World social security report 2010/11: providing coverage in times of crisis and beyond

This report is the first in a new series of biennial reports that aim to map social security coverage globally, presenting various methods and approaches for assessing coverage, and identifying gaps. It considers hazards, such as flood, earthquake, conflict, loss of job, the death of an income-earning household member or chronic illness, as 'contingencies' and advocates for the whole portfolio of strategies and arrangements ranging from risk reduction, avoidance or prevention, to hazard mitigation and coping, usually called 'social risk management', to be called 'social hazard management'.

Backed by much comparative statistical data, this first report takes a comprehensive look at how countries are investing in social security, how they are financing it, and how effective their approaches are. It examines the ways selected international organizations (the EU, OECD and ADB) monitor social protection and the correlation of social security coverage and the ILO Decent Work Indicators. The report's final section features a typology of national approaches to social security, with a focus on countries' responses to the economic crisis of 2008 -- and the lessons to be learned, especially concerning the short- and long-term management of pension schemes.