A/HRC/28/35 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 25/11, the Human Rights Council requested the Secretary-General to submit an annual report with a special focus on the importance of social protection floors for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights (para. 16). 2. The report outlines the main features of social protection floors and how their adoption, by States, can contribute to the enjoyment of minimum essential levels of economic, social and cultural rights, reducing poverty and inequality. In that context, the Social Protection Floor Initiative, led by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and supported by all United Nations agencies, is pivotal in promoting basic income security and access to health care, and in facilitating the enjoyment of several economic and social rights by the most marginalized groups of the population. II. Social protection floors 3. Events such as the surge in the late 1990s in innovative national programmes for social protection in the global South1 and the 2008 financial and economic crisis2 have gradually increased political support for the idea of Government-funded minimum social protection floors. According to the Social Protection Floors Recommendation (ILO Recommendation No. 202, adopted on 14 June 2012), social protection floors are nationally defined sets of basic social security guarantees that should provide access to essential health care and to basic income security for all those in need over the life cycle. 4. The ILO-led Social Protection Floor Initiative is a policy response to the limited social security coverage worldwide. According to the ILO World Social Protection Report 2014/2015,3 73 per cent of the global population are either not covered, or only partially covered, by comprehensive social security systems. The ILO report notes that 75 countries have no child and family benefit programmes mandated by legislation, and the global average spending on such programmes is only 0.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Worldwide, employment injury, disability and maternity benefits and old-age pension are also only available on a very limited basis. 5. In 2009, the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination adopted the One United Nations Social Protection Floor Initiative as one of the nine United Nations joint initiatives to cope with the global economic and financial crises.4 Within the framework of the Social Protection Floor Initiative, the Social Protection Floor Advisory 1 2 3 4 Bolsa Familia and Brasil Sem Miséria in Brazil; Oportunidades in Mexico; Asignación Universal por Hijo para Protección Social in Argentina; a social transfer scheme in Zambia; the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India; the Productive Safety Nets programme in Ethiopia; a universal pension scheme in Namibia; and the provision of universal health services in Thailand. See Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, report to the General Assembly, A/69/297, para. 16. See Bob Deacon, Global Social Policy in the Making: The Foundation of the Social Protection Floor (Bristol, United Kingdom, Policy Press, 2013) and Julie L. Drolet, Social Protection and Social Development: International Initiatives (Springer, 2014). World Social Protection Report 2014/2015: Building economic recovery, inclusive development and social justice (2014). Available from www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/--dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_245201.pdf. The Initiative is co-led by ILO and the World Health Organization and involves 17 collaborating agencies, including United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations and international financial institutions, inter alia the World Bank. 3