New CROP Poverty Brief: The Social Protection Floor
Member of CROP Scientific Committee Prof. Bob Deacon argues that the UN Social Protection Floor Initiative is one of the most important developments in global policy in recent years.
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Published: 12.10.2012
In June 2012 the International Labour Organisation agreed to a new international instrument, a Social Protection Floors (SPFs) Recommendation which all governments are urged to adopt. In this new CROP Poverty Brief, Prof. Deacon reviews and assess the main provisions of the Recommendation, and some of the complicated aspects of its global governance are explained.
In conclusion Prof. Deacon argues that four things will determine if the SPF initiative gets translated into real national social floors:
- The strength of national civil society-lead campaigns to convert the Recommendation into practice
- Whether the World Bank’s high profile engagement will turn out to be a double edged sword with the Bank using its influence to twist the national definitions of floors back into targeted safety nets
- Whether the IMF can be persuaded to enable countries to create the fiscal space to lay the foundations of the SPFs
- Whether the SPF becomes embedded as an important element of the donor-supported post MDG 2015 UN development policy, and as part of the Rio plus 20 sustainable development global policy
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