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G20 Summits • 2025 Johannesburg Summit | Road to the 2025 Johannesburg Summit
G20 Development Meetings

Logo of South Africa's 2025 G0 Presidency

Call to Action: Towards Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable Development Through Universal Social Protection Systems with Special Priority on Social Protection Floors

Final Version, Development Working Group, July 25, 2025
[pdf]

We, the members of the Group of Twenty (G20), reaffirm our commitment to promoting universal, comprehensive, sustainable, adaptive and inclusive social protection systems, including social protection floors, particularly among countries with lower social protection coverage, in line with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Social Protection Floors Recommendation 202 recognised in the G20 Los Cabos Declaration (2012).

We recognise the human right to social security, and that social protection is an enabler of resilience, good health and well-being, upholds human dignity, promotes sustainable development, and reduces inequalities. Social protection systems act as an economic multiplier and stabiliser at a household and broader level and are a means to advance gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. The G20 has consistently recognised the role of social protection in fostering resilience and sustainable development, as reflected in several previous G20 declarations outlined in the Annex.

We accordingly call on all G20 members and other countries to support the adoption and progressive implementation of universal social protection systems, at the national level, and through international cooperation to support other countries, particularly low-income countries, to implement them. Such processes should be guided by relevant international agreements to implement the G20 Agenda for Sustainable Development set out in our 2016 and 2023 Action Plans. This includes Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 1.3 on social protection systems for all including floors; which will contribute to ending poverty, as well as hunger, malnutrition, and reducing inequality, recognising their interlinked nature; as well as other relevant international commitments.

In addition to the ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation 202, these international commitments include:

Further, preparations for the Second World Summit for Social Development, taking place in November 2025, have placed a significant emphasis on universal social protection floors, including the target to increase coverage of social protection by two percentage points per year.

We are therefore committed to accelerating the progressive implementation of the core areas of action to mainstream the establishment of universal social protection.

1. Priority of Promoting Wellbeing, Enhancing Resilience and Ending Poverity

Global development challenges including poverty, hunger, malnutrition, poor health, lack of decent work, energy poverty, and inequality – including barriers to gender equality and empowerment of women – are obstacles in realising human rights. There is a need to combine the pursuit of long-term structural solutions with short- to medium-term policies to make an immediate impact and prevent these deficiencies from deepening.

SDG 1 commits to “End poverty in all its forms by 2030”. However, as of 2025, five years before the 2030 Agenda timeline, if current trends persist, an estimated 756 million people[1] will still be living in extreme poverty by 2030. Only about one-fifth of countries are projected to meet the target of halving national poverty levels.[2]

Social protection is an effective way to advance the well-being of all – individuals, families and communities – irrespective of gender, age, race, language, ethnicity, origin, religion, geographic location and other status, including persons in vulnerable situations, persons with disabilities, migrants, children and youth, the elderly, people affected by disaster, conflict, refugees, persons experiencing or at risk of homelessness, local communities, as well as Indigenous Peoples (hereinafter referred to as persons in vulnerable situations). Social protection is also a vital mechanism to reduce the vulnerability of those who have less access to stable and quality job opportunities, education and vocational training, including women who shoulder the disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work, recalling that this gender imbalance often starts in childhood, limiting girls’ access to education and personal development. These vulnerabilities are often overlapping and are being exacerbated by conflict, multiple emergencies, natural and non-natural disasters, economic, educational, environmental, climate and nature-related crises. Looking ahead, these populations are also likely to be disproportionately affected by ongoing environmental degradation, climate change, and rapid digital transformations making social protection central to support a just and sustainable transition into resilient economies. Additionally, social protection is a strategic tool to shape fairer outcomes. Social protection supports investments in human capacities, has a positive impact on decent employment, and enables life in dignity in old age. We also commit to strengthening integrated social registries and data systems to better identify and reach persons in vulnerable situations, especially in rural and informal settings.

2. Social Protection and Combating Inequality

As stated in the 2024 G20 Development Ministerial Declaration for Reducing Inequalities, we recognise that inequality within and among countries is at the root of most challenges addressed by the 2030 Agenda and makes them harder to solve. We reaffirm our shared objective to reduce income inequality and to benefit the bottom 40% of the income distribution, in line with SDG target 10.1 and other international agreements to reduce inequalities.

We reaffirm that universal and adequate social protection, including adaptive social protection, is a critical tool for reducing inequalities, mitigating and managing risks, and increasing resilience. We acknowledge the importance of strengthening and expanding coverage of national social protection systems and programmes, particularly in low-income countries, and of increasing the adequacy of programmes across the formal and informal economy, and in response to crises and shocks as well as the effect of climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and desertification.

3. Universal Access to Social Security Is a Human Right

Social security is a human right enshrined in Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948. Social protection more broadly underpins the realisation of all human rights enshrined in Article 25 of the UDHR, and Article 28 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

4. The Importance of Achieving Universal Social Protection for All Through Social Protection Floors

We reaffirm our commitment to social protection as the set of policies and programmes designed to build resilience and reduce and prevent poverty and vulnerability throughout a person’s life cycle through contributory schemes (social insurance) and/or non-contributory tax-financed benefits, including social assistance as well as other social benefits in cash or kind.
We also acknowledge the importance of progressive taxation, structural reforms and redistributive policies to fund inclusive social protection systems and to reduce inequality and enhance social cohesion.

“Social protection floors are nationally defined sets of basic social security guarantees that should ensure, as a minimum, that over the life cycle, all in need have access to essential health care, and to basic income security, which together secure effective access to goods and services defined as necessary at the national levels.”[3] These guarantees can prevent or alleviate poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion. Further, they can stimulate development and economic growth by bolstering human capital, aiding productive entry into labour markets, promoting decent employment, and ensuring resilience against shocks and crises.

Recommendation 202 of the ILO, adopted in 2012, sets the framework to achieve universality of protection through the concept of Social Protection Floors. This two-dimensional strategy brings together nationally defined basic social security guarantees along the life cycle (horizontal dimension)[4] and the progressive realization of comprehensive social security systems with higher levels of protections (vertical dimension).[5] Presently, despite the progress made in expanding social protection coverage, which increased from 42.8% in 2015 to 52.4% in 2023, an insufficient part of the global population has access to at least some form of social protection.[6] Even more worrying, social protection coverage for African countries and for low-income countries is as low as 19.1% and a dismal 9.7% respectively, which implies grossly inadequate progress towards achieving SDG target 1.3. It is therefore extremely urgent to accelerate the implementation and expansion of achieving social protection for all, including through universal social protection floors.

The changing nature of work and shifting tripartite arrangements (employers, employees, and government) requires new mechanisms to address equitable distribution of risk and sustainable financing of social protection. These ongoing changes have a significant impact on the responsibility for the collection of contributions, contribution levels, and the distribution mechanisms of social security benefits. It is essential to meet the diverse interests related to economic, labour market and social protection policies, including through social dialogue. Furthermore, the portability of social insurance benefits could be considered through international policy dialogue and coordination. The rapid advances in digital technology offer great potential in developing inclusive, adaptive, human-centred interfaces for social protection systems but can also unintentionally aggravate the situation of those in vulnerable conditions, as they may have limited access to digital tools, financial services, and social security schemes.
In addressing social protection as part of the decent work agenda, it is important to close gaps in coverage and extend social protection to all workers who are outside of formal, standard and/or decent work, and to address the incorporation of the self- employed, volunteer unpaid workers, platform and gig workers and those in other non-standard forms of employment, into social protection systems, ensuring adequacy, relevance and long-term sustainability.

We further call for the exploration of social protection mechanisms that are interoperable and portable, at the national level, across employment types and sectors, ensuring continuity of coverage in a dynamic labour market.

Globally, women in diverse situations and conditions often carry the greater share of societal care work including unpaid work and are disproportionately affected by limited access to equal opportunities in the labour market, decent work and social protection often leading to their over representation in part-time, non-standard and unpaid employment, recalling that this gender imbalance often starts in childhood. In this regard, we promote investment in the availability and accessibility of social protection and to affordable care infrastructure to address the unequal distribution in paid and unpaid care and domestic work and to promote the continued participation of women in education and employment. Persons with disabilities often face barriers to work on an equal basis with others including the opportunity to gain a living in an accessible and inclusive labour market and are more affected by multidimensional poverty. Social protection can be transformative, not only by advancing social and economic progress equitably, but also by improving access to adequate food and nutrition and reducing inequalities. It is a key tool for building resilience and supporting just, sustainable transitions, particularly in the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. Universal coverage of social protection floors is essential to ensure that we leave no one behind.

Successful implementation of social protection floors, however requires the strengthening of institutional capabilities, particularly in countries where social protection systems are still developing. Effective governance, enhanced coordination, and clear accountability mechanisms and sustainable financing arrangements are essential to ensure these systems are viable, transparent, sustainable, responsive, and resilient.

5. Call to Action

As G20 members, we express our willingness to join a transformative agenda to respect, protect, and promote the commitment to universal social protection, including through social protection floors. G20 members are determined to accelerate the implementation of the following actions:

  1. Support and progressively implement universal social protection policies aligned with the ILO Recommendation 202 on Social Protection Floors: Through national legislation and a system-building approach, ensure universal access to adequate social protection, as nationally defined, across the whole life cycle, with efforts to adapt approaches in vulnerable situations, conflicts and crises.

  2. Support global progress to implement the Universal Social Protection by 2030 (USP 2030) commitment of expanding the share of the population covered for at least one life cycle risk by at least two percentage points per year, particularly in those developing countries that aim to do so.

  3. Promote social protection as a tool for inclusive economic growth and transforming the economy and the labour market: Integrate social protection policies into national economic growth and empowerment strategies, decent work, agriculture, rural and industrial policies and initiatives to support labour market transformation, gender equality and the empowerment of women. This should include,

  4. Strategically invest in quality education and health services through social protection in order to build the human capital needed to drive strong, balanced, sustainable and inclusive growth.

  5. Recognising the important role of social protection in ensuring food and nutrition, particularly in contexts of extreme poverty, climate and disaster vulnerability, including in rural and peri-urban communities, and having regard to the nexus between food, water and energy, we call for members to support gender responsive and age-sensitive nutrition and food system interventions by leveraging innovative financing instruments and social protection systems in alignment with international commitments to end hunger, malnutrition and energy poverty. This includes, where relevant, maternal and early childhood nutrition programmes and home-grown school meals programmes that improve nutrition, attendance and learning outcomes, especially among children in vulnerable situations.

  6. Recognise that national social protection floors should be financed primarily by domestic resources and complemented by other sources of financing.

  7. We call for the enhancement of global cooperation on social protection financing and technical engagements. This includes:

  8. In securing income throughout the life cycle, we call for the strengthening of public social insurance systems, ensuring their financial sustainability, solidarity and adequacy, in response to demographic changes, ageing populations and the changing nature of work.

  9. Strengthen social protection delivery systems. Develop delivery systems that are adaptive and inclusive, human-centred, accessible, stable, fair, equitable, gender-responsive, food-security and nutrition-sensitive involving social partners, civil society and the affected communities, including through the use of digital infrastructure to improve coverage, reduce exclusion errors, and enhance access to social protection benefits, ensuring that no one is excluded from the social protection floor. We strive to appraise and assess existing capacities, arrangements and processes to design delivery systems that ensure effective vertical and horizontal coordination while also taking into account and leveraging the local wisdom and culture in the delivery process.

  10. Leverage digitalisation for inclusive social protection. Safe, interoperable, resilient, secure, trusted, accountable and inclusive digital public infrastructure, respectful of human rights, personal data privacy and intellectual property rights, can foster resilience and enable service delivery and innovation. Digital platforms should however not be an obstacle to accessing social protection provisions as well as social protection delivery. Initiatives that can be harnessed include the Digital Convergence Initiative under the Global Partnership for USP2030.

  11. Enhance positive synergies between social protection and Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) to ensure that social protection mechanisms can be better leveraged to support access to the labour market, where nationally appropriate.

  12. Continue to conduct research into the economic multiplier effect of social security spending including through the Life Economies study led by the Global Alliance for Life Economies Research and Innovation (GALERI) and supported by the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD); and encourage more research to improve data availability and evidence on the informal economy, such as the Key Indicators of Informality based on Individuals and their Household (KIIBIH), to improve the targeting and extension of social protection schemes to informal workers. Furthermore, we commit to enhancing the measurement of how our policies contribute to reducing inequalities.

  13. While maintaining core social protection systems, we support the development and scale up of adaptive and shock-responsive social protection systems that promote resilience, provide a mechanism for anticipatory and preventative action, and protect all persons especially those in vulnerable situations, and those in conflict related and crisis settings characterised by high risk and a low capacity to respond.

    We recognise that social protection offers a critical opportunity to bridge humanitarian and development programmes to enable a smooth transition to development and promote sustainability and resilience building.

  14. We recognise the need for social protection systems to be adaptable, take into account climate strategies and to support just transitions, ensuring that no one is left behind in the global fight against climate change, especially in the most vulnerable developing countries and supporting the objectives of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement goals. Just transitions that are nationally owned and scalable and responsive to the needs of households living in poverty, smallholder and family farmers, women, and other groups most vulnerable to climate change effects can enable more robust and equitable mitigation and adaptation outcomesfirm our support for the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty launched during the Brazilian G20 presidency in 2024, as well as the UN Global Accelerator for Jobs and Social Protection, both supported by the M-GA. We reaffirm the call made through the Global Alliance which recognises social protection, in particular adaptive and shock-responsive social protection, as central to efforts to build resilience and address hunger and poverty and we call on all governments to honour their commitments to nationally appropriate social protection systems with an emphasis on social protection floors, in progressive realisation of the right of everyone to social security, and in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG target 1.3).

  15. Call on international agencies to monitor and report progress. We mandate the SPIAC-B, working with the ILO, to monitor and report annually to the G20 DWG on progress in the implementation of this call to action. We also encourage peer learning and exchange through biennial G20 social protection stocktaking workshops, hosted on a rotating basis by G20 members.

6. Integration of Call to Action in Domestic International Agendas

Through this Call to Action, the G20 commits to achieving transformative progress by voluntarily adopting programmes that progressively expand access to the benefits and services of social protection, with special emphasis on social protection floors, to everyone. This is consistent with the commitments made in various international agreements.

G20 members undertake to integrate these priorities into national development plans, strategies and legislation and build systems that promote access to universal social protection, with special emphasis on social protection floors, as well as support other countries to do so through international cooperation. This is an important part of our shared efforts to advance well-being and economic growth in human-centred ways and is based on the themes of solidarity, equality and sustainability.

Equally, G20 members and partners are determined to advance these commitments, as appropriate, in relevant international processes, including COP30 and the Second World Summit for Social Development in November 2025.

Together, we can build a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable world, ensuring that no one is left behind.

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Annex: Building on Previous G20 Commitments

The G20 has consistently recognised the role of social protection in fostering resilience and sustainable development, as reflected in: the G20 Pittsburgh Leaders' Declaration (2009), which emphasised the importance of social protection for inclusive growth; the G20 Cannes Summit (2011), which supported social protection floors as part of crisis recovery and resilience-building and call for the establishment of the SPIAC-B and knowledge-sharing platform www.socialprotection.org; the G20 Los Cabos Declaration (2012), which endorsed the ILO’s Social Protection Floor Recommendation 202; the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers’ Ankara Declaration (2015) which addressed the policy priorities on labour income share and inequalities and promoted universal social protection to support effective labour market transitions; the G20 Hangzhou Summit (2016), which recognised social protection as a driver for reducing inequalities; the G20 Buenos Aires Leaders’ Declaration (2018), which stressed the importance of inclusive labour markets and social protection; and the G20 Buenos Aires Framework Working Group (2018) that acknowledged the need for robust social protection systems, particularly in addressing the challenges of ageing populations and labour market transformations due to the changing world of work. The provision of access to adequate social protection for all in a changing world of work was identified as one of the policy priorities at the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers’ meeting in Japan in 2019. The G20 Riyadh Declaration (2020) reaffirmed the need to expand social protection in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Italy, in 2021, the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers agreed on a set of G20 Policy Principles to ensure access to adequate social protection for all in a changing world to make “adequate social protection for all” a sustainable reality.

Under the Indonesian G20 Presidency, the G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration (2022) committed to strengthening adaptive social protection for all, integrating social protection, climate change adaptation, and disaster risk reduction and management to reduce the impacts of shocks and crises as laid out in G20 Roadmap for Stronger Recovery and Resilience in developing countries, including LDCs and Small Island Developing States. The G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration (2023) highlighted the importance of universal social protection as a key driver for inclusive and sustainable economic development. The India G20 Labour and Employment Ministers' Meeting adopted the G20 Policy Priorities on Adequate and Sustainable Social Protection and Decent Work for Gig and Platform Workers, and the G20 Policy Options for Sustainable Financing of Social Protection, which aligns with the ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation No. 202 (2012). The G20 Rio de Janeiro Summit (2024) emphasised the role of social protection in mitigating socio-economic inequalities and fostering resilience in the face of global crises. The G20 Ministers of Labour and Employment (2024) agreed that social protection systems are the foundation of a more inclusive, stable, fair, and equal society. They also recognised the need for G20 countries to continue improving or strengthening their social protection systems. Finally, the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, launched at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has aimed to support and accelerate efforts, including social protection tools, to advance progress towards eradicating hunger and poverty (SDGs 1 and 2) while reducing inequalities (SDG 10), and recognising the importance of promoting gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls (SDG 5).

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Footnotes

[1] https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099503206032533226/pdf/IDU-e2e09dcf-0af2-481a-a60a-64adf28171d0.pdf ↩

[2] The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025. ↩

[3] Recommendation 202 of the ILO, adopted in 2012. ↩

[4] ILO C102 - Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102). ↩

[5] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1967. ↩

[6] ILO World Social Protection Report 2024-26. ↩

Source: South African Institute on International Affairs

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