“FISCAL SPACE TO FINANCE THE SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM IN TIMOR-LESTE”

HIGH-LEVEL ROUNDTABLE

“FISCAL SPACE TO FINANCE THE SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM IN TIMOR-LESTE”

MS. FUNMI BALOGUN, UN RESIDENT COORDINATOR

His Excellency Vice Prime Minister and Minister Coordinator of Social affairs Mr. Mariano Assanami Sabino, Vice-Primeiro-Ministro, Ambassador Maria Manuela Bairos, …. Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

• I am honored to join you today at this High-level Roundtable in a very relevant topic for Timor-Leste.
• I would like to express my appreciation to ILO for organizing this event and the government of Portugal for supporting.
• I also want to thank the Vice-Prime and Minister Coordinator of Social Affairs, the Minister of Social Solidarity and Inclusion, the President of the National Institute of Social Security, the Minister of Finance, and representatives of government, as well as Social Partners, for your prompt engagement. We appreciate the opportunity to work with you.
• Countries made a global promise to secure the rights and well-being of everyone on a healthy, thriving planet when they adopted the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• As we are all aware, progress towards many of the SDGs is not on track. Millions of workers and their families are still unable to access decent job opportunities and comprehensive and adequate social protection.
• And we know how important social protection and employment is in Timor-Leste.
• The role of social protection in Agenda 2030 goes beyond its contribution to ending poverty in all its forms everywhere (SDG 1). It supports the realization of other SDGs, in particular the goals on health (target 3.8), gender equality (target 5.4), decent work and economic growth (target 8.5), reduced inequalities (target 10.4), as well as peace, justice and strong institutions (target 16.6).
• Social protection plays an important role in a forward-looking agenda that is not only concerned with achieving a minimum level of well-being for all individuals and societies, but also aims to balance opportunities and to avoid the replication of existing inequalities.
• Reducing inequality is necessarily a matter of redistribution, risk sharing and solidarity across the entire society – not only redistribution from rich to poor people, but also between healthy and sick people, between families with children and those without, women and men, workers and employers, and between people of working age and older persons.
• By strengthening people’s capacities and supporting them throughout the life cycle and work transitions, social protection contributes to inclusive growth, social cohesion and social justice.

Excellencies,

• This global political commitment to universal social protection and universal health coverage has not yet translated into sufficient action to make these rights a reality for all.
• There are still social protection gaps.
• And these gaps are usually associated with significant underinvestment in the social protection.
• Securing sustainable and adequate financing is essential, and this can usually be done through a combination of (progressive) taxation and social insurance contributions.
• It is also critical to have well-coordinated policies, including employment, macro-economic and fiscal policies, as well as policies to support transitions from the informal to the formal economy.
• We are here today to look at the options to ensure sustainable and equitable financing of social protection systems, which can support Timor-Leste to progress towards universal social protection, ensuring universal access to comprehensive and adequate social protection for all.
• At UN Headquarters in New York, we are also strengthening our efforts.
• UN is very committed to respond to the complex challenges and chart a human-centred approach to facilitate the inclusive structural transformations needed to achieve the SDGs by 2030. 
• The UN Secretary-General launched the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions in 2021 to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and increase investments in universal social protection and decent jobs. Closing decent work and social protection gaps is key to achieving the SDGs, and making social justice a reality for all. https://www.unglobalaccelerator.org/homepage   
• The Global Accelerator operates through three complementary and mutually supportive pillars: Integrated and evidence-based national strategies and policies; Integrated financing combining domestic resources and international financial support; and, enhanced multilateral cooperation.
• These three interlinked pillars aim to increase the level and coordination of the multilateral system’s efforts to help countries create 400 million decent jobs, including in the green, digital and care economies, and to extend social protection coverage to the 4 billion people currently excluded. 
• At this initial stage, the Global Accelerator will be implemented in a selected number of countries, also known as “pathfinders”, which have considerable potential to amplify investments in jobs and social protection and have expressed a commitment to do so. 
• It would be great to see Timor-Leste joining the “pathfinders” countries. We are here to support if the government of Timor-Leste wishes to join the efforts and invest more and better to create decent jobs, expanding social protection and promote pathways for just transitions.
• I hope that this event will provide an opportunity to learn and share while encouraging new and innovative partnerships to support social protection in Timor-Leste.
• I look forward to the rich discussions to come.
• Obrigada.