and lower benefits. Redressing large and arguably unsustainablepublic deficits through real tax hikes remains a taboo, as the recent piece of politicaltheatre around the fiscal cliff in the USA has shown.
…this is the hour of civil society and trade unions
What creates sound social protection systems is not the automatic opening up of fiscal
space as economies grow and become more prosperous. What creates and maintains
social protection systems is, in essence, political will. Fiscal space is not something that is
God-given. It is the consequence of policy decisions on national spending priorities thatare driven by political will. Political will has to be articulated and negotiated by societiesthat demand certain policy actions. Political will has be nurtured and built. The creation or
articulation of political will for new social rights in times of perceived fiscal constraints will
not come from the government. The reconciliation of interests between those who demand
lower taxes and hence a smaller state and those who demand higher social spending is too
difficult an exercise to go into voluntarily. Internationally they might demonstrate good
will, but real action has to be conceived on the national level.
Political will on the national level can also not be created by international organisations,which are ultimately owned by national governments. These organizations have carried
the ball as far as they could.
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The demand for social justice has to be articulated by the people themselves. The most
likely representatives of people are civil society organizations, such as NGOs andindependent trade unions. Civil society and trade unions are the natural agents of politicalwill. They can build strong cases for more social justice through social protection. The
global consensus on the Social Protection Floor provides moral guidance and legitimacy, as
well as a political shield for national demands. The global community of nations has
decided that everyone should enjoy a minimum of social protection and that societies
should gradually build higher levels of social security on the basis of strong principles. And
it has decided so unanimously. There is nothing that should stop national pressure groups
from reminding national governments of that consensus whenever necessary anddemanding the establishment or safeguarding of social protection floors at the nationallevel.
to build a coherent political agenda…
The fifty plus civil society organisations and the global trade union movement thatsupported the SPF Initiative last June have their homework mapped out. And there arevery concrete things that we can do on the national and international levels.
National NGOs and trade unions, civil society at large, can build pressure groups andsimply start monitoring the extent to which the four social security guarantees of the SPF
are implemented in their country. They can establish whether all children, adults in active
age groups and people in old age enjoy a minimum decent level of income security that
ensures access to essential goods and services and whether everybody has access to aminimum level of health care. We can document gaps and even calculate the cost ofclosing these gaps, and can indicate where resources can be found. That diagnostic work
can then be used to shame governments into action. Global associations can support thenational groups that need solid policy guidance and technical backing from an international
coalition of organizations that share the same mission and have broad access toknowledge, evidence and experience.
On the global level there is a possibility for a three-pronged approach to be pushed.
We can make sure that social protection and, realistically speaking, national Social
Protection Floors play an important role in the post-2015 development agenda debate. The
establishment and maintenance of SPFs provide a tangible development policy tool.
Whether people have access to social security is clearly measurable, and gaps inprotection can be filled by concrete policy tools rather than by diffuse policy concepts.
We can support the demand for a Global Fund for Social Protection that the UN
rapporteurs for the right to food and human rights have jointly issued5 and help to ensurethat the Fund concentrates on sponsoring national action to implement the SPF. We cansupport the International Financial Transaction Tax and demand that it help to feed theFund and support the few countries that really cannot build floor levels of social protection
by their own means.
5Olivier de Schutter, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food; Magdalena Sepúlveda, UnitedNations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights: Executive Summary, A Global Fund forSocial Protection (GFSP), October 2012

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The most powerful tool in policy implementation is simply taking the first steps, without
waiting for any form of global blessing. National pressure groups can be built, and national
monitoring can begin now. The Global Fund could be started by asking the members of theGlobal Civil Society Coalition on the SPF to contribute to a Fund that would allow us tosupport national policy making6.
The time to act is now. The ICSW is ready to take on its share of the action.
 Useful resources and links
Recommendation concerning national floors of social protection.
A new international labour standard adopted by the International Labour Conference inJune 2012, Recommendation 202 concerning national floors of social protection, provides
guidance to countries in establishing and maintaining national SPFs, reflecting nationalobjectives, economic and fiscal capacities.
http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/--relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_183326.pdf

Social Protection Floor for a Fair and Inclusive Globalization
A ground-breaking report of the Advisory Group chaired by Michelle Bachelet finds thatsocial protection programmes can act as stabilizers attenuating the adverse impact ofeconomic crises on labour markets, while contributing to maintaining social cohesion andstimulating aggregate demand.
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/secsoc/downloads/bachelet.pdf

The content of this Global Newsletter may be freely reproduced or cited provided the source isacknowledged. Views do not necessarily represent policies of ICSW.
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The NGO OGBL Solidarité Syndicale in Luxembourg, for example, supports the testing of a new maternity andchild support cash benefit in Ghana by contributions from the Luxembourg Trade Unions. For more details see
http://www.solidaritesyndicale.lu/glst.php

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