Module 4: Introduction to the assessment based national dialogue exercise

ILO, 2013

Key questions

• What are the objectives of the ABND exercise?• What are the main steps of the ABND process?• How do we ensure that all stakeholders are involved from the

outset?• Step 1 – Building the assessment matrix• Step 2 – Costing policy options using the RAP model• Step 3 – Finalization and endorsement• What are the strengths and limitations of ABND?

Objectives of ABND

• ABND identifies the existing situation and gaps in the social protection system

• It develops recommendations for achieving the SPF

How do we achieve the SPF and make it a reality for the whole population of a country?

Do all residents have access to essential health care, including maternity care?

Do all children enjoy basic income security, providing access to nutrition, education, care, and any other necessary goods and services?

Do all persons in active age who cannot earn sufficient income, enjoy basic income security, particularly in cases of sickness, unemployment, maternity, disability?

Do all older persons have basic income security?

Making the SPF a realityFour basic guarantees:

Some countries may have the Floor for Health, e.g. ThailandBut gaps for children, working age people or the elderly still exist

Poor Rest of informal sector Formal sector

Level of protection

Population

Making the SPF a reality

Steps of ABND

1. What is the social security

situation?

2. How far are we from the achievement of the

SPF? -> gaps, issues

3. What should be done to complete

the SPF?

4. How much would it cost today and in the

future?

5. Can the Government afford it? Do we need to increase

the fiscal space?

6. How to ensure that the recommendations are

endorsed and listened to?

7. How to advocate for the SPF as a whole or specific

recommendations?

ABND FACTSHEETStep 1 – Building the assessment matrix including the identification of priority recommendations

Step 2 – Rapid Assessment Protocol to estimate the cost of implementing the social protection provisions

Step 3 – Finalisation of the assessment report for endorsement and further action by the higher levels of government

Steps of ABND

1. Inventory of schemes (Jun 2011)

2. Draft Assessment Matrix (Jul 2011)

3. Dialogue # 1 on ABND matrix (Aug 2011)

4. Translation of policy recommendations into practical scenarios

5. Dialogue # 2 on proposed scenarios (Nov 2011, Feb 2012)

6. Data collection for the RAP protocol and costing of the scenarios (Nov 2011 - Mar 2012)

7. Dialogue # 3 on results of costing (Mar 2012); Training on costing (May 2012)

9. Endorsement by UN/RTG joint team and presentation to the government (Oct-Nov 2012)

8. Finalization of Costing, Fiscal space, Writing ABND report (May-Aug 2012)

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

The process in

Thailand

Steps of ABND

• ABND is a participatory approach which should involve all relevant stakeholders

• It entails bilateral consultations, tripartite workshops, and technical seminars

• Thailand: ABND conducted by Royal Thai Government / UN team on social protection, co-chaired by Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and ILO

• Indonesia: ABND conducted by United Nations Partnership for Development Framework (UNPDF) sub-working group on SPF, led by ILO and coordinated by Bappenas

• Working with stakeholders with political power and expertise can avoid potential blockage

Involving stakeholders

Involving stakeholders

Workers’ and employers’

organizations

Civil society

Local governments

National Statistics

Office, academicians

UN agencies involved in SPF (ILO, UNICEF, WHO,

UNESCAP, UNFPA, UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNWOMEN, UNDP,

WFP), World Bank, ADB, other development partners

Line ministries (Labour, Health, Social Welfare, Planning, Interior, Education, Finance, Rural Development, Women’s Affairs, etc.), social security institutions

Step 1: Building the assessment matrix

SPF objectives

Govt. strategy

Existing provisions

Policy gaps

Implement-ation issues

Recomm-endations

Health

Children

Working age

Elderly

Four SPF guarantees

Identifying existing situation

in the country

Identifying policy gaps and

implementation issues, addressing

which would complete the SPF

Priority policy

options, decided through national dialogue

Policy gaps: Missing legislation or policy leading to a part of the population being excluded from the complete SPFFor e.g.

Only formal sector workers and very poor people are entitled to social health protection

There is no unemployment protection scheme for workers in case of loss of employment

Only formal sector workers are entitled to a child allowance for pre-school children

Step 1: Building the assessment matrix

Step 1: Building the assessment matrix

Implementation issues: Despite existing policies or legislation, people do not have effective access to entitlementsFor e.g.

Despite universal access to social health protection, people from rural areas have limited protection due to poor health care infrastructure

Enforcement of the Social Security Act is low, due to employers not registering their staff and a lack of resources to reach out to informal sector workers

From Step 1 to Step 2

There are 2 types of recommendations

Recommendations to introduce social insurance, work on coordination between schemes and operations, qualitative recommendations to improve quality of services

We need to conduct further studiesLABOUR MARKET

MODEL

MACROECONOMIC MODELGENERAL

GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS

MODEL

BENEFITS COSTING EXERCISE

SUMMARY AND RESULTS

DEMOGRAPHIC FRAMEWORK

We can use the RAP Protocol

Recommendations to introduce non-contributory benefits, increase non-contributory benefit amounts, extend coverage

Step 2: Rapid Assessment Protocol

RAP is a simplified Excel tool developed by ILO to estimate

the cost of providing SPF benefits (for health, children, working age and the elderly)

over a 5-10 year period

Labour market (EAP)

Demographic data (POP)

Macroeconomic data (ECO)

General government operations (GGO)

Costing of benefits

Summary and results

1. Data collection

2. Estimated cost of benefits in absolute terms, as % of GDP, and as % of government expenditure

3. Projected cost of combined benefit packages

Step 2: Rapid Assessment Protocol

Cost of implementing the scenarios is calculated using

RAP worksheets

Recommendations are translated into scenarios, i.e. specific social

protection policy options

Estimated cost can be linked to fiscal space (GDP and government budget)

to check their feasibility

Step 2: Rapid Assessment Protocol

At the end of Step 2, we have the cost of implementing SPF benefits expressed as % of GDP (e.g. Thailand)

Step 2: Rapid Assessment Protocol

Two possible cases:• Case 1: The new government budget is balanced and fiscal

space is available in the country.• Case 2: The new government budget is in deficit. New fiscal

space needs to be created through changes in budget allocations, increase in government revenues through additional taxes, etc.

In both cases, especially case 2, the government needs to be convinced that investing in the SPF is good for the country and for social and economic growth.

Cost of implementing scenarios over 5-10 years

(Benefits worksheet)

Projected government budget

(GGO)

New government

budget+ =

Step 2: Rapid Assessment Protocol

Step 3: Finalization and endorsementPresenting to higher levels of

Government

with a ‘champion’

Government may endorse or ‘test’ some recommendations

or conduct further studies:• actuarial• legal• human capacity

Finalising the ABND report with stakeholders

Advocating to policy-makers can be done with:• Evidence from other countries• Economic models to demonstrate the expected impact of

policy options on reduction in poverty and inequality, increase in growth, productivity and employability

• Financial models to assess the return on social investment• Communication and awareness generation among people,

government, civil society, social partners

Step 3: Finalization and endorsement

Strengths of ABND

• It provides a coordinated, holistic and coherent approach to the development of social protection in a country

• It initiates national dialogue on social security strategy, SPF, priority policy options, problems in providing social protection to all and ways to address the issues

• It provides evidence on the feasibility of different policy options

• It can serve as a baseline for monitoring of SPF implementation (within the national framework)

Limitations of ABND

• The analysis conducted under Step 1 is simplistic and does not go into details on operations and institutional capacities

• The social dialogue usually takes place at the technical level and higher-level policy makers or “champions” may need to be involved during Step 3

• The RAP is based on some assumptions leading to rough estimates of future costs; additional actuarial studies are needed for the finalisation of the design of proposed schemes