The Social Protection Programme promotes and provides support for the ILO’s strategic objective of “Enhancing the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all” by building capacity in the areas of social security, occupational safety, health and working conditions, international labour migration and HIV-AIDS.

There is a large social protection deficit at the global and national levels in each of those areas, with high human and economic costs. Fifty per cent of the world population does not benefit from any social security, such as health insurance, pensions and unemployment insurance. Another 30 per cent has poor coverage. Occupational accidents or work-related diseases result in 6,300 deaths every day, and more than 337 million accidents occur on the job annually. It is estimated that poor working conditions cost four per cent of global gross domestic product annually. International labour migration means that millions of people are on the move every year, doing jobs ranging from menial labour such as harvesting to computer programming, resulting in issues of good governance, protection of migrants and ensuring positive effects on development. Lastly, the HIV-AIDS pandemic is a critical workplace issue that affects workers and their families, communities and employers, requiring workplace policies and social protection.

The ITC-ILO’s contribution focuses on building the capacity of its member constituents and national social protection managers and practitioners to design and manage appropriate protection policies and mechanisms for workers in the formal and informal economies, for their families, and for vulnerable populations.