First published in 1948, the International Social Security Review is the principal international quarterly publication in the field of social security.
The article discusses the current practices for providing social protection to refugees and migrants, focusing primarily on low- and middle-income (LMICs) destination countries. It examines formal providers of social protection, including state institutions, development agencies and humanitarian organizations. In recent years, there has been an increase in funding from multilateral donors, especially in the context of the COVID–19 pandemic, leading to the establishment of national assistance programmes in LMICs that also encompass refugees and to a lesser extent migrant workers. International agencies play a crucial role in providing humanitarian cash assistance to refugees, given their status under international protection under the 1951 refugee Convention and related protocols. Access to social insurance remains tied to formal employment. Social insurance entitlements for migrants are often restricted and refugees are typically excluded from formal employment in LMICs. Regarding labour market interventions, refugees and migrants are often excluded from national programmes, with migrants’ residence permits being often tied to employment. For refugees, international agencies take a prominent role in providing livelihood programmes aimed at enhancing income-generating opportunities, economic inclusion and financial independence. However, the effectiveness of these interventions remains unclear, lacking rigorous evidence, and often being short-term with limited coverage.
Migration is a complex phenomenon that has significant implications for migrant workers’ access to social protection and for social security systems in both origin and destination countries. As the number of migrants continues to rise worldwide, policy makers face a multitude of challenges in adapting social protection programmes to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population. This article explores the relationship between migration and social protection, highlighting key issues and trends that have emerged in recent years. It examines the impact of migration on social security systems in both sending and receiving countries and reports on the ways in which migration patterns can create both opportunities and challenges for these systems. The article provides an overview social protection measures and gaps in selected countries and considers the need for policy makers to take account of the unique needs and circumstances of migrant populations. The article also explores the role of international cooperation in addressing the social protection challenges and opportunities posed by migration. It considers some of the emerging trends and innovations to support the governance of social protection schemes that may help to address some of the legal and practical challenges faced by migrant workers and social security institutions. The article highlights the importance of understanding the complex relationship between migration and social protection to develop policies and programmes that are responsive to the needs of all members of society, regardless of their country of origin or immigration status. It also underlines the importance of quality administration and good governance for the effective implementation of social protection measures. In support of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda, a call is made for continued dialogue and collaboration among policy makers and stakeholders to ensure that social security systems are equitable, effective, inclusive, and sustainable in an increasingly globalized world.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) outlines the rights for every child, including the right to benefit from social security and the right to a standard of living adequate for their physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development. The UNCRC is the most widely ratified human rights treaty to date. However, millions of children continue to be denied their rights and face poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion, merely because they are displaced – internally or across borders. Children bear the heaviest burden of displacement, despite not being responsible for its triggers. This reality underlines that a significant population is being “left behind”, threatening progress to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals as part of international efforts to end poverty and ensure all people enjoy peace and prosperity. This article advocates for inclusive social protection systems for displaced children by highlighting the difficulties they encounter, emphasizing the potential benefits of social protection, and assessing the current status of inclusive social protection for this vulnerable group. Drawing on emerging lessons from UNICEF’s experience across several refugee and internal displacement contexts, such as Brazil, Ethiopia, Slovakia, and Türkiye, the article also offers recommendations to strengthen inclusive social protection systems specifically tailored to meet the humanitarian and development needs of displaced children.
This article explores factors influencing the extension of social protection to migrant workers in the region of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC). While there are some indications of new momentum for reforms, we find that reforms to address gaps in legal social protection coverage have historically been hindered by the very design of the migration system, including the assumed short-term migration time frame and over reliance on employer-sponsored provisions, as well as the political economy in the region, which translates into a segmented labour market and associated social protection entitlements for national and migrant workers, and limited channels for migrant worker representation. Despite some new mechanisms being developed, labour dispute and judicial systems are often ineffective in protecting workers and their families when benefits are not paid. Bureaucratic, financial, language, documentation and geographic barriers constitute further obstacles to migrant workers’ access to social protection in practice. The article closes with key policy implications, including measures for: developing comprehensive legal provisions in line with international standards and principles as well as the commitments to leave no one behind and to ensure social protection for all in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; addressing practical barriers, power imbalances and outreach, monitoring and enforcement gaps; and strengthening dialogue and collaboration between all actors, including GCC and country of origin governments, employers, workers, and wider stakeholders advocating for migrant workers’ rights.
The target populations to be covered in this article on the extension of social protection coverage are refugees, as defined by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Our approach to their coverage is based on the pillars of public health and social protection, which together provide the rationale and legislative basis for coverage. The social protection benefits to be covered are comprehensive health services, providing entitlement to services without conditions such as prior contributions or duration of residence. Refugees are vulnerable since they come from conflict areas or go through persecution and personal threat. They carry grief from the loss of family members and friends, property and livelihood, and social and cultural support. Some have sustained injuries before rescue and evacuation and need additional care. They may have chronic diseases and need medications they can no longer access. Some may have communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis, and children may have missed scheduled mandatory vaccinations. Refugees are vulnerable to new and re-emerging infections, as seen in the COVID–19 pandemic. While the focus in this article is on providing health care, the social determinants of health are addressed, including access to education, employment with decent working conditions, and safe environments. We focus on coverage by national authorities and institutions, legislative amendments to enable entitlement to non-citizens, and provide national examples. Experience has shown that coverage is feasible with the assistance and guidance of international and local organizations and associations and with an acceptance by the existing social protection institutions of the benefits of extending coverage to new members. This article concurs with the principle and pledge of the 2030 Social Development Goals of the United Nations to “leave no one behind”.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has the mandate to save lives and build better futures for millions of forcibly displaced and stateless people. This contribution sets out UNHCR’s mandated roles concerning displaced population groups and details the nature of the humanitarian and human development challenges that confront the international community. In this important regard, the social protection coverage extension objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Global Partnership for Universal Social Protection (USP), to leave no one behind, are considered essential.
This 2023 special issue of the International Social Security Review contributes to the core debate framed by the international ambition of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to leave no one behind and does so through the lens of social security coverage extension. Specifically, the special issue addresses the social security rights of selected population groups prioritized by the current programme of work of the International Social Security Association; namely, displaced populations, amongst whom children represent a significant proportion, and international migrant workers. Implicit in this choice is a wish to collate, analyse, enrich, and disseminate knowledge to forge a stronger consensus to help realize effective social security coverage for all.
In this article the adequacy of social insurance benefits is addressed from the perspective of eight fundamental goals of social insurance. With respect to these goals, the legislated level of the benefit and other conditions represent tools to achieve adequate levels of benefits vis-à-vis contributory effort. The goals address income risks of various sorts: (i) income compensation; (ii) securing a decent standard of living; (iii) universality, implying simplicity and a high takeup of social rights; (iv) reducing income risk deriving from physical incapacity; (v) safeguarding insurability by balancing the expected payoff to the insured and the value of the contributions paid over the lifetime; (vi) intergenerational equity; (vii) containing work and savings disincentives; and (viii) risk reduction (prevention). A simple model serves to clarify what is needed to achieve benefit adequacy together with insurability and contribution adequacy. An example of income support in working age, based on Israeli data, illustrates the use of specific instruments to achieve a decent standard of living while containing economic disincentives. The example stresses the importance of synchronizing efforts with institutions outside the social insurance system.
The 2014 Research Conference of the International Social Security Association (ISSA), which offered a platform for discussion and analysis among social security administrators and academia, addressed issues concerning the adequacy and sustainability of social security. Core issues discussed were the definition and measurement of adequacy and the contribution of social security systems to social and economic development. Also addressed were "megatrends", including demographic ageing and climate change, and their impacts on social security systems. As an objective, the conference sought to evaluate the implications of these issues for social security administrations and, on the basis of national good practice and new research findings, to identify measures permitting future adaptation and innovation.
The BRICS countries have made important progress in extending social security coverage. However, much remains to be achieved to realize the goal of comprehensive universal social security protection. Using policy experiences from the BRICS, the article explores the possibility of drawing from existing models of social security provision to design effective policy interventions for universalizing social security. Main principles of a framework for bridging the coverage gap are identified. These principles are then placed in complimentary and supplementary relationships to develop a framework for policy interventions to bridge the social security coverage gap and achieve universal social security.
The rapid rise in unemployment since 2008 caused by the global financial crisis has created renewed interest in the effects of well-designed unemployment benefit systems on the speed at which labour markets recover and job creation resumes. On the basis of a newly-created database on labour market flows, this article makes use of a micro-founded macroeconomic model to estimate different effects of active and passive labour market spending on employment growth and the state of public finances. It demonstrates, in particular, that for the average G20 country, spending on unemployment benefits yields employment gains both in the short term and long term that are superior to those observed for active labour market policies. Moreover, rather than tightening their budgets prematurely, G20 countries would have fared much better in accepting further deterioration in public finances stemming from higher spending on social transfers in order to stimulate faster employment growth, which would have led to a more rapid recovery in the state of public finances as well.
This article offers a framework for the comparison and benchmarking of administrative expenditures of mandatory pension schemes as part of national social security provisions. It presents results of a quantitative analysis that builds on a framework developed around the extensive body of literature on both public and private pension programmes surveyed as part of this analysis. Our dataset includes over 100 observations and a broad set of explanatory variables. We developed and compared a number of standardized cost indices discussing their advantages and limitations. We also discuss major cost components and their shares in total programme costs. The regression analysis explains over 90 per cent of variation in administrative expenditures. It confirms some of the hypotheses expressed in the earlier studies and presents new evidence of driving factors for costs. We developed three different specifications for statistical analysis. The first set looks at the impact of design of a programme on total costs. The second group of specifications assesses differences in costs of managing pension liabilities between the public and private mandatory pension schemes. Finally, on the basis of the third model we generate benchmarks for staffing levels and for the total administrative expenditures, providing guidance for policy analysis and recommendations. Notably, the spread between low and high benchmark estimates for programmes of the same size and operating in the same economic environment can be four-fold and is driven by parameters of design and operation (for example, asset management function, in-house collection, or operation of special supplementary schemes). Therefore, inferences about the level of administrative expenditures should always be done keeping in mind the institutional context for each programme.