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Social Protection: New Directions of Donor Agencies

Author: A Norton and A de Haan
Date: 2000
Size: 89 pages (220 KB)

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Summary

Social protection is receiving renewed attention from development agencies. This report from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) was commissioned by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The aim was to promote dialogue between international agencies as a basis for coordination and consistency in global donor policy on social protection issues. The report presents edited versions of papers from ODI, the World Bank (WB), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), as well as a summary of discussions at a related workshop. It argues that collaboration between agencies is essential for effective social protection.

Social protection is receiving renewed attention for various reasons. Poverty has become the overarching goal for development agencies, linked to a broader understanding of poverty and better insights into poverty dynamics and vulnerability. In addition, recent economic crises and transitions have underscored the need for greater attention to social protection. Finally, debates about globalisation have shown that it provides challenges as well as opportunities. Inequality has been rising both worldwide and within many countries, and with opening markets, risk and volatility have increased. More open economies call for more proactive governments and higher social protection expenditure.

The different agencies have slightly different understandings of what constitutes social protection. However, there are two common themes: an emphasis on risk and vulnerability (and the need to be prepared for crises), and recognition of the need to provide support to the poorest.

• The WB’s strategy reflects the move during the 1990s from a safety net strategy towards a holistic and proactive approach to social protection. It distinguishes between risk reduction, risk mitigation and risk coping.
• The ILO’s strategy promotes micro-insurance, cost-effective social assistance and statutory social insurance, to extend the social security that has remained restricted to a small proportion of the population in the South.
• It emphasises the need to employ a broad concept of social protection, to reflect the variety of needs of particular groups in particular countries.
• The ILO also argues for extending the ‘social floor of the global economy’, or basic social entitlements, to include entitlements relating to social protection.
• The ADB emphasises policies to smooth income fluctuations, improve labour market incomes and provide protection against market failures, balancing equity and sustainability objectives.
• It also argues for the inclusion of agricultural insurance among social protection policies, and the need to explore a broad range of actors and partnerships in the provision of social protection.

For the social protection agenda to be effective, it is essential that international agencies collaborate. Social protection work will be a combination of sector-focused work and cross-cutting policy advice, and new expertise may be required to deal with technical issues. International agencies should:

• Support national governments to implement social protection policies in a way that allows for specific priorities and national traditions of social policy.
• Take an integrated approach to public policy and budgets.
• Make use of frameworks such as the Comprehensive Development Framework, Poverty Reduction Strategy Development Papers and United Nations Common Country Assessments.
• View the social protection agenda as part of attempts to strengthen the architecture of global policy, in which financial, economic and social policies are discussed in an integrated way.
• Work with governments and other actors to convert international declarations and agreements into entitlements and national standards, as well as consensus about the role of the state in reducing insecurity.
• Help identify good practice in partnerships among actors from different sectors.

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Source: Conway, T., de Haan, A. and Norton, A., 2000, ‘Social Protection: New Directions of Donor Agencies’, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London