Welcome to the webinar organised by Social Protection for Employment Community (SPEC)
socialprotection.org and SPEC Webinar Series on Linking Social Protection to Sustainable Employment presents: Presenter: Anna McCord, Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Panellists: Aparajita Sarangi, (MGNREGA), the Ministry of Rural Development (MGNREGA), India Maria Eugenia Mujica, the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion (MIDIS), Peru Michael Samson, Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI), South Africa Ana Maria B Raymundo, Technical Support Services Division of the Sustainable Livelihood Program, the Philippines Moderator: Simone Cecchini, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC/CEPAL)
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Presenter Anna McCord, Research Associate, Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Anna has a PhD and Masters in Economics from the University of Cape Town and degree in Social and Political Science from the University of Cambridge. She is a Research Associate at the Overseas Development Institute (UK), an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester (ESID) and a Research Affiliate at UCT. She specialises in social policy design and evaluation with a focus on public works, labour markets and employment. Anna has worked extensively in sub-saharan Africa with a range of governments, donors and NGOs and also teaches and publishes on social protection.
Panellist Aparajita Sarangi, Joint Secretary Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the Ministry of Rural Development, India Aparajita Sarangi is the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development of India, in charge of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). She has held this position since 2013 after serving the Government of Odisha in various positions since 1996. MGNREGS is the largest public works programme in the world with one of the most innovative features, i.e. rights to work.
Panellist Maria Eugenia Mujica, Vice Minister of Policy and Social Evaluation, the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion (MIDIS), Peru Maria Eugenia Mujica is Viceminister of Social Policy and Evaluation in the Ministry of Social Development and Inclusion. She is an Economist from Universidad del Pacífico and has Master's and PH.D. degrees in International Relations from the University of Miami. Prior to assuming her current role, Ms. Mujica worked for 15 years in the United Nations system: her last position was as head of the programme area of the UNDP country office in Peru.
Panellist Michael Samson, Director of Research, Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI), South Africa Director of Research, Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI) and a Visiting Associate Professor of Economics at the Williams College Center for Development Economics in the United States. He has over 30 years experience working in social protection, including in designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating social cash transfer programmes. Michael brings experiences from social protection work in over thirty Asian and African countries including, Thailand, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Viet Nam, the Kyrgyz Republic, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Swaziland, Ethiopia, Nigeria, the Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, among others. Michael regularly convenes courses in South Africa, Thailand, Mozambique, Kenya, Viet Nam and Bangladesh on designing, implementing and evaluating social protection programmes and policies.
Panellist Ana Maria B Raymundo, Planning and Policy Development Unit Head and Officer-in-Charge, Technical Support Services Division of the Sustainable Livelihood Program, the Philippines Ana Maria Raymundo currently heads the Planning and Policy Development Unit of the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) at the Department of the Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) of the Government of the Philippines. Ana Maria is also the Officer-in-Charge of the Technical Support Services Division of the Sustainable Livelihood Program. She has been working with SLP for last five years. Ana Maria studied in development studies in Ateneo de Manila University.
Moderator Simone Cecchini, Senior Social Affairs Officer, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC/CEPAL) At ECLAC, Simone Cecchini leads research and advises Latin American and Caribbean governments on the design and implementation of social protection policies and programmes, the human rights perspective to development and the assessment of cash transfer and labour and inclusion programmes that aim to reduce poverty. His research is characterized by a multi-disciplinary approach and a focus on equity and human rights. Between 1998 and 2002, prior to joining ECLAC, Mr. Cecchini worked at the World Bank s Poverty Group, where he combined quantitative and qualitative data to analyze the socio-economic performance of developing countries and performed evaluation and research fieldwork on uses of information and communications technologies for poverty reduction in rural India.
Overview We face a chronic crisis of unemployment and working poverty Workers - poorly remunerated and working in adverse conditions without basic labour rights, security of employment or social protection Negative impact on poverty reduction and human development Consequence of changes in structure of global economy neither transient or temporary Unemployment and working poverty are among the major development problems of our time
The social protection challenge How to include the working age poor (WAP) within the framework of social protection provision and enhance their prospects for future engagement in the labour market?
Source material Analysis of the challenge draws on the ILO s World Employment and Social Outlook: 2017 Programming observations draw on programmes presented at the South-South Knowledge Collaboration Workshop Designing and Implementing Social Protection Programs for Employment, which attempt to promote employment through social protection provision using a range of different approaches; BRAC Targeting the Ultra Poor Graduation Model - Bangladesh Sustainable Livelihood Programme - Philippines Haku Wiñay - Peru Familias programme and the Intersectoral Social Protection System - Chile PROSPERA Social Inclusion Programme - Mexico Employment for Prosperity and Youth in Action (Jóvenes en Acción) - Colombia Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) - India Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) - South Africa.
The labour market context Employment created is not sufficient to absorb the growing global labour force Slow economic growth, recessions 2008/9 and 2016 Large scale labour market failure Significant surplus labour (ILO, 2017) Unemployment Chronic poor-quality employment (working poverty and vulnerable workers)
Unemployment 200 million unemployed globally (6%) Labour force growth > job creation Unemployment increasing by 2.7m annually Unemployment concentrated among youth Large youth cohorts > labour force growth - demographic dividend Only a dividend if it can be productively employed Early labour market exclusion sustained social, economic and security impacts
Employment: the working poor 42% of workers globally live in poverty (<US$3.1 PPP a day) South Asia: 1/2 workers live in poverty (335 million) 118 million in extreme poverty (<US$1.3 PPP) SSA: 2/3 workers live in poverty (231 million) 122 million in extreme poverty Developing countries: 2/3 workers in (184 million) slow decline in share absolute number increasing by 3 million per annum
Employment: vulnerable and precarious Vulnerability - workers engaged in own account, family, informal, and precarious employment without access to contributory social protection (ILO) 1.4 billion workers are in vulnerable employment (50% of total) Marginal annual decrease in % of vulnerable workers Number of vulnerable workers growing by 11 million per annum 75% of workers in South Asia & 68% of workers in sub-saharan Africa Growth of precarious employment poorly paid, insecure, unprotected employment that cannot support a household (Fudge & Owens, 2006).
Causes Cyclical and structural factors - national & supranational Slow economic growth Slower structural transformation from agriculture to more productive industrial and service sectors than anticipated Economic growth not producing anticipated quantity of decent work
Labour market summary Reduction in unemployment and working poverty rates is slow Unequal improvements regionally, stagnating with economic slow down Growth is creating vulnerable and poorly remunerated work Ongoing dominance of informal employment Crisis of adverse incorporation - inclusion into the economy on adverse terms - poor working conditions and low remuneration, impoverishment and exploitation Significant challenge to the Decent Work agenda - employment which is productive, fair income, security in the workplace, social protection for families etc - decent work deficit
Implications for social protection Employment not playing anticipated role in poverty reduction Major challenge for realisation of SDG 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere Question for social protection what role can it play in addressing this crisis? Existing provision excludes most of the growing numbers of unemployed and working poor who are outside formal employment How to incorporate the working age poor into social protection provision and productive employment?
The social protection options TRADITIONAL Address poverty contributory social security - for those in formal employment social assistance - cash transfers and public employment programmes Promote employment Active Labour Market Programmes (ALMP) - labour market information, job placement & vocational, technical and soft skills training INNOVATIVE Link SP to complementary interventions to promote employability/self employment counselling, microfinance, asset provision, income generation training etc ( productive safety nets & graduation programmes ) sustainable employment, livelihood & graduation programmes, eg Productive Safety Nets programme (Ethiopia), VUP (Rwanda)
SP and employment approaches Exclusive social protection provision Support limited to receipt of transfer to address financial constraints to job search/employment/self employment Social protection provision linked to complements Agency providing SP actively links beneficiaries to institutions providing ALMP/complementary programmes to wider population with goal of enhancing employment/self employment Joint provision of social protection and complements Agency providing SP extends mandate to also provide ALMP/ complementary services for beneficiaries - some tailored to individual rather than generic needs Exclusive ALMP provision Support limited to ALMP without social protection transfer
Questions 1. Cost effectiveness of such interventions in context of mass and chronic over-supply of labour? 2. Risk of over-burdening social protection delivery agency with other poverty reduction activities in case of joint provision? (competence of agency, capacity of workers, overlap of mandates) 3. Challenge of institutional coordination in cases of linked provision? 4. Risk that SP/complementary interventions replace existing worker cohorts with beneficiaries rather than creating new jobs? 5. Efficiency of linking ALMP/complementary provision to SP when SP coverage is so limited? 6. Ethics of focusing ALMP/complementary provision on the few WAP in receipt of social protection, to the exclusion of others?
Selected key references Filmer D & Fox L, 2014. Overview: Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank, Washington DC. Fox L, Thomas A, Haines C & Huerta Munoz J, 2013. Africa s Got Work to Do: Employment Prospects in the New Century, International Monetary Fund working paper 13 201, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC. Fudge J & Owens R, 2006. Precarious work, women and the new economy: the challenge to legal norms. In Fudge, Judy; Owens, Rosemary. Precarious work, women and the new economy: the challenge to legal norms. Onati International Series in Law and Society. Oxford: Hart Publishing. ILO (International Labour Organisation), 1999. Decent Work. Report of the Director-General, International Labour Conference 87th Session. Geneva: ILO ILO, 2017. World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2017 International Labour Office Geneva: ILO Standing G, 2011, The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. London: Bloomsbury
Conclusion Unemployment and under-employment are among the major development challenges of our time Need for realism regarding the potential role of social protection in contexts of chronic labour market failure Recognise limits of current provision in relation to profound structural barriers to employment Engage critically with achievements to date Develop new thinking regarding the conceptualisation and implementation of social protection
Recommendations Refresh policy and programme design in the light of labour market analysis Create an enabling institutional context Extend evaluation to inform effective programming and accountability Extend the scale of social protection provision so that it can play meaningful role in context of mass labour market failure form a basis for large scale complementary interventions
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