PRESS BRIEFING BY DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS ON SOCIAL PROTECTION

PRESS BRIEFING BY DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS ON SOCIAL PROTECTION

Although social protection was often seen as a burden to the State, it was in fact a good investment, Sergei Zelenev, Senior Economic Affairs Officer of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) told correspondents this morning during a briefing at Headquarters on the eve of the thirty-ninth session of the Commission for Social Development (13 to 23 February).  Social protection facilitated structural changes in an economy.  It was also cheaper for society, in the long run, than providing remedial measures for social problems, he explained.

Mr. Zelenev, main author of the Secretary-General's report on enhancing social protection and reducing vulnerability in a globalizing world (document E/CN.5/2001/2), stressed that social protection was not only defensive.  "Social spending is a prerequisite for continuous human development", he said.  Providing social protection supported the development of social solidarity, and thereby enhanced the foundation for development.

John Langmore, Director of the Division for Social Policy and Development in DESA, said social protection was the biggest item of national expenditure in developed countries and countries with economies in transition.  The issue was high on the agenda of most countries for different reasons.  Many European countries, for instance, were debating whether to reduce their social security systems in a situation of increasing international interdependence, while east Asian countries were in the process of building up social protection systems after their financial crisis. 

The issue had come up at the twenty-fourth Special Session of the General Assembly in Geneva held last year to follow up the World Summit for Social Development, he continued, and was now the principal theme for the impending session of the Commission for Social Development. 

Agreement on the issue would be difficult to reach, because of the different circumstances in many countries, Mr. Langmore said.  Many countries were grappling with competing claims on their resources, and were evaluating whether globalization undermined their capacity to maintain social protection systems or whether those systems needed strengthening in order to protect the vulnerable from the inevitable transition costs of economic change.

The Secretary-General's report, drawing on the deliberations of two expert group meetings in Berlin, Germany, and Cape Town, South Africa, helped define the social protection terrain in the contemporary world, reviewed challenges to social protection in the face of globalization, and provided recommendations for international and national measures to promote human development and to develop effective social protection policies.

Several United Nations organizations were involved in the issue, and Mr. Kevelev mentioned the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization (WHO).  The State had the role of ensuring there was a national institutional framework that enhanced people's awareness of their rights and entitlements.  The concept of

social protection was an "umbrella" concept, he said, embracing programmes in the fields of social security, nutrition, and health, among other things, he said.

In answer to a correspondent's question about the great variety of groups reporting on the same issue, Mr. Langmore said that each separate group had a competitive advantage.  The ILO looked at employment, the WHO looked at health, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) looked at education.  The World Bank was a lending institution and also gave technical advice. 

The role of the United Nations itself, he continued, was to be the forum where the politics of those issues were discussed, as it was the "political heart of the international system".  Mr. Zelenev added that the different institutions were complementing each other.

There was a perception that social protection was threatened by globalization, Mr. Langmore said, in answer to another question.  International competition was seen as eroding the national tax base and therefore the capacity of governments to provide protection.  However there were many different perspectives on whether tax bases were being eroded in such a way as to reduce capacity to maintain or enhance social protection systems, and the United Nations was a forum to consider this.

Mr. Zelenev added that it was not only a social and economical issue, but also a political one.  At the international level, the report recommended -- among other things -- the strengthening of the United Nations capacity to promote cooperation and avoid overlapping, and the instigation of a process to discuss strengthening reciprocal provisions for the social protection of migrant workers.

To a correspondent's question on whether things were happening in developing countries to redefine social protection policies, Mr. Langmore said there was an enormous difference between countries.  Latin American countries now focussed on ways to contain the growth of social inequity.  In transition economies, one of the most terrible consequences of transition had been the growth of poverty and its affect on their capacity to maintain previously comprehensive social security systems.  In South Africa, a committee had been established to enquire into the social protection system.

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