OECD Social Policy Ministerial and High-Level Policy Forum

Ministers responsible for Social Policy in over 35 OECD and partner countries met in Montréal to exchange their views on their countries’ challenges, opportunities, and best practices in social protection in a Ministerial meeting entitled Social Policy for Shared Prosperity: Embracing the Future.

Ministers addressed:

• Modernising social protection systems to better incorporate workers in non-standard jobs
• Promoting diversity and social inclusion for all people
• Coping with the challenges of population ageing
• Ensuring that children and youths have equal opportunities to succeed in life
• Mainstreaming gender equality and women’s issues in policy design and reform

Ministers also set out their priorities for the Social Policy work of the OECD.

At a meeting in Paris on 2-3 May 2011, Ministers exchanged views on the serious short- and long-term challenges citizens are facing today and on what they could do to address them. They discussed the social impact of the global economic crisis and compared approaches to adapt social policy to support the recovery.

Under the broad umbrella of family policies, they discussed good practices in removing barriers to family formation, enhancing the well-being of children, promoting gender equality in employment, and innovative approaches to improve service delivery for vulnerable families.

The final session focused on social policy strategies to balance the needs of different generations, the fiscal and social impact of pension reforms, and caring for children, adults with long-term health conditions and /or disabilities, and for an increasing number of vulnerable older persons.