Ziad Abdel Samad and Diana Zeidan
Introduction
The question of human security has received growing attention from governments and intergovernmental forums in recent years. In the last decade the underlying concept of security has been changing from that of preserving the nation through military, political and diplomatic measures, to one of including individual human elements in the equation. This broadened concept encompasses a state of well-being in which an individual or group has the assurance of protection from physical and mental harm, freedom from fear and anxiety, freedom from want, and the right to live life with dignity.
International Federation of University Women
The International Labor Organization has extended the definition of social security to a series of social policies undertaken by the public authorities and has therefore encompassed the duty of the State in establishing appropriate social security mechanisms. This includes "the protection which society provides for its members, through a series of public measures, against the economic and social distress that otherwise would be caused by the stoppage or substantial reduction of earnings resulting from sickness, maternity, employment injury, unemployment, invalidity, old age and death; the provision of medical care; and the provision of subsidies for families with children."
International Labor Organization-1999
The Interlink between human security and social security became obvious and integrated in the new paradigm of national security at large. Yet, social security is a prerequisite for both international and national security and reflects the link between state security in general and individual (citizen) security in particular. Moreover, it refers to the quality of life of individuals and to the respect of their human rights.
Social security should be perceived as part of a comprehensive system of political, economic, social and cultural strategies aiming at protecting national security including human security and political stability within the society.
Although the traditional understanding of social security has developed during the last three decades, still there is confusion between social security as described above and social protection as the "provision of generalized basic social support for all citizens, regardless of contribution or employment history."
Social security has double objectives: the first one is to improve living conditions and to create an enabling environment and to bring poor to an acceptable level of minimum consumption (Zafiris and Hindousa), the second one is to reduce risk of the non poor of becoming poor and for the poor of becoming poorer. Reducing risks should be sought as well in the the macro-economic policies and the functioning of the labor market to create wealth and employment.
Yet, even the most enabling environment would never eliminate risks, and social security programs can play a useful role in catering for the needs of those who do not fully share the benefits of growth or job creation.
The state plays a central role in the development of an adequate system of social security. Access to public services and income protection must be guided by legislation that establishes rights instead of discretional policies or favoritism (http://www.art-us.org/node/66). The central objective of the state should be to ensure just and sustainable development for all, including emergency or compensatory assistance for specific groups.
Furthermore, The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) represent an attempt to articulate, in a comprehensive way, the priority areas of social and economic development. They are an important tool to assess the progress achieved in providing social services for basic human well-being. It is highly important to make the link between the eight millennium goals and the human rights framework in general.
The countries of the Arab region often lack comprehensive development strategies, especially the social policies component of such strategies. Obviously, there is an urgent need in the Arab region to develop a new comprehensive social security system that supports the achievement of socio-economic rights, and preserves the overriding human rights values.
This article will analyze the need to develop social security schemes in the Arab countries through a rights-based approach. It goes through the risks to social security in the context of the regional challenges. It highlights some of the partially succeeded social protection policies and points out to the structural problems that Arab countries need to overpass. This article contradicts all the statements claiming that the current regimes in power have fully provided the rights of their citizens by adopting social policy and ensuring adequate social security in the Arab countries.
Social Security Risks in the Arab Region
Enhancing social security is a challenge that Arab societies are facing. It is obviously related to many external and internal challenges. Among these challenges are the instability of national security in general, the fact that development indicators are very low, and the confusion between the understanding and the function of charity, welfare, and human rights. These are challenges that contribute to confusion in setting national priorities and adopting relevant social strategies.
a) National Insecurities;
Lack of peace and security are permanent challenges and factors of continuous threats in the Arab region, yet they are not properly addressed.
The cost of war and conflicts, in terms of lost lives, displacement, and setbacks to development, continues to be high. This is particularly evident in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and in countries marred by internal conflict and strife for over a decade, namely some Gulf countries, Algeria, Somalia, and Sudan.
War and conflicts in the region continue to destroy human and natural resources and negatively impact the social fabric, while diverting government budgets towards military expenditure instead of investment in social security programs. Political tensions and conflicts in the Arab region show little sign of abating, highlighting the challenges of undertaking sustainable development objectives under crisis conditions. These conflicts express themselves not only in terms of stunted economic growth, but also in dislocated social and political realities.
The region is the main field of demonstration of the so called “war on terror”. This in turn is the pretext used to explain the prioritization of defense and security policies at the expense of development and social security. Expenditures on military and security establishments overcome socio-economic and developmental expenditures. This trend of wasted resources will probably persist in the short run as states increase their spending on coercive institutions. In this context, the “war on terror” was launched to address the results of violent tendencies and acts instead of targeting their root causes. Yet, it is obvious that the main reasons generating frustration and violence are the failure to reach just and sustainable peace and to prioritize finding solutions to the economic and social disparities and gender discrimination, in addition to the lack of freedom and the continuous violation of human rights in particular the right to self-determination and to the freedom of expression and thoughts.
b) Lack of respect to human rights;
The most universal understanding of social equity is based on the internationally acknowledged set of human rights that encompass the right of each citizens to equal opportunities and fair share of development dividends. Therefore, it is highly important to approach the concept of social security from a human rights lens.
The freedom deficit in the Arab region undermines human development and is one of the most painful manifestations of lacking political development. Moreover; citizenship is defined by the nature and the framework of the relation between the citizen and the state. It is a set of rights and duties. Among these rights is the right to enjoy social services such as health, education, housing, employment and adequate income. These services should be seen as rights and not as gifts provided by the ruling power. The provision of these services should not allow nepotism, clientelism, and corruption. Among these rights, the right of associations should be respected. The latter can secure the space for establishment of unions representing various interest groups. These have the major role in claiming the rights of workers and citizens to adequate social security and in monitoring the implementation of social security schemes.
Yet, in most of the Arab countries, human rights and the rule of law lack. Accordingly, some of the main prerequisites for developing a comprehensive and adequate social security system, which serves social justice objectives, are absent. This major gap represents a basic obstacle in the process of adopting adequate rights-based approach to addressing national social strategies.
c) Low indicators of human development;
Despite the little progress achieved across the region and within various Arab countries, it is unlikely that the Arab region as a whole will succeed in eradicating poverty and hunger, particularly in the least developed and non-oil countries .
The 2007 MDG report for the Arab region points out to worrying numbers: 18.2 % (2004) of the population in the Arab region lived in extreme poverty, and in 12.7% (2000) of children less than five years old were underweight. The report also indicates that 8.6% (2002) of the population was below the minimum level of dietary energy consumption and 20% (2005) of Arab children were not enrolled in primary education. In addition, nearly 18 % (2004) of the whole Arab population lacked access to safe water, and nearly 28% (2004) lacked access to safe sanitation in the same year.
These indicators, among many others, reflect the urgency to address development challenges with a comprehensive approach, and to adopt national strategies for social security in order to improve the social and economic situation.
d) An overarching tendency towards neo-liberal economic policies;
Social security policies should not be seen as temporary programs to be implemented during the transition phase while implementing structural adjustment strategies or economic reforms. This reduces social security to safety nets programs, which is the case in many Arab countries.
Moreover, it has been proven that economic growth cannot serve the purposes of employment, sustainable development, and social equality without adopting active policy processes by governments. These policies should aim at securing fair redistribution and avoiding uncalculated crisis, in addition to securing a sustained growth rate and adequate treatment of social needs for various local communities.
However, favoring free-market oriented strategies tends to promote in alignment a reduction in the role of the state and tends to promote an increase in the role of the multinational institutions by privatizing and liberalizing public services.
e) The cultural aspect;
Within a society where religion and the clans-based web of relations play an important role in the daily life, the latter can be seen as a positive factor in terms of filling the gaps when it comes to the availability of social services. This can be seen as an alternative to the efficient and adequate public social security system. But this reality enhances the welfare and faith-based approach rather than the human rights based approach and understanding of social security.
Despite the positive result that charity and social assistance can bring to society by contributing to poverty alleviation and providing some basic needs, they can distort the real meaning of citizenship. They can strengthen nepotism clientelism, tribal, communitarian, and religious belonging, over citizenship itself.
Social Security in the Arab Region
In the last decade, Arab States allocated quite high figures of public expenditure to the social sectors. But too much of them have gone to develop the infrastructure and to pay the salaries of the disproportional large number of public employees serving in these sectors. In some countries, social expenditures (mainly on health and education) exceed 20% of the GDP. These are considered as inefficient and wasteful, especially in terms of their quality, their failure in targeting the groups in real need, and their inability to provide basic social services to the majority of the population .
Globalization has added to the social risk factors in Arab societies as a result of the major restructuring of macro-economic policies, including labor markets. This mainly aimed at lowering government spending on social services and reducing the cost of existing mechanisms for social protection. In addition, many Arab states (especially non-oil countries), like other developing countries, have been left with insufficient funds to face the challenges of unemployment, including the ability to provide adequate public health care services, developed vocational training and education systems in accordance with the new global workplace, and protection of the retired elderly and people with disability.
Social security systems ought to be legally mandated, work-based, mostly contributory and state-run; in the Arab countries, they are generally noncontributory, means-tested, based on availability of funds, and run by a mix of public, civil society, and individual actors without adequate complementary and efficient coordination . Over the past decade, the mix of public and private responsibility for social security began to shift toward reducing the role of the public sector, as many Arab countries introduced market-oriented measures under the rising fiscal pressures, in addition to the pressure exerted by the international financial institutions in this regard. This led to reduce efficiency and lower social expenditures. It is worth noting in this regard that the right to social security cannot be adequately served with the lack of an adequate national system of social security; especially if it is based on mere profit-oriented interventions by private sector or random interference by non-governmental organizations.
Civil society organizations often provide crucial support. They started in many countries to develop their own social assistance initiatives with private local and international support. Many act as executing agencies of public expenditure programs. However, these services are being mainly provided by philanthropic, faith- based organizations, basically focused on a charity and welfare approach instead of a human rights based approach. These strategies and policies should go far beyond poverty alleviation towards a comprehensive developmental vision and approach.
Finally, as already mentioned above, the lack of freedom prevents people from establishing unions advocating for their rights to social security. Only democratically elected trade unions, labor organizations and professional associations can pretend relevant representation of the different interest groups. They can thus lobby for the establishment of an adequate social security system; furthermore, they can monitor the implementation of such a system.
By analyzing and comparing social protection schemes in four Arab countries, Selim Nasr derived main characteristics of the social insurance systems in Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Jordan . These include:
- Incomplete protection against major social risks
- Unequal treatment of individuals: “The segmentation reflects the ranking of each category in the power structure.”
- Limited coverage of the concerned population: These gaps arise because many private employers do not feel obliged to actually pay contributions or provide benefits. Also, the States’ administrative and judicial capacities are often too weak or sometimes too corrupt to enforce accountability and ensure universal coverage within the laws.
- Low level of real benefits: For most workers of the region, pensions promise 70 to 80 per cent of the ending wage, but actual benefits are significantly lower. This is because of the lack of formal indexation mechanisms, national inflation rates and governmental discretionary adjustments.
- Relatively costly and inefficient administration due to the social insurance systems in the high administration and transaction costs in the region, shortages of needed financial, technical and administrative skills in the institutions, weak monitoring, divided supervision of programs across ministries and public institutions, and better coverage and identification of eligible recipients in urban areas than in rural ones.
- No financial sustainability. Sustainability is an emerging issue for social insurance systems in the region, and the financial viability of the public funds is a growing concern In addition, the demographics of the concerned countries are shifting, and systems will come under more financial strain as people have fewer children and live longer, pension benefits grow, more elders need medical care, and there are fewer workers to support them.
Social Security Reform for Poverty Alleviation in the Arab Region: Limited Success versus Mounting Challenges
Several reports and calculations treating issues related to social security indicate that few of the government-funded social security programs have actually been effective:
- Tunisia, relative to other Arab countries, has made significant strides in the sphere of social advancement and social progress. According to a policy paper published by the Economic and Social Commission of West Asia (ESCWA) in 2004, it has taken advanced steps in order to liberate women and promote their role by ensuring gender equity through the Constitution and the Personal Status Law since 1956. Furthermore, the importance attributed to policies addressing poverty, unemployment and social marginalization and measures undertaken in these spheres are indeed welcomed by civil society actors as well as international institutions. A comprehensive poverty eradication policy has been adopted in Tunisia in order to address the geographic, social and economic aspects of poverty.
However, the comprehensive aspect of social security policies was a top-down reform process that was not implemented in consultation with social partners and civil society organizations Moreover, social security schemes in Tunisia are far from being equitability distributed among the regions . Regional disparities are obvious especially through the existing gap between the prosperous industrial zones located at the coasts and the poor interior of the country. Moreover, the country faces the same challenges in creating adequate social security system as other developing countries, especially those challenges concerning the overlap among the institutions providing the same service.
By linking the outreach of social security to its poverty eradication strategy, the Tunisian government has established three new sources of financing for poverty eradication programs. The National Solidarity Fund, the National Employment Fund, and the Tunisian Solidarity Bank were established in order to achieve this aim.
It is worth adding that the development of the social security system was not paralleled, and with the same pace, by the development of political and civil rights. The Tunisian government, while focusing on the social aspect, is tending for more economic liberalization and is completely neglecting the political reform agenda.
- In Lebanon, there have always been large disparities of safety nets’ distribution between the regions. The successive Lebanese governments have all tried to improve the social indicators and promote social development. The new social action plan proposed by the Lebanese government in January 2007 and a study conducted by Hyam Mallat in 2004 all acknowledge that governments’ spending on improving social services is not sufficient. The Ministry of Social Affairs spends about 13 per cent of its total budget on food and housing subsidies to vulnerable social groups such as orphans, handicapped and some homeless; and about 26 per cent of its budget on educational and vocational training allowances for the same special categories and some very low-income individuals in low-income areas . The Ministry also contributes to health care for poorer and vulnerable categories, channeled through 89 health care centers it supervises directly and through subsidies to health facilities run by civil society groups, which provide free care for the poor and special vulnerable groups. In its turn, the Ministry of Health spends around 10% of its budget on primary health care and public health expenditures.
Despite the implementation of some social security programs, the inefficiency of social spending is due to the lack of a clear and comprehensive national social strategy. Such a strategy needs to address the current total absence of coordination among the concerned ministries and stakeholders leading to duplication of efforts and waste of resources.
Moreover, the social security system in Lebanon faces lots of challenges due to the political, legal, and administrative corrupted system, particularly the inefficiency of the National Security Social Fund which is under the mandate of the Ministry of Labor.
- In Morocco, Selim Nasr shows that despite increasing emphasis on social development during the 1990s, social protection policies are facing many challenges due to the slow economic growth that have been the main cause of rising unemployment, poverty, and vulnerability. There has been no single adequate solution till date to improve the efficiency and the coverage of the social protection system and to tackle the various groups in both rural and urban areas. Most of the government programs are targeted towards the urban areas, Although social security outlays have doubled since 1990, the current pension system does nothing to address the safety net problems of the neediest.
The country has seen effective reforms concerning the basic social services sectors, like education and health, by reallocating expenditures toward primary education in order to achieve universal primary enrollment and by increasing public expenditure for health care in rural areas. However, the lack of coordination between ministries remains a major challenge . Moreover, social security in Morocco is still following a charitable path and has not been integrated into a national social plan. Furthermore, the dwindling resources impair the action plans of ‘L’Entraide Nationale’ which assists orphans, the elderly, and the handicapped. As elsewhere, such targeted assistance programs are too small for major national impact.
- Egypt, Magdi Abdel Hamid highlights the link between macroeconomic policies adopted by the government during the last three decades and the deterioration of the social security system . This also affected the socio-economic situation of the Egyptians. It is reflected in the figures showing the increase of unemployment, poverty, and social and regional disparities particularly between the rural and urban areas.
It is worth noting that the Egyptian social security fund depends on the budget of the Ministry of Finance. The later is borrowing from the fund its surplus in order to cover the deficit in the public budget. This raises big questions about the sustainability of the fund and its future ability to secure services to the people.
Moreover, and despite the large proportion spent on social protection (more than a fifth of the GDP), Egyptian social security remains inefficient. It still does not tackle the most vulnerable, while benefiting the higher and middle classes . Furthermore, social security distribution reflects the high stratification of the Egyptian society and therefore there are six different social insurance schemes for six different groups of unemployed. But these schemes only provide pension, while only 40% of the working population is ensured against diseases and injuries related to their work, and only 16% of them get unemployment benefits (Markus Loewe).
- Some oil rich and mineral-exporting Arab countries have been successful in providing adequate social security support for their citizens. Gulf countries such as Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have used part of their enormous oil dividends to provide free education, health services, family allowances, and sometimes guaranteed employment to their nationals. These countries have also introduced social insurance schemes that provide for injury compensation, maternity, sickness benefits, and old age pensions for the majority of the workforce.
However, an important number of immigrants (mostly coming from South Asia and other Arab countries) live in the Gulf countries with their families but do not profit of the same services. These benefits have not been extended to those emigrants who carry out most of the low-skilled work as well as occupy a significant proportion of skilled jobs.
The key to the success of some oil and mineral-exporting countries in providing social services on a universal basis is the centralized role of the state. However, the rentier aspect of the state has transformed social security schemes into services provided by the ruling families to the citizens who do not pay taxes. This situation was described by the former executive secretary general of the ESCWA Hazim El Bablawi by the following: “no taxation, no representation”, which tries explains the problem behind the undemocratic process in oil-rich countries. There, the government is not held accountable for its actions while the citizen does not have to struggle for his/her rights, especially basic social rights.
According to the above, and despite the achievements in some of the countries, the majority of the population in the region remains vulnerable and is not well protected against major social risks that might occur. Many middle-income and a few low-income countries have made substantial progress, but even in these countries, significant groups suffer from hunger or malnutrition and lack of access to basic health, education, sanitation and shelter, especially in least developing countries (LDCs). Moroever, the destitute in most Arab countries are politically marginalized, deprived from the right to participate, and have little say on the allocation of national resources.
The major obstacles to meeting these needs are political and administrative; it is often not related to the financial capacities but to the inadequate use of the existing financial, human, and natural resources. Most countries, except for LDCs, have adequate resources to mount programs that can eventually meet most of these needs. However, there is a need to shift government spending from current patterns, focusing on security, “war on terror”, and military expenditure, to new priorities.
Highly indebted Arab countries face shortage in public expenditures, mainly those directed to social programs. Moreover, the market-oriented policies adopted in almost all the Arab countries lead to inadequate liberalization and privatization of services without distinction between strategic and other basic social services. Moreover, these countries lack national macro-economic policies that integrate the aim of empowerment and support of national productive sectors. They tend to accept support from foreign donors disregard to the conditionality imposed through that in different forms and with purposes and objectives that do not meet the needs and priorities of local communities. Moreover, often foreign donors seek to ensure political stability in the receiving countries, which pushed them to provide support to the existing political regimes run by dynasties, dictators, and undemocratic political power.
CONCLUSION AND ENDING NOTES
Social security in the Arab region has features and weaknesses, some of them are similar to those faced by many developing countries, but some others are specific to the region. Social security systems in the Region are obviously inefficient as real benefits are often low and administrative costs are very high; this poses serious concerns over the long-term financial sustainability of these systems.
According to current trends, the prospects in the Arab region appear to show less protection and further marginalization of the unemployed, the abject poor, and workers in the informal sector. Such negative projections stems from the persistence of existing budgetary constraints on social security systems and inefficient public expenditure.
Moreover, the security agenda in most of the Arab countries lacks of two main prerequisites: human rights orientation and long-term human development vision. Inadequate privatization and rapid liberalization of national economies, in addition to the influential role of charity and informal social ties tend to be behind the undermining of the urgency to review and set comprehensive national agendas for social security.
It is ultimately the responsibility of the states to ensure social security. States should effectively mobilize national resources in order to secure the adequacy and the outreach of social security systems. In the Arab countries, social solidarity reflected by family and community relations in addition to civil society organizations schemes tend to be an effective alternative for a social insurance model targeting people lacking coverage. However, these actors can only complement the role of the state within a comprehensive national strategy; they can never be able to replace it.
In this regards, it is paramount for Arab states to adopt a rights-based approach when formulating and implementing national strategies for social development. The protection of human rights should be among the main factors strengthening the rise of nations. Therefore, social security should not be perceived as a service provided by a rentier state to its clients, but as an unconditional right to its citizens. Furthermore, the right to social security should not only be stated in constitutions and human rights conventions, but must be effective through public laws and legal securities. In this regards, social security should be the top priority in national policy-making.
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