This book shows how resources can be found and managed to finance transfers that can help to alleviate income insecurity and poverty in the context of a national concept of social protection. It assists the reader to analyse the economic, fiscal and financial consequences of alternative social protection financing systems. Unlike the other volumes, which were written chiefly for quantitative specialists (actuaries, financial analysts and quantitative economists), this book is also meant for a wider audience of social protection policy analysts and planners. The ILO and ISSA are convinced that a basic understanding of sound financial governance and planning must be part of the professional education of all social protection planners.

Financing social protection is thus a compromise between a textbook for analysts and a compendium of concepts for policy planners and decision-makers. It abstains from giving policy advice and passing judgement on alternative financing options; rather, it sets out the technical characteristics of alternative financing systems and their potential fiscal and economic effects. It also spells out financial governance prerequisites for effective and efficient benefit delivery. As a textbook, it offers the reader active involvement in the form of practical assignments that review and consolidate the essential concepts discussed.