Extending social security for migrant workers in Africa

The approach of the project will be to assist governments, in consultation with the social partners (workers and employers), to strengthen national and regional strategies for the extension of social security coverage to African migrant workers and their families.

Due to their particular circumstances, especially the length of their periods of employment and residence, migrant workers are often prevented from obtaining coverage by social security schemes. They risk the loss of entitlement to social security benefits in their country of origin due to their absence, and may at the same time encounter restrictive conditions under the social security system of the host country. In promoting circular migration, specific mechanisms need to be implemented to guarantee that temporary migrant workers are not excluded from social security schemes.
Against this background, the ILO Regional Office for Africa, in close collaboration with the ILO International Migration Programme and Social Security Department in Geneva, is implementing a major project on Extending social security coverage to African migrant workers (MIGSEC), with the financial support of the German government.
The approach of the project will be to assist governments, in consultation with the social partners (workers and employers), to strengthen national and regional strategies for the extension of social security coverage to African migrant workers and their families based on the following order of priorities: (i) the promotion of regional and bilateral social security agreements; (ii) the inclusion of social security provisions in labour migration programmes, including temporary and circular migration schemes, (iii) the reinforcement of regional conventions on social security; (iv) the proposition of voluntary insurance schemes to migrant workers abroad. While formulating strategies to extend social security coverage to migrant workers and their families, efforts should simultaneously be made to enhance the coverage and governance of the existing social security schemes in Africa.

The MIGSEC project also collaborated with the Micro-insurance Innovation Facility, notably in the framework of the Facility's Resource mobilization among migrant communities for health microinsurance (CERMES) project.

Additional information can be obtained from Ms. Samia Kazi Aoul, Social Security and International Migration Officer, ILO MIGRANT, Tel: +41.22.799.7182, E-mail: kaziaoul@ilo.org.