Only one in five people in the world has adequate social security coverage. Last week, the first ever World Social Security Forum organized by the International Social Security Association (ISSA) and the Russian authorities in Moscow discussed social security’s contribution to build productive economies and more inclusive societies. The ILO presented its Global Campaign for Social Security and Coverage for All, promoting the idea of a “social security floor” aimed at achieving the UN Millennium Development Goal N° 1 of halving poverty by 2015. ILO Online spoke with Michael Cichon, Director of the ILO’s Social Security Department.
The extension of social security to all has recently moved to the top of the international agenda. How did this happen?
Michael Cichon: For decades we have been following a development paradigm according to which developing countries had to grow before starting to redistribute income and combat poverty. But growth doesn’t work for the poor by itself; countries with the same level of income per capita may have different levels of poverty. The new development paradigm, aims to stabilize societies first before stabilizing economies.
If we want to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015, especially goal N°1 of halving poverty, we have to build the channels that make growth trickle down to the poor and that’s what social security systems in a developing country context should do: create the re-distributive systems that actually benefit the poor, directly. In fact, the G8 acknowledged that social security should be part of a development paradigm. There is a commitment now to improve the advisory services and technical assistance for the build-up of social protection systems.
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