30 June 2021 is the eight day of the Human Rights Council 47th session at the UN headquarters in Geneva. The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, presented his paper entitled “Global fund for social protection: international solidarity in the service of poverty eradication” which identified the need to deliver on a global fund for social protection as there is an insufficient level of support to overcome the financing gap for the establishment of social protection floors, particularly going into low income countries. These are defined as the 32 countries with an annual per capita gross national income (GNI) of less than $1,026.
De Schutter highlighted the need to build better social resilience as social protection leads to building human capital which positively impacts the local economy, contributing to inclusive growth and resilience; which is particularly relevant after the pandemic.
The Special Rapporteur invited,
“all States, as well as international agencies whose mandate includes social protection, unions, and civil society organizations, to contribute to making the global fund for social protection a reality.”
The stark figures show that of the global population before the COVID-19 pandemic:
- 29% (2.1 billion people) were covered by social protection
- 16% (1.2 Billion people) had only partial protection
- 55% (4 billion people) had no protection
- 35% of children benefited from child allowances enabling them to receive child care, education and nutrition which means that two thirds did not.
However hidden in the regional numbers the figures give a perspective on the disparities.
| Social Protection | Global | Africa | Asia-Pacific | Europe & central Asia |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Some form of old age Pension cover | 67.9% | 29.6% | 55.2% | 95.2% |
| Unemployed workers benefits available | 21.8% | 5.6% | 22.5% | 42.5% |
Around the world during the pandemic a total of 2.7 billion people worldwide did not receive any support. The World Bank estimated this would drive an additional 88 to 115 million people into extreme poverty in 2020 and a further 23 to 35 million by 2021. De Schutter commented on the large numbers of people falling into extreme poverty during the pandemic:
“This was not inevitable. The reality is that we have been caught unprepared. 61% of the global workforce is still made up of informal workers or workers in precarious form of employment, with little or no access to social protection. (…) When the crisis hit, many countries adopted social protection measures to cushion the populations from the shock. But these measures were mostly ad hoc and short term, because social registries were often out of date or incomplete. Many people were left out.”
De Schutter argued in his paper that the global fund could produce ‘a virtuous cycle’ there by providing ‘an incentive for beneficiary countries to invest more in social protection’. This would help growth and more resilient economies to flourish if the global fund would ‘provide technical assistance, encourage domestic resource mobilization, and support increased investments in social protection’. While presenting his report, he emphasized the importance of building the global fund on already existing structures:
“>The challenge now is to strengthen these structures, not to weaken them, not to duplicate them, in order to ensure that these structures work more effectively with one another and to scale up the level of support, while ensuring that such support is also adaptive to future shocks. There is now a strong momentum behind these proposals.”
UNICEF highlighted the vulnerability of children in poverty in its statement:
“The COVID-19 crisis has pushed 150 million children into poverty, bringing the total number of poor children to 1.2 billion globally. (…) States but also the international community at large must do better for children and families living in poverty, including by expanding financing of social protection. (…) UNICEF joins in calling for the universal coverage of social protection, and for more resilient systems that can be scaled up in times of crisis.”
Mali pointed out the precarious situation of low-income countries facing violent extremism while combating extreme poverty, and the need for the global fund for social protection:
“It remains a given that each country is responsible for ensuring the highest possible social protection of its population to eradicate the root causes of poverty. However such coverage, while needed, is not affordable for all countries, particularly those with low incomes. This is why international solidarity needs to act.”
The Special Rapporteur ended the interactive dialogue by stressing that,
“Social protection is not the end result of a development process, it should be a precondition for sustainable and inclusive growth.”