Room Porto
14h00m - 16h30m
Wednesday October 4th
Organised by ILO LED Local Economic Development and STEP Program
Room Roma
17h00 - 20h00 Task Team Part-1
Monday October 2nd
Room Lisboa
13h00 - 20h00 Task Team meeting Part-2
Wednesday October 4th
Organised by the DAC/ Poverty Network Task Team on "Social Protection
and Social Policy"
Workshop CIARIS - The Learning and Resources Centre on Social Inclusion
Monday October 2nd 18.45 – 19.45, Hotel Altis Room: Milan Organized by the ILO Strategies and Tools to Fight Social Exclusion and Poverty (STEP) Programme.
CIARIS is an initiative of the ILO/STEP Program (
www.ilo.org/ciaris), supported by the Government of Portugal, which aims to improve the impact of social exclusion interventions at the local level, by strengthening the capacity of actors and encouraging the dissemination and exchange of knowledge and know-how. Based on information and communication technologies, CIARIS provides access to relevant knowledge on social exclusion issues and enables the interaction among people through distance learning and assistance on-line, discussion forums and virtual communities. One main added-value of the initiative is to gather people and organizations fighting against social exclusion in a wide community around the world.
The side event aimed at presenting what CIARIS is about and the developments that have been achieved in different parts of the world. It also provided an opportunity to highlight CIARIS’ contribution in the fight against social exclusion, more specifically in terms of capacity building and networking.
For further information:
Programme (in english) Presentations (by Philippe Vanhuynegem (STEP Portugal Project), Giuseppe Cocco (Labtec/CAIS), Joanilda Alves (Capo Verde) and Sérgio Aires (REAPN/Multiplicar))
Workshop “Breaking the poverty cycle: Securing rights to cash benefits for older people and children through national commitments and community action”
Wednesday October 4th 8.30 - 12.00, Hotel Altis, Room: Lisboa
Organised by Help Age International and Save the Children
2 linked panel discussions analyzed and debated the value of national policy instruments, including social pension and child grant, to effectively tackle poverty across the life-course, drawing on experience of younger and older people and links between the generations. The side event debated the follow up to the March 2006 ‘Livingstone Call for Action on Social Protection’, which called for African governments to integrate social transfers into national planning and budget processes. Also, findings of recent research on cost and affordability of social transfers and their impact on poverty reduction were reviewed. Civil society representatives presented the experience of community action on securing the right of poor people to regular income.
Further information:
Policy note of the side eventProgramme (English)Presentation by Kerry SylvesterPresentation by Pathamavathy Naicker
Presentation by Michael SamsonPresentation by Thabo Thulo and David Croome
GURN workshop “Social Policy in a global economy – the challenges for organised labour”
Wednesday October 4th 9.00 - 16.00, Hotel Altis, Room: Madrid
Organised by ILO ACTRAV – Bureau for Workers’ activities
The objective of the workshop was to initiate better cooperation, debate and research among trade unionists and academics on social policy issues in particular concerning universal coverage of social protection. This meeting offered the opportunity to create a “GURN” sub-group on Social Policy. The debate helped to strengthen the argument for a rights based approach to social security. Such an approach can be based on international labour standards and human rights declarations. A number of ILO conventions are related to social protection, the most important one is convention 102 that aims at universal coverage. However governments can fulfill the requirements of 102 and nevertheless many people remain unprotected. Additional instruments promoting universal coverage through a defined set of basic benefits and an obligation to increase the level of protection might be needed to reach out to those currently not sufficiently covered by social security.
Themes discussed include: “A rights based approach to social security - what does this imply for organised labour ?” and “The challenges for a universal pension system based on solidarity and providing defined basic benefits for all”.
Further information:
Programme (English)
Workshop “Bairros Críticos” (“At Risk Neighbourhoods” Initiative: The Importance of Economic and Employment Issues in Integrated Interventions - provisional title)
Wednesday October 4th (9h30-17h00) Hotel Altis, Room: Panorama
Organised by the Portuguese National Housing Institute
“Given the concentration of social problems in critical neighbourhoods in big metropolitan areas, the relative disadvantage and less capacity of local populations and the concentration of most vulnerable groups, different forms of discrimination, social stigma attached to them and the limited opportunities that they have , these areas represent, on one side, a challenge in terms of the promotion of citizenship and social cohesion and on the other side a great risk in terms of behaviours that can undermine the quality of life and the competitiveness of the main metropolitan zones. In addition, for these same reasons, these are the areas where the intervention is more complex, results last less and more urgency is felt to find new forms of intervention that ensure a strong local involvement and results in greater capacity building of the populations” (Extract of the Resolution of the Council of Ministers nb 143/2005 on the “Initiative of Qualification and Urban Redevelopment of “Bairros Críticos” Neighboorhoods at risk”).
Promoted by the Secretary of State for Spatial Planning and Towns / National Housing Institute, in the framework of the new law on “Bairros Críticos”, the seminar gathered national and international specialists to debate about the efforts in order to improve and innovate on methodologies and tools of intervention towards these urban areas.
Further information:
PDF (English)Programme (Portuguese)
Presentation by José Manuel Henriques
Presentation by Michel Bonetti
Working group on “Social Protection and Local Economic Development”
Wednesday October 4th Hotel Altis, 14.00-16.30 Room: Porto
Organised by ILO LED Local Economic Development and STEP Program
There is growing expertise and accumulated knowledge in the world on local development. However, specific knowledge on the successful extension of social protection and the improvement of social and health services via local development strategies, as well as evidence on the conditions for their optimal articulation remain ill documented. The understanding of the underlying connections leading to successful socially inclusive local development and on the mutual benefits for economic development and social protection of workers and their families, should help local actors better take into account the promotion of decent work and the extension of social protection in local development strategies. In order to assist local actors in this process, STEP and LED wish to promote innovative approaches to integrate social protection to local development, and income generating activities, in order to reduce poverty and social exclusion in the world, by developing appropriate capacity building material and training on these issues. In this context they have promoted a collection and preliminary analysis of experiences and cases, from different parts of the world, providing evidence on the effective extension of social protection to workers and their families thanks to initiatives undergone in the framework of local development processes. Recommendations from authors have highlighted some desirable directions the capacity building material should take.
The working group gathered authors of the case studies and specialists from the ILO and external consultants to discuss these conclusions and anticipate directions for further cooperation.
Key Documents: Case studies
Meeting of the OECD/DAC Poverty Network Task Team on “Risk, Vulnerability and Social Protection”
Sunday October 1st Restaurant 19.00-22.00 Informal self-financed dinner; Monday October 2nd Room Roma 17.00 - 20.00 Task Team meeting Part-1 ; Wednesday October 4th Hotel Altis, 13.00-20:00 Room Lisboa; Task Team meeting Part-2
Organised by the DAC/ Poverty Network Task Team on "Social Protection and Social Policy"
The Development Assistance Committee, DAC, of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, is a forum for enhancing donor policies and programmes in developing countries. Its Poverty Network (POVNET) work has focused on the theme Pro-Poor Growth – how to make economic growth more effective in reducing multi-dimensional poverty. Growth is often seen only in a few sectors and regions while most poor women and men are neither participating in, contributing to nor benefiting from growth; then something is wrong with the pattern of growth. One of the major challenges emerging from this work concerned risks and vulnerability. Poor households often engage in low-productivity activities, because they are less risky than potentially high-productivity alternatives. Hence, reducing the risks faced by poor people through reliable social protection instruments can help to increase productivity and stimulate growth by encouraging people to engage in higher risk/higher yield activities. Reducing risks also means that poor people do not have to fall back on coping strategies that can lead to long-term poverty traps, such as selling their assets or depriving their children of food, schooling and health services. At the initiative of Finland, Germany and the UK, the POVNET has organised a Task Team on Risk, Vulnerability and Social Protection. Nowadays the team calls itself by the name Task Team on Social Protection and Social Policy. Other members come from France, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, European Commission, Switzerland and USA. Of the multilateral agencies, UNDP, ILO, WFP, World Bank and UNICEF have participated actively. During the period 2006-2008 one of the main goals and working methods of the task team is to increasingly link up with professional partners in the Global South. The task of this team is to draft DAC Guidelines on social protection and related broader social policy aspects by the year 2008.
Exhibition and Events 
