Central Warsaw

The 5th International Research Conference on Social Security, was held from 5 to 7 March 2007 in Warsaw, Poland, at the invitation of the Polish Social Insurance Institution (ZUS).

Social security and the labour market seem to be increasingly  at odds, apparently growing further and further apart. Both in the industrialized and the developing world, labour markets are becoming more competitive, flexible and  informal. Social security is often incapable of keeping pace with these trends  and effectively protecting individuals from the most severe effects of informal and precarious employment. What is more, corresponding to the argument  that social security must not "stand in the way" of dynamic labour markets, social security provision is increasingly questioned, scaled back or at least  refocused so as to serve labour market requirements.

National social security systems are also often ill-equipped to deal with the increasing number of  migrant workers who reflect the rising geographical mobility of labour and the internationalization of labour markets. In short, while in the present situation of ever more flexible and international labour markets new needs for social security arise, the ability of social security to meet such needs seems to decline.

Topics of the Conference and sessions

Topic 1: The bigger picture: Flexible labour markets and the role of social security

Session on:

• Social security and globalization: Challenges and opportunities

Topic 2: The coverage gap: Informal labour markets in the developing world

Sessions on:

• Addressing the coverage gap in informal employment (Session co-organized by WIEGO)
• Defined-benefit vs. defined-contribution pension schemes: Impacts on labour markets and social security
• The rural-urban divide in social security provision
• Extending coverage: Different country experiences
• Extending coverage: Alternative approaches

Topic 3: Reconciling social security and labour market flexibility

Sessions on:

• Flexible labour markets: Risks and policy responses
• Discontinuous working careers: Implications for pension schemes
• Unemployment benefits: Reconciling flexibility and effective protection
• Persisting labour market inequalities and recent social security reforms: What is the combined effect on women?
• Migrant workers: Issues and policy priorities
• Flexicurity: Combining flexible labour markets and strong social security
• In which ways do insurance and saving mechanisms encourage labour market flexibility? (Session sponsored by The Geneva Association)

Topic 4: The prevailing focus on work: Making social security more employment-friendly

Sessions on:

• Implementing and delivering ‘activation’: New institutional arenas, new roles for service providers (Session co-organized by ASPEN)
• Pension reforms: How successful in extending working lives? (Session co-organized by the ISSA Technical Commission on Old-Age, Invalidity and Survivors’ Insurance)
• Welfare-to-work policies: Dimensions and determinants of success and failure
• Cash benefits, care and the work-life-balance

Topic 5: The labour market of the future: Policy challenges for social security

Sessions on:

• Labour market requirements and the political economy of pension reform
• Labour market trends and social policy responses: Future scenarios

Panel on Policy implications for social security in the evolving labour market.

International Research Conference Final Programme

[ 2programme.pdf 251.79 kB ]