Social Protection

Building social protection floors
and comprehensive social security systems

Background

Social protection in Thailand

Over the years, Thailand has put in place a range of social protection schemes, including a universal coverage scheme for health care introduced in 2002 and a universal social pension. However, Thai citizens still do not yet all effectively benefit from basic adequate social protection, while coverage of the informal sector remains low. In this context, the Royal Thai Government is considering an expansion of social welfare systems and is concentrating its efforts on developing a universal coherent social protection system by 2017. This system should provide lifetime protection to all. The system, in which all stakeholders will be involved (including government, private sector, communities, civil society) is expected to involve four pillars: (i) social services; (ii) social assistance; (iii) social insurance; and (iv) social promotion. The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS) is responsible for coordinating implementation.

Partnership on social protection between the Thai Government and the UN

The United Nations in Thailand has developped its next United Nations Partnership Framework (UNPAF) with the Royal Thai Government for the period 2012-2016. This partnership will define strategic, upstream policy and capacity building contributions of the UN system in Thailand to support government’s policy, notably in the expansion of social protection to reach a just society (a key component of the 11th National Economic and Social Development Plan (NESDP)).

Social Protection Floor and Assessment Based National Dialogue

A Social Protection Floor is a set of basic social rights and services that each member of a society should enjoy. It promotes income security through a basic set of guarantees including: (i) all residents have access to a nationally/provincially defined set of affordable essential health care services; (ii) all children enjoy income security through transfers in kind or in cash ensuring access to nutrition, education and care;(iii) all those in active age groups who cannot (or should not, in case of pregnancy) earn a sufficient income enjoy a minimum income security through social transfers in cash or in kind or employment guaranteed schemes ; and (iv) all residents in old age and with disabilities have income security at least at the level of the nationally defined poverty line through pensions for old age and disability or transfers in kind.

The social protection floor framework can be used to describe existing schemes in place for each of the four basic guarantees mentioned above and identify the policy and implementation gaps if any, as well as stakeholders involved.

Assessment Based National Dialogue in Thailand

In July-August 2011, an Assessment Based National Dialogue was organized to assess the existing social protection situation, identify suitable policy and programs that are required for the country in the future, and areas of partnership between key stakeholders and UN agencies.

The preliminary results were presented during the Consultative Meeting on Social Protection Floor on 10 August, 2011 which was attended by more than 70 representatives from the Thai Government, social partners, civil society organizations, the academia, and the UN country team. Some concrete policy recommendations emerged from that Consultative Meeting.

The next step is now to complement the assessment with the costing exercise which:

  • Translates the recommendations into specific social protection provisions that need to be introduced in Thailand or further expanded in order to guarantee at least a comprehensive social protection floor for all the population;
  • Estimates the cost of these social protection provisions and simulate the cost over a ten years period (using projections of the population, economic indicators, etc.);
  • Relates these cost projections to the projections of the government budget.
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