Side event at the 57th Session of the UN Commission for Social Development

This Side Event will bring together experts from Africa, Europe and the UN to discuss recent innovations in equality enhancing social protection. What lessons could be learned for capacity development and policy making at national continental and global levels?

Equality enhancing social protection and labour market policies promote social mobility and opportunities for all to improve their lives. Reduction of inequalities thus decreases social conflicts and creates positive trust in the government, making it easier to respond to changing ecological, economic and social situations.

Participants will discuss how to progressively streamline fragmented social protection programmes into nationally appropriate social protection systems that cover all people throughout the life cycle. Specific experiences will be shared from African countries’ efforts in developing multi-disciplinary social protection curricula for pre- and in-service training. These kinds of capacity development efforts are essential for the sustainability of social protection systems and have been a focus area of the EU Social Protection Systems Programme (EUSPS).