UN agency chiefs call for expanding social protection
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E-mail Xinhua, October 26, 2018
GENEVA, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Two UN agency heads on Thursday signed an action call for countries to expand social security and assistance to more than 4 billion people currently without protection.
International Labor Organization (ILO) Director-general, Guy Ryder, and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said world leaders need to support social security and assistance programs worldwide as they are critical to achieving the goals of the UN's global development agenda.
The two said social protection programs must be ready to reach an additional four billion people by the year 2030, the target date for the UN's Sustainable Development Agenda and its 17 Goals (SDGs).
The ILO estimates that only 45 percent of the global population currently has access to social protection.
Ryder and Bachelet were speaking to more than 100 top government officials, business representatives, trade unionists and others, at the third meeting of the Multi-Stakeholder Partnership.
The meeting is working at achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1.3 on Social Protection and Ryder said that greater efforts would be required at all levels.
"Closing the social protection gap is at the heart of the ILO's commitment to achieving social justice," he said. "I know you all are present here today because you -- and the institutions you represent -- are also called to act."
Bachelet said that such programs are critical, both to support human rights and to ensure that development work has a lasting impact.
"We are beginning to accept that there are no shortcuts to true development and that well-being can only be achieved through investment in people, without exception," she said.
Bachelet said, "Investing in people is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do."
The human rights chief said that closing the social protection gap is at the heart of the ILO's commitment to achieving social justice.
Their call for action asks countries to secure and responsibly manage public resources for social protection.
They are seeking to promote dialogue to increase the coverage of public pensions, health care, family allowances, unemployment and maternity benefits, and other programs.
The ILO is the UN agency responsible for monitoring progress toward the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1.3 on the extension of social protection. Enditem
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