Global Alliances for Social Protection

projekt beendet

ContextAround 1.3 billion people worldwide have to get by on less than USD 1.25 a day; three quarters of them live in emerging economies. Increasingly, the impressive economic growth in these Latin American, Asian and African countries is giving rise to unequal standards of living. As a result, poverty gaps are widening and social and political tensions are becoming more acute.The emerging economies – especially those that are globally active – are attempting to tackle these challenges and are increasingly adopting socio-politically responsible courses of action. Social protection programmes and systems are vital in these countries, as they offer protection for the population against poverty, life-cycle- and existential risks. Governments are seeking to consolidate and expand national policies and systems of social protection, in order to make economic growth more inclusive – in many cases with remarkable success.At the forefront of this process are middle-income countries such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa, which are classified in German development policy as Global Development Partners (GDPs). They form the focus of this global programme, along with other interested countries, such as Chile and Peru.ObjectiveExperience in the field of social protection gained by global development partners and other interested countries feeds into both national and global policy dialogues and implementation processes to help shape social protection systems.ApproachThe aim is to share and process the valuable experience acquired by the participating countries in the field of social protection through dialogue with other countries. By making this experience accessible, other countries can benefit from the good practices and lessons learned, and adapt these for use in their own national context.The programme acts as a facilitator. It uses learning formats such as specialist events, peer-to-peer learning, workshops and learning forums, in order to promote networking and the sharing of knowledge between partner countries.The countries thereby introduce a wide range of topics for the mutual exchange; the selection is always flexible and based on the requirements and requests of partners. Examples include social assistance combined with labour market inclusion (productive inclusion/graduation), universal health coverage (UHC), financing and payment models for primary health care, and single window service (SWS) approaches.The programme’s main office is in Germany. Additionally, there are liaison offices for Asia in Jakarta / Indonesia, for Latin America in Lima / Peru, and in the near future there will also be one for South Africa in Pretoria.Programme partners particularly include national ministries and development agencies in the countries involved. The programme also cooperates closely with bilateral, regional and global projects of German development cooperation, and with organisations such as the World Bank, the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG), and the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN).ResultsDialogue, mutual learning, and networking between partner countries are key to the global programme. By means of technical consultation and funding of international events and learning forums with a socio-political focus, as well as through support for networks and online platforms, the programme promotes exchange between experts in the partner countries. These experts serve as multipliers, whose role is to feed the results and newly gained knowledge into activities geared at improving the design of social protection systems in their own country. The programme also contributes to work on selected issues being addressed by international committees and to processes in the field of social protection, in cooperation with global players.

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