The BRICS network of labour research institutes
The BRICS Network of Labour Research Institutes will meet parallel to the 1st BRICS EWG between 21 and 24 February 2023, the outcome of the meeting will be to develop draft zero of the EWG Priority 3 “Universal access to social protection and ensuring minimum basic income grant”.
The Research Network is the think-tank that supports the EWG and in this case specifically it is assigned to use its research capacity to spade-work the content of technical document. The drafting of the technical document will be preceded by a series of presentation on research reports that investigated at the impact of Covid -19 on the labour market, followed by research reports conducted on social protection measures adopted to cushion people of working age population against the impact of Covid-19.
The rational for combining the two themes in the meeting is because Covid -19 served as an eye-opener to governments around the world in general and BRICS countries in particular, exposing the gaps existing on social protection coverage which were unnoticed until the pandemic.
The presentations will be kick-started with the global view on the two themes from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Social Security Agency (ISSA). Following these organizations’ presentations, BRICS countries will present their state of affairs on Social Protection followed by presentations made by Research Institutions in South Africa and abroad. The key issues emanating from these presentations would serve as the basis for developing the technical document for EWG Priority 3 which would be further engaged in the 2nd BRICS EWG in May 2023.
2023 EWG planned meetings
The scheduled meetings for the labour and employment stream in 2023 are as follows:
|
Internal (SA) consultations with stakeholders/ social partners |
Technical |
December 2022 |
|
1st Employment Working Group meeting |
Technical |
21-24 February 2023 |
|
BRICS Network of Labour Research Institute |
Technical |
21-24 February 2023 |
|
2nd Employment Working group meeting |
Technical |
9-12 May 2023 |
|
3rd Employment Working group meeting |
Technical |
19 June 2023 |
|
3rd Employment Working group meeting Labour & Employment Ministers' Meeting |
Ministerial |
20-23 September 2023 |