The ISSA Technical Seminar: Preventing fraud and evasion, strengthening compliance, and improving contribution collection in social security, to be held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 22–23 May 2024, will focus on institutional strategies and innovative approaches. The event will be organized in cooperation with the ISSA Liaison Office for West Africa and the ISSA Liaison Office for Central Africa and hosted by the Social Insurance Institute – State Employees’ General Retirement Fund (Institut de prévoyance sociale – Caisse générale de retraite des agents de l'Etat – CGRAE) of Côte d’Ivoire.
Social security systems play a key role for individuals and societies. The achievement of social security objectives depends on reliable financing, compliance with legal regulations and solidarity and trust. Contribution and benefit fraud as well as contribution evasion endanger social security systems, constitute a major risk to their sustainability and reduce the level of protection systems can provide to individuals.
Putting in place sound measures to prevent and combat fraud as well as effective contribution collection and compliance systems have therefore been priorities in the West and Central Africa region. Progress has been achieved in particular through technological and administrative innovations and has been facilitated by the relevant ISSA Guidelines. Nevertheless, there is an important need to further strengthen approaches and exchange on the latest strategies and good practices.
The ISSA Guidelines on Contribution Collection and Compliance provide a high-level reference point for the management of this domain by social security administrations and are complemented by the ISSA Guidelines on Error, Evasion and Fraud in Social Security Systems.
In line with the ISSA Guidelines and based on the presentation of selected recent experiences from the two regions, this event will identify and share innovations and good practices. The seminar will seek to respond to the following questions:
- What are the main challenges and risk factors that social security institutions in the West and Central Africa regions face in the area of preventing fraud and ensuring contribution collection and compliance?
- What new measures and strategies have recently been put in place by social security institutions, and what have been key learnings from these experiences?
- What is the role of technology and collaboration with other public agencies (e.g. tax agencies) and stakeholders including financial service providers in the elaboration of innovative approaches?
- How can training and capacity building on one hand and raising public awareness on the other hand can improve the contribution collection and compliance system?
The technical seminar will be held in English and French, and simultaneous interpretation will be provided for both languages. It is open to representatives of ISSA member institutions from Africa, as well as invited participants. There is no registration fee for ISSA members.