Winning the fight against poverty and inequality – a Social Protection Floor for everyone
4่ November 2014 - 6่ November 2014
Date: 4-6 November 2014
Venue: European Parliament, Brussel, Belgium
SOLIDAR roundtable Debate “Winning the fight against poverty and inequality – a Social Protection Floor for everyone”
In June 2012, the ILO Recommendation No. 202 concerning National Floors of Social Protection was unanimously adopted by the global community. Through it, governments have committed to ensure universal access to essential services and protection against the risks of sickness, unemployment, poverty, etc. Yet, today, more than 70 per cent of the world population is not adequately covered by social protection.
With this background, in the framework of the Universal Social Protection Advocacy Tour, SOLIDAR is organising a Round Table Debate titled “Winning the fight against poverty and inequality: a Social Protection Floor for everyone”.
Usa Khiewrord, Regional Programme Manager from HelpAge East Asia and Pacific Regional Office, was invited to participate in the Universal Social Protection Advocacy Tour, organized by Solidar, Brot fur die Welt (Bread for the World) and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Universal (FES), at the European Parliament in Brussels from 3rd to 6th November 2014.
The Roundtable debate was a series of bi-lateral meetings between the EU officials, the government representatives, and the delegates from 8 countries from different regions, including Jordan, Lebanon, Kenya, Zambia, Argentina, India, Philippines, and Thailand.
This November the newly elected European Parliament and the European Parliament will be in place. Therefore, the tour aimed to raise awareness among EU decision makers about the role of Social protection floors to fight inequalities. On top of that, the focus was to recommend concrete actions EU decision makers can take to support the full implementation of the International Labour Organisation Recommendation No. 202 (R202) and the European Commission (EC) Communication on Social Protection in EU Development Cooperation.
On 4th November, during the debate whether social protection matters in development cooperation, Usa was requested to present the universal social pensions based on the Thailand scheme. (presentation attached), which is one of the world’s breakthrough success cases of universal social pension.
The European Union is providing support to our partner FOPDEV for a project title “Building capacity for promoting older people’s rights and income security in Thailand”, with an objective to strengthen capacity of civil society to promote consolidation and expansion of the right to income security for marginalised and vulnerable older people in Thailand.
