Azerbaijan Social Protection Development Project

1. AzerbaijanSocial Protection Development Project Aleksandra Pošarac Baku, December 28, 2008

2. AZ SPD is GOVERNMENT PROJECT SUPPORTED BY THE WORLD BANK (IDA) Total cost estimated at: $54.6 million (IDA $26.7 million and Government $27.9 million) To be implemented over 4.5 years by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population (MLSPP) and State Social Protection Fund (SSPF)

3. Project objective The project objective is to: • improve delivery of labor market and social protection interventions through • strengthened institutions, • enhanced institutional and human resources capacity, and • improved targeting of social safety net programs.

4. SPDP components Three key components: • Component One: Labor market development • Component Two: Capacity building of the MLSPP and development of social safety net programs • Component Three: Development of the pension system

5. Labor market development Improve functioning of labor markets trough: • Modernization of labor market institutions • Renewal of the National Employment Services: • Programs to facilitate “school to work” transition for the young and professional orientation and career counseling services for both youth and adult population.

6. What do we expect to achieve? • Improvements in labor market regulations, including the Labor Code and regulation of labor migration; • Better occupational safety at the work place; • Labor Inspectorate will work better; • 200 occupational and 100 training standards will be developed and implemented; • Labor market information system will be improved; • At least 40 percent of the job seekers will be served by relevant and good quality services provided by the NES; • Young people will receive career guidance; and • Unemployed youths will have access to programs to ease their transition to employment.

7. MLSPP Capacity Building • Establishment of a corporate MIS in the MLSPP and monitoring and evaluation; • Strengthening Targeted Social Assistance • Restructuring of the Disability Certification Service; • Piloting of integrated provision of social protection programs.

8. What will be achieved? • MLSPP will have an MIS with real time connection integrating all business processes in the MLSPP and its affiliated agencies; • M&E unit within the MLSPP will be established and functioning; • Targeted Social Assistance programs will perform well, reaching 70-80 percent of the very poor population; • DCS will have an updated legal framework, new organizational and governance structure, renewed operational guidelines, well trained staff and automated business processes; and • Piloted centers for integrated provision of social protection interventions will be fully functional.

9. Pension system development The Government’s objective is to develop n affordable and fiscally sustainable pension system that will protect the elderly against poverty. This component will assist the Government in • performing a comprehensive analysis of the current pension system; • formulating options for its long term development and modeling their fiscal and welfare consequences; • based on the chosen option, preparing a detailed strategy in the form of the White Paper on the Pension System Development; • developing a detailed action plan; and • implementing the strategy.

10. What will be achieved? By the end of the project: • a strategy for the long-term development of the pension system with an action plan will have been developed; • approved, and • its implementation will have been advanced to include regulatory and administrative framework, development of pension system institutions, human resources capacity building, with particular focus on actuarial skills, public information campaign, etc.

11. THANK YOU.