The purpose of this handbook is to guide UNHCR public health and programme staff and ILO staff working on social protection at country level on the considerations and practical steps required to assess options for the inclusion of refugees in national social health protection...

Lockdown measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of theatres and cinemas, and the suspension or cancellation of movie, television and music productions. Many workers in the industry lost their jobs and had no social protection to help them. A new ILO study shows that extending...

This policy brief outlines the challenges in extending social protection to the cultural and creative sector (CCS), which were exposed by the COVID-19 crisis. These include, inter alia, legal and de facto exclusion due to the specificities of CCS work such as fluctuating employment status, irregular incomes, intermittent nature...

The ILO Working Paper examines social protection schemes covering workers in the cultural and creative sector (CCS). After an overview of economic and employment trends in the CCS, the working paper reviews policy and legal frameworks in selected countries that have pursued specific solutions to extend social security to...

The Global Commission on the Future of Work acknowledges States’ opportunities to shape the transition of the world of work to the better, including the extension of social protection. With regard to working conditions like fluctuating employment status or geographic mobility, which also characterize AES work, it declares the...

This report assesses the working conditions of domestic workers ten years after the adoption of the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189). It highlights the progress made over a decade, as well as the remaining legal and implementation gaps, and provides guidance on policies that can pave the way...

This policy brief outlines the challenges in extending social protection to domestic workers, which were aggravated by the COVID-19 crisis. These include inter alia legal exclusion in relation to working conditions and arrangements (part time work, multiple employers, informality, etc).  Even where domestic workers might be covered in law,...

The briefing note explains the ILO strategy to expand social security coverage to migrant domestic workers, including the ILO standards relevant to migrant domestic workers. Despite the long list of ILO social security instruments adopted, the note goes on by describing the main challenges of standards setting for migrant...

This guide focuses on the challenges that countries face in implementing labour legislation covering domestic work. It is targeted in particular to government agencies, including labour inspectorates and other institutions that enforce labour regulations, as well as social partners and, more generally, domestic workers and their employers. The guide...

The policy brief outlines the obstacles for the formation of trade unions, strikes and collective bargaining in the sector of domestic work. It highlights that voice and representation for domestic workers is nevertheless important and advocates for new paradigms and new thinking to organize workers of and set collective...

World Social Protection Report 2020-22: Social protection at the crossroads – in pursuit of a better future  This ILO flagship report provides a global overview of recent developments in social protection systems, including social protection floors, and covers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on new data, it...

This compendium contains a selection of the most relevant international instruments that establish the human right to social security and provide guidance for comprehensive social security systems at national level. These include the standards and conclusions adopted by the International Labour Organization in the field of social security and...

Building on the process facilitated by ILO and International Disability Alliance (IDA) that led to the adoption of a joint statement on inclusive social protectionm and the current momentum on universal social protection, the UNPRPD funded project, implemented jointly by ILO and UNICEF in close cooperation with IDA seeks...

This brief presents key aspects of universal social protection, and highlights how it is anchored in the current international legal and policy framework. It summarizes the progress that has been achieved so far and delimits the concept from other ideas and terms that are currently present in policy discussions....

The paper provides regional and global estimates of the costs and financing gaps of target 1.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relating to social protection and analyses a number of options for filling those financing gaps in the developing countries using domestic and external resources. The paper considers...

The Toolkit on ILO Social Security Standards was developed with the aim of raising awareness about ILO social security standards and promoting their ratification as well as increasing their impact and application in national contexts. The toolkit provides very practical and useful insights as to the ratification procedure, model...

The ILO policy resource package “Extending social security to workers in the informal economy: Lessons from international experience” serves as a reference for policy makers, workers’ and employers’ organizations and other stakeholders engaged in the development of social protection strategies, or the planning, design, implementation and monitoring of systems and...

This joint statement reflects our shared commitment to inclusive social protection systems for persons with disabilities. The statement emerged from meetings and discussions between international partners working on the issues of disability and social protection. These meetings also contributed to the first report of the United Nations (UN) Special...

The ILO’s General Survey 2019 , compiled by the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR). The Survey (published under the title Universal social protection for human dignity, social justice and sustainable development) focuses on the ILO’s Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), which calls for...

This policy paper: (i) provides a global overview of the organization of pension systems and their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); (ii) monitors SDG indicator 1.3.1 for older persons, analyses trends and recent policies in 192 countries, including the extension of legal and effective coverage in a...

Most analyses of Central and Eastern Europe’s (CEE) second-pension pillars focus on Hungary and Poland, the first CEE governments to establish such pillars (1997-1999) and the first to retrench them (2010-2011). However, as the regional front-runners in second-pillar creation and termination, Hungary and Poland differ in some important ways...

This paper documents the reversal of pension privatization and the reforms that took place in the 1990s and 2000s in Venezuela. The report analyses the political economy of different reform proposals, and the characteristics of the new pension system, including laws enacted, governance and social security administration, social dialogue,...

This paper documents the reversal of pension privatization and the reforms that took place in the 1990s and 2000s in Nicaragua. The report analyses the political economy of different reform proposals, and the characteristics of the new pension system, including laws enacted, governance and social security administration, social dialogue,...

This paper documents the reversal of pension privatization and the reforms that took place in the 1990s and 2000s in Ecuador. The report analyses the political economy of different reform proposals, and the characteristics of the new pension system, including laws enacted, coverage, benefit adequacy, financing and contribution rates,...

This paper documents the reversal of pension privatization and the reforms that took place in the 1990s and 2000s in Poland. The report analyses the political economy of different reform proposals, and the characteristics of the new pension system, including laws enacted, coverage, benefit adequacy, financing and contribution rates,...