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ILO / SOCIAL PROTECTION
STORY: ILO / SOCIAL PROTECTION
TRT:3:47
SOURCE: ILO
RESTRICTIONS: EMBARGO UNTIL MONDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2019, 21:00 GMT
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 21 NOVEMBER 2019, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1.Close up, report
2.Wide shot, press briefing room
3.SOUNDBITE (English) Valérie Schmitt, Deputy Director, Social Protection Department, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“We estimate that there is a financing gap of 527 billion dollars per year if we want countries to achieve the SDGs on social protection. So this gap represents 1.6 per cent of the GDP of developing countries. We made our studies on 134 countries, only developing countries, from middle income to low-income countries.”
4.Med shot, reporters
5.SOUNDBITE (English) Valérie Schmitt, Deputy Director, Social Protection Department, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“Social protection as you know it’s not a cost, it’s an investment in humans and we are talking a lot about the human-centred agenda of the ILO. It’s also an investment in reducing poverty and inequality and this is, we know, favourable to growth, to development growth and to sustaining development growth. So it’s an investment in economic growth and it’s also an investment in societies. And we know that countries without social protection have a greater chance of riots and social unrest, which are detrimental to the development of the country.”
6.Med shot, reporters
7.SOUNDBITE (French) Valérie Schmitt, Deputy Director, Social Protection Department, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“Everyone now knows that social protection is no longer a cost, it is an investment. It is an investment in people and there is a lot of talk about a "human-centred approach to the future of work" - I don't know how to say it in French, but it is really the idea of putting the individual at the centre and social protection is what makes it possible to do it because it allows us to have access to education, health, nutrition and to make sure that we are productive workers later on. It is also an investment in the economies of countries, since we know that it reduces poverty and reduces inequality. Social protection is a redistributive mechanism, so the main objective is to reduce inequalities. And so, we also know that societies that are less unequal in fact have much more robust long-term growth models, so social protection is key to economic development and finally social protection is also key to the development of societies simply because, by having unequal societies, it leads to massive conflicts that ultimately undermine economic and human development.”
8.Med shot, reporters
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Fabio Durán-Valverde, Public Finance, Actuarial and Statistics Unit, Social Protection Department, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“Social protection is an investment that has a lasting impact on the economic and social development of countries. For example, it contributes to social peace, it contributes to the improvement of countries' human resources, [through] for example we invest in social protection for children and in the future we are going to have more children with better integration into the labor market and with better chances of getting out of poverty and therefore contributing to development in a better way than if we did not make this investment. We could cite many examples: if we look at the current situation in some Latin American countries, we see how issues of inequality are triggering major social conflicts that affect the economy. This can be prevented when we fight inequality through adequate social protection.”
10. Wide shot, press briefing room
A new ILO report warns that more than 500 billion dollars a year is needed to ensure basic levels of social protection worldwide.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Valérie Schmitt Senior official from International Labour Organization (ILO) said, “we estimate that there is a financing gap of 527 billion dollars per year if we want countries to achieve the SDGs on social protection. So this gap represents 1.6 per cent of the GDP of developing countries. We made our studies on 134 countries, only developing countries, from middle income to low-income countries.”
She added, “social protection as you know it’s not a cost, it’s an investment in humans and we are talking a lot about the human-centred agenda of the ILO. It’s also an investment in reducing poverty and inequality and this is, we know, favourable to growth, to development growth and to sustaining development growth. So it’s an investment in economic growth and it’s also an investment in societies. And we know that countries without social protection have a greater chance of riots and social unrest, which are detrimental to the development of the country.”
Speaking also in French, Schmitt further explained, “everyone now knows that social protection is no longer a cost, it is an investment. It is an investment in people and there is a lot of talk about a "human-centred approach to the future of work" - I don't know how to say it in French, but it is really the idea of putting the individual at the centre and social protection is what makes it possible to do it because it allows us to have access to education, health, nutrition and to make sure that we are productive workers later on.”
She continued, “it is also an investment in the economies of countries, since we know that it reduces poverty and reduces inequality. Social protection is a redistributive mechanism, so the main objective is to reduce inequalities. And so, we also know that societies that are less unequal in fact have much more robust long-term growth models, so social protection is key to economic development and finally social protection is also key to the development of societies simply because, by having unequal societies, it leads to massive conflicts that ultimately undermine economic and human development.”
Countries in many parts of the world have made significant progress in the extension of social protection coverage. Yet, despite laudable progress, the human right to social security is not yet a reality for a majority of the world’s population.
The new ILO report highlights critical financing gaps in social protection and provides policy recommendations on how these gaps could be closed.
ILO’s Fabio Durán-Valverde explained, “social protection is an investment that has a lasting impact on the economic and social development of countries. For example, it contributes to social peace, it contributes to the improvement of countries' human resources, [through] for example we invest in social protection for children and in the future we are going to have more children with better integration into the labor market and with better chances of getting out of poverty and therefore contributing to development in a better way than if we did not make this investment.”
He continued, “we could cite many examples: if we look at the current situation in some Latin American countries, we see how issues of inequality are triggering major social conflicts that affect the economy. This can be prevented when we fight inequality through adequate social protection.”
According to the report – Measuring financing gaps in social protection for achieving SDG target 1.3: Global estimates and strategies for developing countries – spending on coverage needs to increase dramatically to achieve universal coverage of a basic set of social protection measures.
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