Social protection schemes are important tools to reduce poverty and inequality by International Labour Organization & agencies 12:02pm 27th Jun, 2013   Social safety nets don"t handicap economies, they save lives, by John Podesta and Casey Dunning.    "Ending extreme poverty in all its forms" is no longer a platitude or a dream for development experts – it"s the guiding vision of the United Nations High Level Panel, as well as an achievement that"s closer to being realized than ever before, thanks to the millennium development goals.    One of the best tools we have to this end might surprise you. Education matters, of course, as does higher employment and better health care. But for us, it"s clear that the increased, global scope of social safety nets will make the most vulnerable of populations more resilient. We need these to end extreme poverty.    "Social safety nets" are programs designed to provide a floor of protection to the poor and to cushion them from shocks, and they help reduce overall poverty. These transfers can come from the state, donors, NGOs, or the private sector, and they run the gamut, including cash, food, and fee waivers for healthcare or schooling.    Social safety nets are cost-effective insurance against the risks that could derail many other developments around the world, in areas like health, education and food security. These protection programs help ensure that a family with some income doesn"t fall back into extreme poverty when a husband unexpectedly falls ill, or when drought destroys two-thirds of the family"s crops or harvest, or when food become otherwise unaffordable because of a sudden global spike in prices. Social safety nets guarantee that a family can continue to send their young daughter and son to school in spite of any economic, climate or health-related shock.    These programs come in many shapes and sizes and can be tailored to fit a country"s context and needs: there are right models for Ghana, Mexico and Norway, though they might be very different. Some act as a general support system for those on the brink of poverty, while others target specific populations with more narrowly defined needs.    While they do require sometimes significant resources, these systems are not confined to countries on the middle and upper ends of the income scale. Rwanda has attributed a 12% decline in poverty since 2006, in large part to its Vision 2020 Umurenge Program which prominently features public jobs programs and cash transfers. In 2011, The temporary boost to Ethiopia"s Productive Safety Net Program saved lives during severe drought and famine. Both Kenya and South Africa go so far as to include the right to social protection in their constitutions.    The benefits from these programs can accrue to the state as well as its citizens. Effective and targeted social safety nets can ease the transition away from inefficient, costly general subsidies. Many countries can reform fossil fuel subsidies, for instance, which often do not reach the most vulnerable populations and impose large fiscal burdens, and then turn toward more specialized social safety net programs, which can function as a key component of medium- and long-term stability.    New technologies mean that states can better craft their programs to help specifically the most vulnerable populations, and that they can do so efficiently. The widespread use of mobile phones, analytics and biometric technology lets a country implement social safety nets with far greater speed and efficacy than previously imagined. The government of India was able to enroll 200 million people in a national biometric ID effort in less than two years, modernizing a vital system that provides the poorest of the poor with food assistance, education vouchers and job opportunities.    Finally, beyond the moral argument, social safety nets make sense - offering a sustainable, systemic approach to provide families with the continued opportunity improve their conditions – through work and school – than to risk the collapse of whole neighborhoods and cities of families who could not rebound from dangers out of their control, like economic downturn and natural disasters.    The fight to end extreme poverty means ensuring that those who are lifted just over the brink – including the estimated 600 million people who moved out of extreme poverty over the last decade – are resilient enough in their income, health and food security not to slide backward and take their families with them. Smart social safety nets can provide that security, guaranteeing that no matter how unpredictable the future, it won"t undo decades of development, upward mobility or the lives of countless people.    Social protection schemes are important tools to reduce poverty and inequality. (ILO)    Investing in a Social Protection Floor is investing in social justice and economic development. Social protection schemes are important tools to reduce poverty and inequality. They do not only help to prevent individuals and their families from falling or remaining in poverty, they also contribute to economic growth by raising labour productivity and enhancing social stability. The global financial and economic crisis proved how key a role social protection plays as an automatic economic stabilizer.    Social protection floors are nationally defined sets of basic social security guarantees that should ensure, as a minimum that, over the life cycle, all in need have access to essential health care and to basic income security which together secure effective access to goods and services defined as necessary at the national level.    Social security is a human right as well as a social and economic necessity.    Regardless, around 40% of the world’s population are under the international poverty line of $2 US dollars a day which suggests that they do not have access to a social protection floor.    Social security represents an investment in a country’s “human infrastructure” no less important than investments in its physical infrastructure.    For example: child benefits facilitate access to education which, in turn, help break the intergenerational poverty cycle; access to health care helps families remain above the poverty line by relieving them of the financial burden of medical care; and income support avoids poverty and creates the security the people need in order to take risks and invest in their own productive capacity.    Beyond the argument of providing a life in dignity for all members of society, there is ample evidence of the beneficial socio-economic impacts of social security programmes. Social security contributes to preventing social unrest, fosters economic growth, prevents and alleviates poverty and helps countries to achieve sustainable development models.    http://www.social-protection.org/gimi/gess/ShowMainPage.do http://webtv.un.org/watch/tackling-inequalities-beyond-2015-through-social-protection/2697993166001/ http://www.socialsecurityextension.org/gimi/gess/ShowTheme.do?tid=1321 http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/social-security/lang--en/index.htm http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/index_socialprotection.html http://www.ipc-undp.org/pages/newsite/menu/socialprotection/whysocialprotection.jsp?active=3 http://south-south.ipc-undp.org/ http://www.socialprotectionfloor-gateway.org/ http://www.ngosocdev.net/index.php?cID=103 http://www.solidar.org/Social-Protection-for-All-An.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/social-protection    OECD external links: http://www.oecd.org/dac/povertyreduction/ http://www.oecd.org/dac/povertyreduction/storiesofempowerment.htm http://www.oecd.org/dac/povertyreduction/48869473.pdf http://www.oecd.org/dac/ http://www.oecd.org/dac/dacnewsapril2013.htm    * Text adopted by the General Conference of the International Labour Organization - Recommendation Concerning National Floors of Social Protection. (101st Session, 30th May, 2012). Reaffirming the Right to Social Security is a Human Right: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_183326.pdf Visit the related web page
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