In his address to the International Labour Conference on 6 June, ISSA Secretary General Hans-Horst Konkolewsky emphasised the importance of gender mainstreaming in social security. He expressed full support to the ILO’s push for gender equality from the ISSA and its global membership.
The International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva gathers government, employer and worker representatives from member states of the International Labour Organization (ILO). At this year’s 107th conference, the ILO put gender equality at the centre of attention through its new report “The Women at Work Initiative: the push for equality”.
On 6 June, the Secretary General of the ISSA, Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, addressed the ILC on behalf of ISSA President Joachim Breuer. Mr Konkolewsky welcomed the ILO’s focus on gender equality, and emphasised the important role of appropriate social security systems and delivery. ISSA and its membership fully support the ILO on this issue.
Evidence shows that poorly designed social security systems risk perpetuating gender equalities that exist in the labour market by mirroring pay gaps or unpaid care periods in lower levels of protection for women. However, experiences from Scandinavia for instance demonstrate that well-designed social security systems can compensate for inequalities in pay and work.
The ISSA is actively addressing gender equality in social security through its reports on global challenges, compiling of good practices and through events and traing. It recently organized a seminar on gender mainstreaming in Iceland, where it was discussed how to take forward gender mainstreaming in the 12 ISSA Guidelines for excellence in social security.
During the ILC, the ISSA met with delegations from the International Association of Mutual Benefit Societies (AIM), the Cuban Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the Social Security Board of Indonesia, the Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Human Resource Development of South Sudan and the Minister of Labour from Palestine. ISSA also met and discussed with many of its members at its stand.