Social Protection For All - Workshop at ACSC/APF 2014

Social protection has increasingly been accepted by key stakeholders at different  levels as one of the effective tools in meeting basic needs, advancing people’s rights and well-being and also reduce inequality in society.  At the international level, the Social Protection Floor Initiative (SPF) was introduced by the UN agencies and followed by the adoption of the SPF Recommendation at the 101 International Labour Conference in June 2012 and the formation of coalition of CSO to promote the implementation of SPF worldwide. 

Progress in social protection has been made in ASEAN countries, at the regional level and in some countries. Recognising the existing gap and the need for the improvement of social protection, the ASEAN declaration on social protection has been developed and adopted by the governments last year. Workers movement, include informal workers and migrant workers and other marginalized people  are call for social protection as  one of their basic rights. The SPF process, led by ILO in collaboration with the respective government and civil society has been conducted in a number of countries, for example, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, of which key recommendations have been presented and acknowledged by key stakeholders. However, it is has been recognized that there is still a huge gap in ensuring social protection for all in the region, particularly for vulnerable groups such as children, older people, people with disabilities, informal workers, migrant workers, and women, etc.

While the state has a key role in providing and ensuring social protection for its citizen, the civil society sector and workers’ movement must be encouraged to take part in the process so that it can complement the state’s role and ensure that people’s voices are heard and taking into account in the development and improvement of social protection.

Purpose of the workshop

This workshop will give an opportunity to civil society representing different vulnerable groups  and workers’ movement to  update on the situation of social protection, share ideas, experiences, good practices and discuss a way forward for advancing social protection in ASEAN countries, including involvement of the civil society sector. The output will be a statement on social protection for all in ASEAN countries of the civil society participating in the ACSC to be incorporated into the Joint CSOs statement of APF/ACSC 2014.

Methodology and contents

Approximately two-third of the workshop sessions will be allocated for the participants to share their views and discuss the social protection issues and recommendations relating to their situation and concerns. The workshop will be conducted in English and is expected to attract around 30-40 participants from different ASEAN countries. In case there is a large number of participants from the host country, a translation to a local language may be made available. Key materials will be made available in English as appropriate.

Resource persons

 The sessions will be comprised of presentations of key speaks from the organizing agencies and other experienced individuals in the relevant with a gender balance as follows:

• ·         Ms. Joy Hernandez, Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC)
• ·         Ms. Capucine (HelpAge, Myanmar office)
• ·         Ms. Inday Pineda Ofreneo, Regional Coordinator, Homenet Southeast Asia (HNSEA)
• ·         Ms.Viennarat Chuangwiwat, Independent Specialist   (Moderator)

Proposed agenda

Organizers : 

• HelpAge International
• Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC)
• Homenet Southeast Asia (HNSEA)