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OAS and CISS Sign Cooperation Agreement to Expand Social Security Coverage in the Region

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS) today signed, at OAS headquarters in Washington DC, a cooperation agreement that aims to ensure the maximum benefits in terms of social security for the residents of the member countries of the hemispheric institution.

The Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, signed the agreement with the President of the CISS, José Antonio González Anaya, while the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa Etienne, signed the document as a witness of honor.

Secretary General Insulza recalled that in the Social Charter of the Americas which was adopted at the General Assembly of the OAS in 2012, OAS member states recognized "the responsibility to develop and implement policies and programs of comprehensive social protection, based on the principles of universality, solidarity, equality, non-discrimination and equity, that give priority to people living in conditions of poverty and vulnerability." In this regard, he said the agreement signed today "covers a topic that should be central to the work of the Organization, in the light of the Social Charter."

Insulza added that "the social security of workers, of the men and women in our region, is an issue that has been at the heart of our countries for a long time, sometimes unattended, and now returns full force when we recognize the obligation of our states to provide social security or attention to all aspects that are related to health, education, housing, social protection of all their members, and especially of the workers."

The President of the CISS, González Anaya, said that the agreement seeks to ensure that "social security, as well as being a right of workers, becomes a human right." He said there are shared challenges in the region regarding the extension of social security to citizens, adding that the agreement starts from the fundamental idea that "it is important to generate synergies that contribute to the development of this noble goal of achieving social security for all the citizens of our countries." González Anaya said the CISS has over 80 members spread over 36 countries across the region.

The PAHO Director, for her part, stressed that the agreement will help multilateral organizations to contribute to ensuring that all persons have access to the benefits of the social security system, and will contribute to "social cohesion and social protection," and allow PAHO to deepen its work with the institutions in charge of social security in the region. “Our challenge, as we move into the era of the twenty-first century, is how we will ensure the social needs of all our people, and that's also a challenge to the social security institutions of our countries," she said, adding that the goal is to extend social security coverage to the most vulnerable sectors.

For his part, the Permanent Representative of Mexico to the OAS, Emilio Rabasa Gamboa, whose country hosts the headquarters of the CISS and played a key role in the signing of the agreement, stressed the importance of extending social security in the Hemisphere, noting that according to specialists from the Inter American Development Bank (IDB), only "four in ten Latin Americans and Caribbeans contribute to a pension system," and that despite the steady growth in the region, "one in two pensioners will not have an adequate pension, leaving between 66 and 83 million senior citizens depending on their families or the state for support."

Before signing the agreement, Secretary General Insulza met privately with the President and the Secretary General of the CISS; the PAHO Director; the OAS Director of the Department of Economic and Social Development, Maryse Robert; and the OAS Director of the Department of Human Development, Education and Employment, Marie Levens.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The B-Roll of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-465/13