Florence Bonnet

Beyond legal coverage: Assessing the performance of social health protection

A frequently used indicator to measure social health protection performance is the extent of population coverage as stipulated in national legislation. However, this indicator does not provide meaningful information on performance in terms of effective access to benefits that are available, affordable and of acceptable quality, not least for the poor and workers in informal economies. This article proposes a new approach to measuring performance by applying a set of relevant indicators in an analytical framework for assessing the performance of social health protection. The approach allows policy-makers to conclude from comparisons among groups of countries facing similar challenges. Preliminary results include comprehensive information on deficits that need to be addressed when striving for effective universal coverage. With further refinement, the suggested approach could become a standard assessment tool for measuring performance. issr_1400 21..38

Social Security in Times of Crisis

To counter the negative social consequences of the present crisis, States must take measures to provide income support and new employment opportunities to affected workers and their families. This article reviews crisis responses in a number of countries with respect to support from unemployment programmes, the branch of social security most directly affected by economic downturn. It also discusses the trade offs that all social security schemes face during economic crises, when revenues from contributions or taxes earmarked to finance programmes fall and expenditures on benefits rise. In turn, concerns about pension policies receive special attention. The article concludes by discussing the initiative, launched by the United Nations, for a global “social protection floor”: to extend, at the very least, basic social protection to the large majority of the worlds population who are currently without and who remain vulnerable to all economic and social risks.

Social security: Three lessons from the global crisis

The global financial and economic crisis has given new impetus to the debate on social security policies. Countries that had social security programmes in place strongly relied on them as automatic stabilizers in their stimulus packages. Where countries affected by the crisis did not have adequate social security mechanisms, the need to develop social security became more apparent. As a result, a number of social protection policy initiatives have begun or been stepped up at national, regional and global levels, including the UN Social Protection Floor Initiative and the Global Jobs Pact. Positive changes had begun in many developing countries well before the crisis. But a large social security coverage deficit still prevails (ILO, 2010f; UNRISD, 2010). In many countries only a minority of the population has access – both statutorily and effectively – to existing schemes. Figure 12.1 shows the scope of statutory coverage through social security schemes around the world. It can be seen that in Asia, Africa and some parts of Latin America in particular there are large gaps in the scope of social security schemes statutorily available. It is estimated that only one-fifth of the global working-age population and their families have effective access to comprehensive social protection (ILO, 2010f, p. 1). The social security deficit is one of the main obstacles to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (UN, 2010). 12

Putting Caveats on Growth: Policy for Inclusion and Productive Transformation

Building on the empirical generalisation that the composition of growth, rather than the quantum, better explains why developing countries move up the income ladder, Mahmood and Bonnet argue that growth policy must be subject to two important caveats. First, it must aim to reduce poverty. Second, it should target the productive transformation of the economy. This chapter examines the policy conditions needed to meet these two caveats to growth, based on an empirical analysis of some 75 developing countries. The authors examine the policy needs of addressing the income gap of the poor through transfers and enhanced labour incomes. They also look at the non-income needs of the poor and the role of public goods in meeting these needs. Finally, they gauge the policy needs of productive transformation.