6th International Policy and Research Conference on Social Security "Emerging trends in times of instability: New challenges and opportunities for social security"
Theme 3. Impact of major emerging mega-trends on social policies and on forthcoming social security challenges
The major emerging trends, including societal, technological, environmental and geo-political factors, represent a challenge for social security, which needs to investigate the best way of facing up to them. The objective is to identify what will be at stake for social security administrations in the five, ten or even twenty years to come and to develop a forward-looking vision to respond to these challenges when they arise.
3.1. Rethinking the design of social security in an unstable world: How to cope with the challenges posed by external “stresses”
The new exogenous “stress factors”, consisting of global warming and environmental issues, population movements in an environment that is changing rapidly and the scope of new pandemics, are becoming increasingly significant. In this respect, they imply the need to rethink the architecture of social security with a view to responding to the new expectations arising out of these changes. This is particularly true for low and middle income countries, in view of the fact that their formal social protection system is far from covering the whole of the population and that informal schemes are struggling due to the rapidity of economic, social and demographic transformations. Under these circumstances, research needs to be undertaken and policy recommendations made in respect of both existing schemes and new programmes. How can the impact of exogenous factors on social security programmes be assessed? How can they be confronted?
Sub-theme 3.1 - Reports
François de Jouvenel. Futuribles. France.
Based on the work of the monitoring system (Système Vigie) developed by Futuribles International, this intervention will focus on the interpretatio...
Fahlbusch, Nils. Booz & Company. Germany.
New exogenous “stress factors”, consisting of global megatrends in all dimensions from “Demography & Wealth” over “Climate, Energy & Resources” to...
Palme, Joakim, Institute for Future Studies, Sweden
The demographic transition makes population structure predictable. Increasing part of the world is entering the 'ageing phase'.
3.2. Impact of new technologies on social policies and the effectiveness of citizen-oriented approach
Social security institutions are today developing in a new environment characterized by new demands. The economic slowdown that is currently being experienced may offer these institutions an opportunity to adopt a balanced vision of their activities and to create possibilities for change which may help them to become more effective and better organized in time. Administrators have the opportunity to engage in innovations which can help them to confront the new situation of multiple challenges and decreased resources. They also need to find the means of optimizing the value of existing programmes and services, while developing new strategies that are capable of responding to the needs of the personnel and the expectations of clients, for example by developing the permanent participation of citizens in the formulation of policies and programmes. How can social security be adapted to the new requirements of the knowledge economy and the digital economy? What impact may new technologies have in return on social security in terms of governance values and methods?
Sub-theme 3.2 - Reports
Damon, Julien. Sylvain Lemoine. François de Jouvenel. Pierre-Yves Cusset. Sciences Po. Caisse d'allocations familiales de Rennes. Futuribles. France.
Gibbon, Chris, IBM. United Kingdom.
Technology has been an integral part of social services and social security organizations for decades
González, Laura. Gabriel López. Fabricio Alvarez. Universidad de la República del Uruguay. Uruguay.
One of the characteristics of social security portals is the need to interact with different kinds of users, which include, among others, workers,...
González, Laura. Guzmán Llambías. Pablo Pazos. Universidad de la República del Uruguay. Uruguay.
Health actors usually adopt specific information representation standards (for example, HL7), which normally differ from the ones used by social se...
González, Laura. Patricia Foti. Raquel Sosa. Bruno Rienzi. Universidad de la República del Uruguay. Uruguay.
Social security organizations can use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in order to enhance the services they provide. For instance, organizatio...
Radulica Montserrat, Simona Manuela. Université de Lausanne. Suisse.
Security considerations are now more than ever becoming one of the critical concerns of our society. Security is conceived of, developed and implem...
3.3. The emergence of new leading economic powers: What new values for social security policies?
The emergence of new economic powers will lead to changes in the conception of social security. The “European” and “Anglo-Saxon” models will now be confronted with new approaches adopted by recent arrivals on the international scene. For example, Brazil, the Russian Federation, India and China (the BRIC countries) will question existing social security models in the light of their own principles and values and will participate in disseminating original types of social security policies that will find their place in countries at differing income levels and with different institutional architectures. How will these geo-political developments fashion a new future for social security? What impact will they have on the principal issues of the extension of social protection coverage, the ageing of the population and the increasing informality of the labour market?
Sub-theme 3.3 - Reports
Damon, Julien. Sciences Po. France.
The general issue of the link between benefits and obligations is as old as the hills. An original approach to the subject is to spend a little eff...
Ghai, Mridula. Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation. India.
The paper explores the possibility of drawing from the existing models of social security to design an effective policy intervention for bridging t...
Kay, Stephen. Milko Matijascic. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. United States. Institute of Applied Economic Research. Brazil.
While the welfare state is by definition redistributive, this does not automatically entail that it creates more equality (Esping-Andersen and Myle...
Merrien, François-Xavier. Daniele Lopes Wohnlich. Université de Lausanne. Suisse.
It has taken less than a decade for the Conditional Cash Transfer policy introduced in Brazil (Bolsa familia) since 2003/2004 to become an internat...
Sander, Anne. Christopher Schmitt. Stein Kuhnle. Hertie School of Governance. Germany.
In the face of mounting challenges and a growing potential for social unrest and instability, the Chinese Government has in recent years repeatedly...
Singh, Sharad. Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation. India.
This paper studies the state of organizational effectiveness of two very large Indian social security organizations (SSOs) through an appropriate m...
Tsai, Hung-Jeng. Chingli Yang. Nan-Hwa University. National Cheng-Kung University. The People’s Republic of China.
The New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS) is currently the main medical insurance for Chinese peasants. Although the NRCMS appears to have a...
Region: International