Social Protection & Public Finance Management Conference

NTU participated in the DG INTPA Conference: Social Protection and Public Finance Management: Synergy and Linkages

17th of December, 2024

NTU participated in the DG INTPA Conference, "Social Protection & Public Finance Management" held on December 12. The Conference was dedicated to trends in development of the social protection sector globally, interconnections of the Social Protection (SP) sector and Public Finance Management (PFM) sector.

The meeting started with an introduction from DG INTPA, Social Protection and Equality Services. The vision of the DG INTPA on social protection is based on the understanding of social protection as a Human Right. Moreover, DG INTPA seeks to contribute to the inclusion of all types of populations, especially vulnerable groups, in SP schemes. DG’s representative stressed their commitment towards supporting domestic SP systems. Finally, the interconnectivity of the SP system and PFM sectors was underlined.

Key takeaways from the Programme on “Improving synergies between SP and PFM” were presented (overall 24 countries were beneficiaries). The Programme is directed to enhance social protection systems and ensure sustainable financing while improving public finance management. The implementation process provided in-depth and long-term support to eight countries to build and strengthen their social protection systems. In addition to this, some countries received on-demand technical advisory services to strengthen and expand their social protection systems.

The Program is carried out by a variety of stakeholders, namely the European Union, the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors, the International Labour Organization and UNICEF. DG INTPA representatives particularly stressed the consistent work of the directorate with AFD, GIZ and other partners within the Team Europe approach. From the Global Gateway Strategy perspective, the Programme pursued the promotion of investment tackling inequality, enhancing social rights and especially the right to social security.

The impact of the Programme was demonstrated in further numbers:

8,7 million people worldwide who were previously excluded from social protection are now covered by social protection schemes;
24 million people are better informed about social protection;
700,000 persons received support during the COVID-19 crises;
26 national policy documents with gender-sensitive financing were prepared;
28 social protection programmes or schemes were developed;
Capacity Building activities were conducted for 1,389 government, social partners and CSOs representatives on social protection and PFM.

In order to enhance CSOs’ role, the Programme contributed to: inclusive, credible, effective, and sustainable CSOs’ involvement in PFM and social protection processes; increased capacities on PFM; developed training manuals on PFM; better engagement with sectoral and finance ministries on a national level; Capacity Building actions with parliament members as a part of advocacy strategy; and, finally, awareness raising of grassroots members.

The Programme was directed to bring together best practices from various countries. Such best practices were consolidated into three groups: Integration of jobs and social protection policies for just transitions (for instance, SP extension to workers in shade economy – formalisation of employment, integration of unemployment protection systems); Domestic Resource Mobilisation (for example social budget briefs, transparency and accountability of SP resources); Public Finance Management, and Multilateral and multi-stakeholders partnerships (covering among others Ministries of Finance, EUDs, IMF and WB, employees and employers, CSOs).