On February 24th, the European Commission consultation period to elaborate a Communication on social protection in European Union development cooperation ended; this document will be published in the last quarter of 2012. It will be the continuation of the Communication “Program for Change” which the EC published at the end of 2011 and which will outline the guiding principles for community development policies throughout the period 2014-20.
This Communication will be released in a moment in which social inclusion, the fight against inequalities, is more and more present in the global political agenda and will clearly mark the development agenda beginning in 2015. The Communication on Social Protection will attempt to explain the role of social protection in building support for integral and sustainable development and the role of the EU’s development cooperation in strengthening support for social protection systems and policies.
As an organization committed to health as a human right, Salud por Derecho has participated in this consultation period contributing our vision to the document which the Concord HIV/AIDS Working Group presented and also sending individually our proposal which can be read here. Below, you can find some of our principal contributions:
- Any social protection system ought to include minimum standards and should be related to the coverage of basic necessities.
- Attention to health has special relevance as it enables the possibility to enjoy other rights that are also basic and fundamental such as education, employment and social participation.
- Universal insurance coverage is an indispensable tool when referring to groups that are at special risk or are socially or economically vulnerable.
- The pillars on which different models of social protection ought to sit should be none other than those offered through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the different international agreements that have been developed as these express with clarity the values that all should share, although adapted to the particular circumstances of different cultures and economic systems.
- This means the need to move beyond a will-based model of development cooperation toward one based on global responsibility between countries and communities as the only way to achieve sustainable solutions for all.
This change has to be oriented toward a model of global cohesion that defines minimum common standards of development and of basic fundamental needs coverage, which enables all human beings to enjoy living standards that contribute to a dignified life, all of which should be inscribed in a framework of shared responsibility in order to achieve them.
