1. Global Technical Team Social Protection Retreat Session 2: “Social protection situation and trends in the Arab States” Geneva , March 2017
Ursula Kulke,
Senior Regional Social Security Specialist,
ILO Regional Office for Arab States, Beirut - Lebanon

2. Structure of the presentation
Point One: Employment and socio- economic situation
Point Two: Social protection situation
Point Three: Social protection challenges
Point Four: Main priorities for ILO action

3. Employment and socio-economic situation
Regional overview
Employment and socio-economic situation
The on-going war in Syria and the conflicts in Iraq and Yemen, as well as political instability in several other countries in the region have resulted in increased unemployment, vulnerable employment and working poverty, especially among female and young workers.
Unemployment rates in Middle East are the highest regional rates: estimated at 10.7% in 2016, while worldwide average was estimated at 5.7%
Women are more affected, their unemployment rate exceeded 21.9%, compared to 6.15% worldwide in 2016
The situation is even worse for the youth: youth unemployment in the Arab region is the highest globally at 31.1% compared to a world average of 12.8% in 2016
The Middle East has lowest labour force participation rates: 52% in Middle East, while worldwide average was 62.8% in 2016
Source APRM report
(40.9% for young women),

4. Employment and socio-economic situation
Regional overview
Employment and socio-economic situation
The Middle East is characterized by huge gender gaps in employment, as demonstrated by the low female labour force participation rate of 21.2%, to be found particularly in the Arab States compared to a world average labour force participation of 49.5% in 2016
Vulnerable employment in non-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries rose to above 33 per cent in 2016, and incidence of working poor (workers with income less than US$3.10 per day (PPP)) increased from 31.8 per cent in 2014 to 38 per cent in 2015.
Despite increased economic growth prospects in 2017, there is not enough labour demand, and many of the jobs created are low skill or low quality jobs, thus, the total unemployment rate (10.7% in 2016) is expected to remain mostly unchanged with large decent work deficits in the Middle East.
In contrast, in GCC countries the share of vulnerable employment is less than 3 per cent, and the incidence of working poverty is relatively low at 6.9 per cent, however in slow increase since 2011 (ILO 2016b).

5. Employment and socio-economic situation
Regional overview
Employment and socio-economic situation
Poverty and income insecurity are still a common feature of many Arab societies, despite recent rapid economic growth:
Recent estimates suggest that about 20 percent of the Arab population, equivalent to 34.6 million people, lived in poverty
Another feature of many countries in Arab region is high informality, which translates into high social security coverage gaps: it is estimated that pensions cover only 1/3 of workers, and the coverage rate is as low as 8% in Yemen:
Women are again more penalized: few countries in Middle East reach coverage rates of more than 10% of the population for women
The Middle East has the highest shares of migrant workers in the world: in the GCC countries, migrants represent a massive share of the population, up to 75.5% in Qatar, and above 50% in the overall average, working in most countries with out social security protection

6. Social protection situation
Regional overview
Social protection situation
Few Arab states have developed coherent national social security policies.
There are considerable coverage deficits:
In most countries, existing social security schemes cover only workers in the public sector and private sector on regular contracts
Temporary workers, agricultural workers, domestic workers, informal workers, migrant workers, and to a large extent self-employed workers are usually excluded from legal coverage (recent WB estimates suggest a coverage of 30% of workers in the region for pensions, and in Yemen pension coverage is as low as 8%)
Due to low levels of formal employment participation of women in many Arab countries, their social insurance coverage is even lower
Social insurance systems provide only long-term benefits (old age, disability and survivors’ pensions and employment injury benefits)
Pension schemes are fragmented
Pension schemes are not sustainable in the long-run, due to over generous provisions and demographic changes
Most Arab countries lack protection against catastrophic health expenditure, a critical factor contributing to vulnerability and poverty.
None of the Arab countries has a rights-based social assistance scheme.

7. Social protection situation
Regional overview
Social protection situation
Only few Arab countries offer short-term benefits: Bahrain & Saudi Arabia are the only countries in the Middle East which have unemployment insurance schemes in place; Jordan and OPT are the only ones which have maternity insurance in place. None of the countries has sickness benefits and family benefits in place
Most Arab countries lack protection against catastrophic health expenditure, a critical factor contributing to vulnerability and poverty.
All countries offer some kind of social assistance programmes, which are however, not rights-based.
Thus, benefits are granted on a discretionary basis, as opposed to clear rights and entitlements
The providers of these programmes range from governments to NGOs. A lack of coordination is of concern, resulting in the duplication of support to some groups, while others are hardly covered
Another issue is funding, often decided ad hoc and creating a high level of insecurity for institutions and beneficiaries

8. Social security programmes – Regional overview
Bahrain
Iraq
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
oPt
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Syria
UAE
Yemen
Old age SI OI
Survivors …
Invalidity/
disabiliy
Employment injury
Sickness
Medical care
Maternity
Unemployment
(SI)
Family
Social
assistance SN
SI = Social Insurance; OI = Other Ins. Arrangement (Prov. Fund, etc.); SSA = statutory social assistance (rights- based);
SN = Safety Net Programme (not rights-based)
Source: ISSA Observatory Country profiles 7

9. Social protection challenges
Regional overview
Social protection challenges
Considerable coverage gaps, due to mainly:
High number of refugees and IDPs
Shrinking formal sector employment and increasing informal economy
Unsustainability of pension schemes (mainly GCC countries)
Limited number of contingencies covered by social insurance systems
Social protection policies are usually based on a safety net approach, and not on universality of benefits
Austerity measures force governments to limit subsidies, however, savings arte not redirected to social protection measures
ILO is non-resident UN agency, thus it is more difficult for the ILO to gain the trust of stakeholders than for resident UN agencies

10. Additional considerations
Regional overview
Additional considerations
In addition, there are political challenges which hamper sound and sustainable social protection policy making:
The refugee crisis, political conflicts and instability have affected long-term social protection policy making due to the urgent need for short-term humanitarian assistance
Non-democratic governance in most countries of the region and lack of tripartism and free trade unions are an impediment for policy making that reflects pluralistic views and the needs of the society as a whole
Fast changing governments with different agendas are an impediment for continuity of policy making

11. Main priorities of action
for the ILO
Assist the countries affected by the refugee crisis and conflict to move from the humanitarian approach to a developmental approach and strengthen resilience of host communities through the better coordination of the different schemes leading to the establishment of a national SPF, while at the same time providing sustainable benefits to refugees (e.g. in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon), in close collaboration with other UN agencies and civil society
Assist countries in the reform of their pension schemes, to guarantee sustainable benefits in the long-run (GCC countries, Jordan and Lebanon)
Promote social protection for migrant workers, either through their inclusion in national social security systems or the establishment of their own social security funds
Promote universal health care in the whole region

12. THANK YOU