Global Conference on Financing Social Protection (Brussels)

PSI Head Office and affiliates from: Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chad, France, Germany, Greece, Mali, Nigeria, Palestine, and Senegal, will be participating in the global conference.

The conference is organised by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and World Solidarity. It will bring together trade unions, civil society organisations, international organisations and academics.

During the two days, participants will reflect on: identifying the costs of social protection reform; possible sources of financing on the national level, and; international financing possibilities.

In the final session of the conference, the trade union movement will define a common agenda on social protection which will link tax justice campaign work with advocacy for universal social protection.

There will be two side events on the second day:

• A meeting of trade unions with Isabel Ortiz, Director of the ILO Social Protection department, and other ILO staff members. This will be an opportunity for unions to communicate their priorities on social protection, explain the challenges they are facing at national level, and learn more about ILO work to promote social protection;
• A seminar jointly organized by DG DEVCO from the European Commission and the OECD Development Centre to discuss methodologies for assessing the financing of social protection developed and/or used by the European Social Protection Systems Programme (EU-SPS).

Towards the conference, PSI has issued a brief, which calls for social protection financing to be rooted in an anti-austerity and human rights-based approach.

More information:

• Agenda of the meeting
• English - PSI brief
• French - PSI brief
• Spanish - PSI brief