4.1b living without any social safety nets: UN

Over half of all people in the world have no social protections, the United Nations said yesterday, even after the pandemic spurred countries to offer more services to their populations.

In a report on the state of social protection globally, the UN's International Labour Organization said that 4.1 billion people were living without any social safety net of any kind.

Social protection includes access to health care and income security measures related especially to old age, unemployment, sickness, disability, work injury, maternity or the loss of the main breadwinner in a family, as well as extra support for families with children.

In 2020, only 46.9 percent of the global population benefitted from at least one such protection, according to the report -- ILOs first on the subject since 2017.

That low rate came even as access to healthcare, sickness and unemployment benefits have more than ever proved their relevance during the Covid-19 pandemic.

ILO chief Guy Ryder urged countries to centre their recovery efforts around boosting social protections. "Countries are at a crossroads," he said in a statement, stressing that "this is a pivotal moment to harness the pandemic response to build a new generation of rights-based social protection systems."

Countries on average spend 12.8 percent of their gross domestic product on social protections, excluding health care, but such spending also varies dramatically.

While wealthy nations dish out 16.4 percent of their GDP for such protections, low-income countries spend just 1.1 percent, the report found.

Low-income countries would meanwhile need to invest another $77.9 billion -- equivalent to 15.9 percent of their GDP.