Research Activities: Workshop on "Social protection in the post-2015 development agenda"

The IEE and the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy host expert workshop.

As a cooperative venture Markus Kaltenborn, Director at the IEE, and Professor Ulrich Becker, LL.M. from the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy in Munich, Germany, the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy and the IEE jointly organised a workshop on the role of "Social Protection in the Post-2015 Development Agenda" which took place in Munich on 30 June 2014.
The close link between social protection and the post-2015 development agenda became particularly apparent after the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (HLP), which was tasked by United Nations Secretary-General to advise on the global development agenda beyond 2015, in its 2013 report inter alia referred to the policy field of social protection (cf. the chapter headlined "Leave no on behind"). In the light of this backdrop, the workshop looked at the role that social protection should/could play in the context of global development cooperation in the years to come. Among the participants there were many academics, representatives of civil society at large, practitioners, officials of the EU Commission, of the International Labor Organization (ILO) as well as the German Ministry of Development Cooperation (BMZ). Furthermore, the discussions focused on the contributions Germany as a country with long-standing experience in the design and implementation of social protection systems could make to a debate on social protection as part of the Post 2015 Development Agenda. Presentations were held amongst others by eminent specialists such as Ingolf Dietrich (BMZ), Heiner Janus (German Development Institute - DIE), Michael Cichon (International Council on Social Welfare), Markus Kaltenborn (IEE - Ruhr-University of Bochum), Gabriele Köhler (United Nations Association of Germany - DGVN), Helmut Schwarzer (ILO), Rudi Delarue (EU-Commission) and Johanna Knoess ( GIZ). The workshop presentations can be downloaded here.The discussion phases allowed for lively exchanges of views among the participants.

A topic proven to be relevant

The relevance of the topics discussed during the workshop was highlighted once more when only a few weeks later a statement issued by the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals included a sub-goal on social protection (referred to as target 1.3) in its general proposal for a list of Sustainable Development Goals. It is very likely therefore that social protection will form part of the new UN Development Agenda, especially if the target to "implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable" becomes an integral part of that document.


Johannes Norpoth, LL.M.
Research Fellow
phone: +49 (0)234- 32 25148
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.