Focal point for the Social protection Floor initiative

On 5 April 2009, the United Nations High Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP) of the CEB committed to decisive and urgent multilateral action to address the global crisis, deploying all UN resources and capacities to rapid and effective responses. An agreement was reached on nine joint initiatives. The sixth initiative is the Social Protection Floor Initiative (SPF-I) providing essential services and transfers to all in need of such protection in order to not fall into abject poverty. The ILO and WHO were jointly tasked to lead the initiative, with the other UN agencies and the IMF and World Bank contributing as cooperating agencies. The multilateral system is expected to work together and to assist member states in coping with the crisis and to accelerate recovery and to pave the way for a better future. Policy coordination and coherence are essential. In order to cope with the organisational workload for the initiative that has fallen on the ILO as one of the leading organisation, there is a need for a small working group of staff in order to ensure: - a smooth overall coordination of the Initiative, - a coherent approach to national activities and - a well planned transition of country based activities to the UN DG group, - the coherence of country and global activities with the wider activities of the Office with respect to the implementation of the Global Jobs Pact - the development and the maintenance of the knowledge base on the social protection floor (SPF). There is a critical need to ensure that the coordination at the international level of the activities of the various cooperating UN and Bretton Woods institutions in order to ensure coherence in the actions and the advice provided at the national and international level on the Social Protection Floor approach and the strengthening of existing social protection systems in the context of the Decent Work Country Programmes and the One Un country programmes. There is furthermore, a strong need to develop and maintain a knowledge base and to share the knowledge base to support the partners in their efforts to promote and implement the elements of the social protection floor. This will be done on the Global Extension of Social Security (GESS) platform. Project strategy The ILO will be setting up a small temporary working group of dedicated staff to undertake the necessary organisational and conceptual tasks for the SPF initiative until they can be mainstreamed into regular ILO activities in the biennium 2012/13. The working group will be lead by a SPF focal point. The focal point for the Social Protection Floor initiative will be based in Geneva in order to ensure the global coordination of the initiative and to benefit from the technical and logistical support of the Social Security Department. In order to support the analytical and research work on the Social Protection Floor to support global advocacy and country specific advice, the Social Security Department will also be hiring a Social Policy Specialist form RB resources who will be taking up the position in August 2010. The Social Security Department will also finance a junior researcher to support the project team. The Regional Office in Africa will contribute three workmonths to the financing of the focal point due to the expected heavy workload that will originate from Africa. The Focal point for the Social Protection Floor initiative will work with the ILO offices in the regions and the different Sectors in order to ensure policy coherence and coordination of actions.

Project symbol

GLO/10/17/NET

Admin unit

SEC/SOC

Start date

01/08/2010

End date

31/12/2011

Total allocation

262444

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

262444

Development Partners

Netherlands, Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment

Country/Countries

Global

Outcomes

Social Security