On Tuesday morning, 20th September, the Anguilla Social Security Board held the opening ceremony for a three-day workshop that extended to Thursday, 22nd September. The opening ceremony and workshop were held at La Vue Boutique.
The purpose of the workshop was to train Social Security personnel on the extension of Social Security Protection for those persons who are self employed, small enterprise workers, workers in the agricultural and fishing sector, construction workers, cultural and creative workers and platform workers in the area of ICT.
If these workers are not making regular Social Security contributions, and become affected by the loss of income due to unforeseen disasters, they become disadvantaged in that they are not covered by Social Security. Hence, the workshop was designed to address such situations and formulate solutions.
The workshop was held under the mandate of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and the facilitator was Mr. Ariel Pino, an ILO affiliate. Some eighteen participants, mostly from Anguilla, benefitted from the formal training sessions. Delegates from Social Security organisations in Grenada and Tortola were also in attendance.
The ceremony was moderated by Ms. Rosanna Browne, Social Security’s Public Relations Officer. It opened with a prayer by Anguilla Social Security Board Inspector, Mr. Perry Hughes, who also played the National Song on keyboard.
Acting Director of Anguilla Social Security Board, Dr. Maglan Lewis, then welcomed the participants and made a formal address:
“Welcome to this UN/ILO training initiative in respect of the joint programme for the extension of Social Security Protection Coverage for the Informal Sector. This is, indeed, a vulnerable grouping which would be exposed to a loss of income through disruption in work caused by disasters such as hurricanes and pandemics. We all know the effects that Covid-19 had on the labour market recently.
“Today, we bring together a group of diverse minds to discuss challenges, and formulate opportunities for the extension of social security benefits to workers in the informal sector. This is by no means a new topic. It is part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that we are challenged to achieve by 2030…”
She said that by the end of the three-day session, it is the expectation that the participants would come up with strategies for the extension of coverage – as well as ways to simplify administrative procedures, to facilitate a financing mechanism, and to enable contribution collection and compliance.
The facilitator, Mr. Arial Pino, who is a Social Protection Specialist, then made a few remarks: “When it comes to concrete implementation and monitoring of new policies,” he told the participants, “there is no one better than you, to do that, because you already have an overview of Social Security regulations in the region.
“We want to have ideas of a regional and global overview, and we hope that during our discussions over the next three days we would be able to translate that overview into creating concrete polices and practices that you can actually implement on your respective national levels. Through these policies, you can finally help those who are in the informal economy to get access to Social Security benefits, thus making their lives better for the future.”
He said that the three-day training was a UN project which runs under a programme entitled ‘Resilient Caribbean’. “The programme particularly engages in the training of youth,” he said, “and it strengthens the integrated delivery of Social Security protection.”
