Go back to the OC Social protection responses to COVID-19 [Task force]
3.2.8 - RT 8: Migrant-responsive social protection: Lessons from Covid-19
The Round-tables allowed organisations working in the field of social protection to propose their topics of interest and engage in an open discussion with experts, while also involving the audience. In these virtual round-tables, current pressing topics derived from experiences with the COVID-19 crisis were discussed by selected experts with a focus on the future of social protection.
This session was convened by Southern African Social Protection Experts Network (SASPEN) alongside IOM, UNICEF and WFP. Speakers stated that the emerging pattern of COVID-19 responses in the past month have shown that government-initiated responses have mainly targeted citizens and the formal economy, with minimal or no indication of policy responses targeting migrants (even in countries where the constitution mentions this, as was the case of South Africa). Yet policy responses should be inclusive of cross-border traders, labour migrants, refugees, undocumented migrant workers, among others who face the same health threats as host populations. According to the speakers, the reason for this goes beyond social justice, social protection for migrants will help reduce the risk of transmission for the entire population while sustaining a source of labour that will be critical for economic recovery from the effects of COVID-19.
Panelists also highlighted a World Bank funded research project that will be looking at social protection access and humanitarian assistance-social protection linkages for IDPs in Colombia, refugees and IDPs in Cameroon, and refugees in Greece.
Speakers: Giulia Baldi, Marius Olivier, Gift Dafuleya, Jason Theede, Teona Aslanishvili
Moderator: Evance Kalula
Resources shared via chat during this session:
