Asia-Pacific Regional High-Level Meeting on Socially-Inclusive Strategies to Extend Social Security Coverage

Aims and expected outcomes of the meeting

The broad objective of the meeting is to identify some policy approaches that countries can use to extend the social security coverage of their workforce and make it more effective, with a particular focus on workers in the informal economy and unorganized sectors. This will include considering initiatives from both formal, national institutions and those from the NGO/grassroots sector. The role of the ILO, notably its capacity to promote dialogue between workers and employers - the social partners - will also be discussed.

The specific objectives of the meeting are:

• Sharing knowledge and experiences about strategies and mechanisms for extending social security;
• Identifying good practices and encouraging responses to new challenges and needs;
• Fostering a consensual approach to the extension of coverage.

Social security – and extending it to cover more workers, notably in the informal economy - is an important component in realizing the objectives of the Asian Decent Work Decade.

The participating countries bring with them an extensive range of national experiences and discussion of these will bring opportunities for new initiatives to be identified, as well as existing policy undertakings to be renewed. In addition, it is hoped that the meeting will enable participants to deepen their commitment to regional cooperation and strengthen networks for sharing knowledge, experiences and expertise. The ILO’s role will be to assist the participants in reaching a well-articulated understanding of the importance, impact and technicalities of extending social security coverage, as well as in finding the best means to do this.

Finally, the meeting is expected to discuss practical ways to support countries in their commitment to these objectives, (one example might be improving the data that are used in measuring progress towards full social security coverage). The participating ILO member countries may want to consider the advantages of linking such initiatives to the ILO’s regular Asian Regional Meetings.

This high-level meeting is being organized in collaboration with the Government of India, which has generously offered to host the conference.