Wednesday 18 / September / 2024
Muscat: The International Labour Organisation (ILO) commended the ambitious reforms represented in fundamentally reshaping the social protection landscape in the Sultanate of Oman, officially launched by His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik with Royal Decree No. (52/2023) on the Social Protection Law.
In its report, the organisation said that this newly adopted legislation, developed with the support of the International Labour Organisation, radically reshapes the social protection system in the Sultanate of Oman, and represents the culmination of an ambitious reform process launched under the Tawazun and Estidama programmes, which aim to achieve fiscal balance and its sustainability.
The organisation added that cooperation between the Social Protection Fund and the International Labour Organisation identifies the main aspects of the reform path and highlights its main achievements. These include the development of a comprehensive and adequate social protection system that integrates contribution and indirect tools to address life risks and vulnerabilities in an effective manner, without abandoning any group of society, and a sustainable model for financing social protection that integrates social contributions and public revenues to ensure solidarity and fairness, and also contributes substantially to reducing poverty and inequality, and an integrated and cost-effective institutional and regulatory framework for managing social protection benefits.
ILO pointed out that this ambitious and comprehensive vision, and the alignment of economic reforms with social justice in recent years, pension and social protection systems in the Sultanate of Oman have faced increasing challenges with regard to sustainability, adequacy and effectiveness in providing the necessary protection for citizens and workers.
The organisation stated that this inspiring vision, led by His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, expresses the government's commitment to providing the necessary protection and care for citizens, in order to ensure that the state fulfills its basic duties and provides a decent life for citizens, and spares them the effects that may result from some financial procedures and policies. The strong link between financial reforms and investment in social protection was evident through the tendency to allocate part of the revenues of financial policies to the social protection system, so that this system becomes a comprehensive national umbrella for the various efforts and measures of protection and social care.
The International Labour Organisation indicated that the experience of the Sultanate of Oman is an effective model for comprehensive social protection in the Arab region, and it will restore financial sustainability of the public sector pension systems, while opening up new resources to expand coverage, to ensure basic income security for all, enhance protection against new emerging risks, and facilitate transitions in the labour market.
The organisation stated that this reform in social protection applies an integrated, multi-level approach, completely restructuring the social insurance system and the new unified retirement system, and provides more comprehensive protection for workers in all sectors of employment, as well as greater opportunities for women through the application of a social protection approach that takes into account gender differences, according to specific steps towards expanding the rights of citizens working abroad.
ILO stressed that the social protection system provides the possibility of creating integrated benefits that guarantee the provision of basic income for all in a specific emergency, in line with International Labour Organisation Recommendation No. 202 of 2012, while ensuring higher levels of protection for people who are able to make contributions to social insurance through paid work, in line with the minimum standards of International Labour Organisation Convention No. 102 of 1952.
It is noteworthy that the International Labour Organisation reviewed in its report all groups benefiting from the social protection system in detail, stressing that the new system supports existing provisions and enacts new laws.
