This Technical Seminar will explore challenges and innovative social security approaches regarding the closely interconnected priorities of formalization and extension of social security coverage across Asia and the Pacific. This will involve policy strategies, technology, outreach and administrative approaches to meet the needs of difficult-to-cover groups. The event is organized in collaboration with the Liaison Office for South Asia and hosted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Employees' State Insurance Corporation of India.

Social security coverage extension is a major objective for social security institutions in the region of the Asia and the Pacific. Informality of employment is a key barrier to reach this objective, meaning that workers in the informal sector are too often left behind.

Innovative social security approaches to cover informal sector workers therefore pursue multiple objectives. While the most important goal is to extend the right to social security to these workers with regard to their priority social security needs, they also aim at facilitating the process of formalization. Success requires appropriate policy and legal frameworks and strong institutional capacities of social security organizations.

The seminar will discuss recent efforts to cover informal workers across several countries in the region and focus on factors that have facilitated progress. It will start with a plenary session setting the scene and defining challenges and opportunities, followed by technical sessions featuring good practices and innovative cases. These will cover simplified and flexible administrative approaches, leveraging digital technologies to extend coverage and communication and outreach strategies. The seminar will end by a session highlighting the need for a coherent policy framework and coordinated policy and implementation efforts.

As the region is dynamically working towards reaching national and global coverage objectives, overcoming the challenge of extending coverage to informal sector workers is a condition for success. The ISSA Technical Seminar will be a timely opportunity to discuss and learn about the latest knowledge on this key challenge for social security in Asia and the Pacific.

Practical information 

The event will be organized in English. It is open to ISSA member organizations from Asia and the Pacific, and other invited participants. There is no registration fee for ISSA members.