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ILO / WORLD SOCIAL PROTECTION REPORT
STORY: ILO / WORLD SOCIAL PROTECTION REPORT
TRT: 01:56
SOURCE: ILO
RRESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 01 SEPTEMBER 2021, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General during virtual press conference
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“The ILO Social Protection Report points very clearly to the enormous deficits that still exist in the coverage and adequacy of social protection benefits. We’re still in a world where the majority of working people do not have access to even one single type of social protection.”
3. Wide shot, Ryder during virtual press conference
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“What is perhaps even more worrying about this circumstance is the regional disparities. The richer parts of the world spend a higher part of their higher incomes on social protection. The developing world spends much less. And I think the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic over the last eighteen months or so, has really, like an x-ray shown up just what the consequences of this type of inadequacy really are.”
5. Wide shot, Ryder during virtual press conference
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“I think the experience; the real-life experience of this pandemic has been defined more than by anything else by whether or not you have social protection to call upon if you can’t get to your job, if you need sick pay, if you need healthcare. So, I think this COVID-19 pandemic, if we needed it, is a sort of wakeup call and it shows us that we have to move from where we were pre-COVID-19, to a much greater investment in, and coverage of social protection.”
7. Wide shot, Ryder during virtual press conference
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“You know, the motto for social protection has always been “freedom from fear”. This is what we’re doing, we’re trying to free people from the fears of what everyday life can throw at us.”
9. Pan right, from camera to press conference dais
Despite the unprecedented worldwide expansion of social protection during the COVID-19 crisis, more than 4 billion people around the world remain entirely unprotected, according to a new International Labour Organization (ILO) report released today (1 Sep).
The report finds that the pandemic response was uneven and insufficient, deepening the gap between countries with high- and low-income levels and failing to afford the much-needed social protection that all human beings deserve. More than four billion people live without any welfare protection today to cushion them from crisis, the report says, while highlighting how the COVID-19 crisis has pushed up government spending by some 30 percent.
Leading the call for countries to extend social safety nets far more widely than they do now, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder insisted that such a move would help future-proof workers and businesses in the face of new challenges.
SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“The ILO Social Protection Report points very clearly to the enormous deficits that still exist in the coverage and adequacy of social protection benefits. We’re still in a world where the majority of working people do not have access to even one single type of social protection.”
The ILO report underscores the significant regional inequalities in social protection. Europe and Central Asia have the highest rates of coverage, with 84 percent of people having access to at least one benefit. Countries in the Americas are also above the global average (64.3 per cent), in stark contrast to welfare roll-out in Asia and the Pacific (44 percent), the Arab States (40 per cent) and Africa (17.4 per cent).
SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“What is perhaps even more worrying about this circumstance is the regional disparities. The richer parts of the world spend a higher part of their higher incomes on social protection. The developing world spends much less. And I think the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic over the last eighteen months or so, has really, like an x-ray shown up just what the consequences of this type of inadequacy really are.”
Highlighting differences in government spending on social protection, ILO said that high-income countries spend 16.4 percent of national turnover (above the 13 percent global average, excluding health), while low-income countries budget just 1.1 per cent.
SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“I think the experience; the real-life experience of this pandemic has been defined more than by anything else by whether or not you have social protection to call upon if you can’t get to your job, if you need sick pay, if you need healthcare. So, I think this COVID-19 pandemic, if we needed it, is a sort of wakeup call and it shows us that we have to move from where we were pre-COVID-19, to a much greater investment in, and coverage of social protection.”
The UN body noted that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have had to increase spending massively to ensure minimum social protection for all, by around 30 percent.
And it maintained that to guarantee basic social protection coverage, low-income countries would need to invest an additional $77.9 billion per year, lower-middle-income countries an additional $362.9 billion and upper-middle-income countries a further $750.8 billion annually. That’s equivalent to 15.9 per cent, 5.1 per cent and 3.1 per cent of their GDP, respectively.
SOUNDBITE (English) Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO):
“You know, the motto for social protection has always been “freedom from fear”. This is what we’re doing, we’re trying to free people from the fears of what everyday life can throw at us.”
The “World Social Protection Report 2020-22: Social protection at the crossroads –in pursuit of a better future” gives a global overview of recent developments in social protection systems, including social protection floors, and covers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report identifies protection gaps and sets out key policy recommendations, including in relation to the targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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