ITP322: Social Protection for Sustainable Development

CONTENTS

The programme will combine theory with practice to provide participants with the knowledge to strengthen a sustainable national social protection system. This programme adopts the Results-Based Management (RBM) model as the monitoring strategy that focuses on performance and the achievements of results. RBM shifts the focus from activities and outputs to outcomes and impacts. The core modules of the ITP will include training in seven main areas:

1. Rights-based and life cycle frameworks for social protection systems,
2.  The design and implementation of social protection systems to ensure social inclusion,
3. Strengthening developmental impacts by integrating inter-sectoral initiatives to multiply social protection impacts and support the SDGs (“Social Protection Plus”), with a particular focus on decent and productive employment,
4. Enabling social protection to promote gender equality,
5. Financing and co-financing social protection reforms, expansion and integration, and
6. Monitoring and evaluating social protection systems to enable evidence-based change.
7. Social protection responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and lessons from the global crisis.

In addition, the ITP will innovate specific modules and training components to support the specific change programmes identified by partner country teams and will include three cross-cutting themes – (1) gender equality; (2) good governance, anti-corruption and integrity and (3) environment and sustainability.

THE PROGRAMME STRUCTURE

The programme consists of eight phases:

Cambodia

Cambodia’s ITP Change Programme is the ‘Effective Implementation of the Family Package’, a programme that seeks to improve the delivery of social assistance and more effectively tackle poverty and vulnerability amongst Cambodian households. There is evidence demonstrating that linking social protection schemes yields more than the sum of their individual effects, which is why this programme seeks to harmonise delivery and implementation mechanisms of the current social assistance programmes to create a streamlined programme through which poor and vulnerable households are supported. The Change Programme will do this by reviewing and streamlining core delivery elements of social assistance programmes with the aim of improving effectiveness and efficiency. Secondly, it will involve capacity building of the implementing agencies at both the national and sub-national level to better deliver social assistance and implement the family package.

Mozambique

Mozambique’s ITP Change Programme, the progressive realisation of universal social protection for children, aims to reform the programmatic and institutional framework of social protection policies for children to foster human capital development. The programme focuses on working towards universal cash transfers for children in combination with increasing shock responsiveness and human capital development. This involves looking at vulnerability, eligibility, level of benefit, registration, and management system as well as better coordination amongst the various actors involved to improve on the multi-sectoral approach.

Rwanda

The Rwandan ITP Change Programme is an Integrated Case Worker Management System, which aims to understand the needs and priorities of households to facilitate them with access to services and support. A key focus area of the change programme is the uncoordinated policy framework for case management. The envisaged integrated worker case management system aspires to enhance the graduation of households from extreme poverty. The new system will provide information on existing socio-economic opportunities and services to people living in poverty, providing them with information on their rights, entitlements, roles, and responsibilities.

Sudan

Sudan’s ITP Change Programme aims to develop a unified, shock-responsive, effective, sustainable, and accessible social protection system operating on the ground. Sudan’s current political transition demands a longer-term vision of the path to prosperity through an inclusive, rights-based system. The programme will support the development and endorsement of a national social protection strategy, enhanced political and financial support for the strategy’s development, the formulation of a working group and the delivery of workshops focused on awareness-raising, validation, and capacity building. This change programme will support the government in investing in social protection, thereby reducing poverty and vulnerability throughout the country.

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s ITP Change Programme, to guide and inform the government’s process towards an integrated social protection system, puts the ITP in an enabling role within the national framework of social protection. The framework aims to develop an efficient, harmonised, just, accessible and enabling social protection system and that context change programme focuses on targeting strategies, the management information system and grievance mechanism. This involves the development and harmonisation of just and accessible targeting strategies across all programmes supporting sustainable livelihoods, managed by an integrated and efficient computer-based system, including accessible grievance procedures, especially for the most vulnerable.

TIMETABLE

WHERE:

The training course in Sweden will be held in Stockholm. The two regional phases, one week per phase, will be held in the East/Southern Africa region or Southeast Asia region. If travel is restricted, courses will be offered remotely.

WHEN:

Phase 3: October 2022

Phase 5: March 2023

Phase 7: October 2023

TRAINING/PEDAGOGICS

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ITP adopts an e-Learning approach and offers a flexible online learning experience. The conveners adjusted the ITP’s schedule, so the participants can learn at their own pace, set individual goals, and align mentoring sessions with the country-specific context and project. Through relevant design and effective delivery, the online programme builds upon the integrated collaboration of Sida, Arbetsförmedlingen, EPRI, and social protection experts to convey complex concepts in the most comprehensible way. With virtual workshops complemented by a rich set of interactive elements, online discussions, and participatory activities, the ITP aims to provide the participants with realtime, applicable insights.

MANAGEMENT AND STAFF

Sida has mandated Arbetsförmedlingen (the Swedish Public Employment Service) and the Economic Policy Research Institute to organise and execute the programme. The programme will be executed in partnership with Försäkringskassan (The Swedish Social Insurance Agency), Skatteverket (The Swedish Tax Agency) and Pensionsmyndigheten (The Swedish Pensions Agency). All international and Swedish lecturers, teachers and mentors have extensive experience within their respective expert areas.

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR CHANGE

Before applying to the programme, each applicant should consult with their employer to ensure the appropriateness of their role in supporting the aims of the social protection change programme in their country. It is essential that the participant’s organisation supports the medium-term change programme as agreed by the national ITP steering committee. In the application form, the participants will need to explain how their work can potentially contribute to the success of the medium-term change programme and the overarching development goals in their respective countries.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

INVITED COUNTRIES

The following countries are invited: Cambodia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sudan and Zimbabwe

TARGET GROUPS

This ITP aims to include government officials and others who work at a strategic level on change in their organisations and for the public good. Participants can apply from ministries, government agencies and departments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Participants must be able to participate in the reform processes in the social protection sector in their countries. They should have the power and resources to initiate and implement development projects that result in change furthering the goals of this ITP.

Qualifications are university or other post-secondary education and relevant work experience. Participants must be officially nominated by their own organisations and in some cases by authorities. Nominating organisations and the selected candidates must ensure their commitment to participate in all phases of the programme. A Memorandum of Understanding will be signed by the participant’s organisations and the Economic Policy Research Institute.

In order for the participants to be fully dedicated to the programme, family members are not allowed to accompany participants to the programme.

LANGUAGE  REQUIREMENTS

The training programme will be organised and conducted in English. Participants are expected to make both oral and written presentations. Candidates from countries where English is not an official language should do a language test with an official body in their home country. Proficiency in English shall be certified on the Application form.

HEALTH REQUIREMENTS

Good health and full working capacity are conditioned due to an intensive programme and international travel. It is therefore recommended that candidates undergo a medical examination before filling in the Medical statement in the Application form.

VISA

When travel commences again, participants are responsible for obtaining all visas necessary for their journey and stay during the training programme. The visa should be valid for the whole period in Sweden, and the passport should be valid for three months longer than the entry visa.

INSURANCE

In case of travel, all participants are covered by group insurance while in Sweden and on organised tours during the programme including the initial regional seminar and regional follow-up seminar. This insurance includes costs for medical care in the event of acute illness or accident. Medical and dental check-ups are not included. This insurance does not cover delays, lost baggage, or theft of personal property.

COSTS

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) will cover all costs such as tuition fee, board and lodging (single room including breakfast and all other meals), roundtrip economy flight tickets between the international airport in the participant’s home country and Sweden and the location of the regional seminars, some activities and local transportation within the programme.

Participants must pay for all visa fees, personal expenses and travel to/from the international airport in their home countries. The programme does not pay per diem to participants. Neither the organisers nor Sida will finance the participant’s change project.

If you are interested in joining the International Training Programme for your country, please visit Sida’s application portal. To participate in the selection process, you must submit an English language certificate, a medical statement, and a letter of nomination. In case of questions regarding the process, you contact us at itp@epri.org.za. 

We will not consider applications submitted after the closing date. 

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: 26 August 2022

SELECTION PROCESS

We will notify selected candidates by e-mail during September 2022. Once selected, the candidate must confirm participation. The organisers will send a letter of acceptance to your organisations. Both the selected candidate and their organisation must confirm the commitment to participate in all phases of the programme and to support the work for the programme for change. We strongly encourage women to apply for the programme and strive for a gender balance among participants.