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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#BB0F18">Social Protection for Older Women – Gender Inequalities<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333"><img width="703" height="395" id="Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D4FED5.55325C80" alt="An older woman in Myanmar receiving her pension (c) HelpAge International "></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">By Isabel Ortiz and Florian Juergens – February 20, 2019<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:15.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;margin-left:0in">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#BB0F18">"While women's disadvantage in older age is mainly a result of discrimination throughout the life-course, the design of gender-sensitive pension systems is essential."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Gender equality and women's empowerment are increasingly prominent themes on the international policy
agenda. The empowerment of women is essential for realising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, agreed by all countries at the United Nations in 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Also at the forefront of the development agenda is social protection, or social security, and its SDG
target 1.3, committing countries to implement national social protection systems for all, including floors, to prevent and reduce poverty and inequality.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Without considering older women, the SDGs and other UN commitments risk failure. The number of people
aged 60 or over was 962 million in 2017, more than twice as large as in 1980 - of which 54 percent are women. Understanding demographic trends is crucial for implementing the UN 2030 Agenda, and countries must leverage the opportunities to address the needs
and rights of older women as well as men, including those related to labour markets, health and care systems, and social protection.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:15.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;margin-left:0in">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#BB0F18">Extending Pension Coverage to All Older Women and Men<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Pensions are the most widespread form of social protection. At the global level 68 percent of older people
receive a pension, and there is significant progress in recent years. However, there are large regional variations. The Americas, Europe and Central Asia have largely universal coverage, while in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia and the Arab States less than
30 percent of older persons receive a pension (see figure).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Women are less likely than men to receive a pension, and if they do, they have considerably lower benefit
levels. Even in countries where women enjoy widespread pension coverage, their benefit levels are often considerably lower than men's. For example, according to a recent EU Commission report, men on average are entitled to pensions which are greater than those
of women by 40 percent, though some European countries manage to reduce the pension gap to below 7 percent, such as in Estonia, Denmark and Norway, as presented below.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:15.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;margin-left:0in">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#BB0F18">Women's Life-course and Pension Coverage<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Throughout their lives, women and men are exposed to different vulnerabilities and disadvantages, which
are often specific to their gender. For women, inequalities in older age stem from the accumulation of multiple and interconnected discrimination and inequalities, such as education and wage differentials, gendered work norms, productive and reproductive roles,
and lack of voice and agency.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Women are more likely than men to live in poverty at all ages, but in older age the difference is more
significant. They are less able to rely on savings in older age as they have often worked fewer years and earned less in that time. In many countries, women's jobs tend to be in informal and low-paid employment. Finding well-paid jobs may be difficult due
to lesser access to formal education and training, while unpaid family care responsibilities absorb much of their time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">While the better-off may be able to ensure income security in their old-age through savings, assets or
the support of their family, the reality faced by most of the world's population is that sources of income are low and unreliable, even during their most productive years. This makes it almost impossible for anyone but the wealthiest to rely on private savings
as a main source of support in the final years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">This is particularly true for older women. After a lifetime of disadvantage, discrimination and unpaid
work, they arrive at older age with limited economic and social assets to call upon. There is an urgent need for universal and gender-equitable social protection and pension systems to redress this.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:15.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;margin-left:0in">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#BB0F18">Making Social Policies Work for Women<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Public policies need to address the root causes of gender inequalities, particularly in education, employment
and social protection, including care. To start, greater efforts are necessary to support women's economic empowerment through eliminating discrimination in the labour market and wider society and increasing women's access to decent work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Unpaid care work is the main barrier preventing women from getting into, remaining and progressing in
the labour force. Recent ILO figures show that globally women are performing more than three-quarters of the time spent in unpaid care work, more than three times as much as men. Sweeping changes in social policies should address the rising need for care and
tackle the huge disparity between women's and men's unpaid care responsibilities. While women's disadvantage in older age is mainly a result of discrimination throughout the life-course, the design of gender-sensitive pension systems is essential. This is
relevant for both social insurance and social assistance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:15.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;margin-left:0in">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#BB0F18">Social Pensions are Key to Reduce Poverty for Older Women<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">With regards to the social assistance, the good news is that more and more countries are implementing
non-contributory social pensions, often on a universal basis, which provide a basic stipend for all older women and men.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Non-contributory social pensions are becoming an increasingly important element of public pension policy,
particularly in the attempts of lower and middle-income countries to achieve universal coverage through a mix of social insurance, financed by contributions, and social assistance, financed from the general budget.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Universal pension systems combining social pensions and contributory pensions have been developed in
Argentina, Belarus, Bolivia, Botswana, Cabo Verde, China, Georgia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Maldives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Timor-Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Zanzibar (Tanzania).
Other countries made considerable progress in recent years and have near universal pension coverage.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Social pensions are not based on continuous participation in paid formal sector employment and therefore
more accurately reflect women's life-courses. To ensure that social pensions effectively reach all older women, especially the marginalized, social pensions should be provided on a universal basis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Evidence shows they bolster women's economic autonomy, strengthen their voice and agency, and can be
an effective way of recognising the value of women's unpaid work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">However, benefit levels are often insufficient to meet the needs of older women and should be increased
and appropriately indexed to ensure basic income security.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:15.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;margin-left:0in">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#BB0F18">Improving Social Insurance Pensions - Learning from Norway<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Most people aim to receive better benefits than those currently provided by basic social assistance schemes,
including social pensions, which is why social insurance is so important and why it is key that women's standing in such schemes is improved.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Fortunately, public social insurance increasingly contains elements to counteract gender inequalities,
such as by recognizing maternity and time spent on unpaid care as contributory years, or by introducing a minimum guaranteed pension level. For instance, the redistributive mechanism in the Norwegian pension and tax system reduces the 43 percent income difference
between working women and men to only seven per cent in pension income.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">This type of gender-sensitive redistributive mechanism is not found in privatized pensions systems. In
the 30 countries that privatized pensions over the last three decades, women's inequality has been exacerbated. The redistributive components of public social security systems were eliminated with the introduction of individual accounts that more narrowly
reflect a person's lifetime earnings. As a result, those with low incomes or unable to work, even if temporarily, had very small savings and consequently ended up with small pensions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Public social insurance schemes, based on solidarity and collective financing, are by far the most widespread
form of old-age protection globally, and, if we follow the lead from Norway, have the potential to significantly reduce gendered inequalities in older age.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">Recognizing this, many countries are exploring strategies to expand the coverage of contributory schemes
in the informal economy, where women are overrepresented. The Uruguayan Monotax, a simplified scheme for micro and small enterprises to pay taxes and make social security contributions, is a good example of such innovation and 60 percent of its affiliates
are women.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">To conclude, this article has briefly presented key social protection issues for older women, agreed
by all countries in the Sustainable Development Goals and other UN commitments. Such social protection policies can only be part of the solution and lasting transformative change will require concerted efforts to address the root causes of gender inequalities
throughout the life-course, including public policies to address unpaid care work, women's empowerment, access to decent work and to equitable social security systems, to effectively address the needs and rights of older women.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333">This blog post was written for <a href="http://doi.org/10.26419/int.00036.007" target="_blank"><span style="color:#FE6532;text-decoration:none">AARP
International</span></a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span style="color:#1F497D"><a href="https://www.helpage.org/blogs/florian-juergens-32033/social-protection-for-older-women-1092/">https://www.helpage.org/blogs/florian-juergens-32033/social-protection-for-older-women-1092/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:19.2pt"><span lang="EN" style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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