Resolution adopted in Avignon during the GA of ICW, May 2022

(Original in English)

Recalling the United Nations Economic and Social Council Resolution 2010/12 of 22 July 2010 on “Promoting Social Integration” and also, the Resolution concerning “the Second Recurrent Discussion on Social Protection (social security)” adopted by the International Labour Conference on June 21, 2021,

Recognizing that social protection consists of policies and programs to protect people from shocks and risks due to unemployment, ill health, old age, disability, work related injuries and natural disasters,

Affirming that universal social protection is crucial for the prevention of poverty, inequalities, and social insecurity, and promotes economic growth and social cohesion,

Recognizing that social protection is an effective response mechanism in countries’ rebuilding efforts after major crises and is essential for accelerating progress toward achievement of Sustainable Development Goals,

Aware that women constitute the majority of the world’s poor and are disproportionately impacted by natural disasters, climatechange and pandemics, as demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic in which women’s income and employment declined much more than that of men not only from job losses and business closures but also from the increase in unpaid care responsibilities,

Noting that significant gaps in access and coverage of social protection exists for women because of the gender pay gap, women’s lower participation in formal employment, unpaid care burden of women, and overrepresentation of women in low paying, part-time and informal employment,

Reaffirming that the objectives of social protection policies should include the promotion of gender equality, women’sempowerment, and equal access for all to education, income security, basic health care and social services,

Stressing that commitment to gender equality, women’s empowerment and mainstreaming of gender perspectives in social protection policies and measures are critical to the achievement of sustainable development, and to women’s full and equal participation in all areas of political economic, social and cultural life,

THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN CALLS ON ITS AFFILIATED COUNCILS TO URGE THEIR GOVERNMENTS TO:

• Design and implement gender responsive social protection that addresses women and girl’s vulnerabilities, closes the coverage gap for women, ensures protection of women and girls in all types of employment, removes barriers to employment of women and girls and promotes full participation of women in political, economic, social, and cultural spheres;
• Commit sufficient budget to invest in universal, transformative, adequate and sustainable social protection systems that support women’s empowerment, promotes gender equality and guarantees basic health care and income security for all women and girls;
• Promote the participation of women in the design, implementation and oversight of social protection programs to ensure that they address the needs of women and children;
• Provide equal access to quality education, training and life-long learning for women and girls to build capacityand skills, enable them to gain employment, adapt to the changing workplace and reach their full potential;
• Collect gender-disaggregated data to monitor and evaluate the gender impacts of social protection policies and measures, including disaster response mechanisms, in order to design effective gender sensitive and inclusive social protection;
• Mobilise partnerships among government, civil society and the private sector to expand the coverage of social protection through identification of people in need of social protection and rapidly delivering benefits to those left out of the formal or digital networks.