A group of FAO experts shared their knowledge and latest findings on social protection with policy-makers and government representatives who took part in this year’s edition of the Academy on Social Security from 16-27 September 2019, at ILO’s International Training Center in Turin, Italy.

FAO researchers and social protection experts Garima Bhalla, Elizabeth Koechlein, Mari Kangasniemi, and FAO Social Protection Team Leader, Natalia Winder Rossi, inspired, enlightened and consolidated participant’s knowledge about various aspects of social protection through the delivery of a three-day elective training course called “Linking Social Protection with Agriculture and Food Security”.

Divided in three sections, the training course shed light on different policy and programmatic entry points and tools required to both strengthen coherence between agriculture and social protection initiatives, and to design effective nutrition-sensitive, risk-informed, and shock-responsive social protection programmes and interventions.

The main themes covered were economic inclusion, gender, resilience and food security and nutrition, leaving participants with several key messages to carry out successful social protection interventions in their work:

1. With hunger rising, social protection has a crucial role to play in improving food security and nutrition. However, the linkages between social protection and food security and nutrition need to be consciously strengthened to attain positive impacts.

2. Even the poorest households have productive capacity that can be supported.

3. In addition to social impacts, social protection is proven to have productive impacts, thus it is important to coordinate social interventions with agricultural strategies. Coherence between social protection and agriculture interventions supports the reduction of poverty and hunger on a sustainable basis.

4. Natural and man-made disasters are becoming not only more frequent, but also more complex. Risk-informed shock-responsive social protection allows for a timely, effective and efficient response to shocks by channeling humanitarian aid through existing social protection delivery mechanisms.

5. Gender inequalities impact agricultural productivity, food security and nutrition. To be inclusive, social protection programmes in rural areas must take gender into account in their design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation.

Background on the Academy on Social Security

The Academy on Social Security is a comprehensive training package delivered by the International Training Centre of the ILO in the field of social protection. Through a diversified and need-driven course curriculum of 20 elective courses and 9 plenary sessions, the Academy addresses a wide range of topics such as the extension of social protection, efficient governance, sustainable financing and reform options with some of the best lecturers on these topics.

Over a two-week period, participants have the opportunity to take advantage of a rich and flexible learning programme, which guarantees a steep learning curve in an international environment of knowledge exchange and provides a unique opportunity for networking with a large pool of social security experts.

The Academy is designed for officials committed to furthering social protection with innovative, practical methods and techniques. More precisely, (1) managers, planners, advisers and professionals working in social security institutions, (2) policy-planners and officials from key ministries responsible for the development and monitoring of social protection systems, (3) representatives of the social partners involved in the governance of social security institutions and (4) practitioners and consultants of UN agencies working on social protection.

The next Academy on Social Security will be held from 21 September to 2 October, 2020 in Turin, Italy.

Visit the ILO website and consult the flyer for more information: https://www.itcilo.org/sites/default/files/media/course-documents/A9012789_SPGT_Academy%20on%20Social%20Security_Flyer_WEB%20-003.pdf

Photo caption and credit: 
FAO expert, Garima Bhalla, during ILO’s Academy on Social Security in Turin, September 2019. 
Photo credit @ILO