Module 4: Introduction to the
assessment based national
dialogue exercise
ILO, 2013
Key questions
• What are the objectives of the ABND exercise?
• What are the main steps of the ABND process?
• How do we ensure that all stakeholders are involved from the
outset?
• Step 1 – Building the assessment matrix
• Step 2 – Costing policy options using the RAP model
• Step 3 – Finalization and endorsement
• What are the strengths and limitations of ABND?
Objectives of ABND
How do we achieve the SPF and make it a reality for the
whole population of a country?
• ABND identifies the
existing situation and
gaps in the social
protection system
• It develops
recommendations for
achieving the SPF
Making the SPF a reality
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
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Four basic guarantees:
Do all residents have access to essential health care,
including maternity care?
Do all children enjoy basic income security, providing
access to nutrition, education, care, and any other
necessary goods and services?
Do all persons in active age who cannot earn sufficient
income, enjoy basic income security, particularly in cases
of sickness, unemployment, maternity, disability?
Do all older persons have basic income security?
Making the SPF a reality
Level of
protection
Some countries may have the Floor
for Health, e.g. Thailand
But gaps for children, working age
people or the elderly still exist
Poor
Rest of informal sector
Population
Formal sector
Steps of ABND
1. What is the
social security
situation?
2. How far are we from
the achievement of the
SPF? -> gaps, issues
4. How much would it
cost today and in the
future?
6. How to ensure that the
recommendations are
endorsed and listened to?
3. What should be
done to complete
the SPF?
5. Can the Government afford it?
Do we need to increase
the fiscal space?
7. How to advocate for the
SPF as a whole or specific
recommendations?
Steps of ABND
Step 1 – Building the assessment
matrix including the identification of
priority recommendations
Step 2 – Rapid Assessment Protocol
to estimate the cost of
implementing the social protection
provisions
Step 3 – Finalisation of the assessment
report for endorsement and further
action by the higher levels of
government
ABND FACTSHEET
Step 3
9. Endorsement by
UN/RTG joint team and
presentation to the
government (Oct-Nov
2012)
8. Finalization of
Costing, Fiscal space,
Writing ABND report
(May-Aug 2012)
Steps of ABND
Step 1
1. Inventory of schemes
(Jun 2011)
2. Draft Assessment Matrix
(Jul 2011)
The process
in
Thailand
3. Dialogue # 1 on
ABND matrix (Aug
2011)
4. Translation of policy
recommendations into
practical scenarios
7. Dialogue # 3 on
results of costing (Mar
2012); Training on
5. Dialogue # 2 on
costing (May 2012)
6. Data collection for the RAP proposed scenarios
(Nov 2011, Feb 2012)
protocol and costing of the
scenarios (Nov 2011 - Mar
Step 2
2012)
Involving stakeholders
• ABND is a participatory approach which should involve all
relevant stakeholders
• It entails bilateral consultations, tripartite workshops, and
technical seminars
• Thailand: ABND conducted by Royal Thai Government / UN
team on social protection, co-chaired by Ministry of Social
Development and Human Security and ILO
• Indonesia: ABND conducted by United Nations Partnership
for Development Framework (UNPDF) sub-working group on
SPF, led by ILO and coordinated by Bappenas
• Working with stakeholders with political power and expertise
can avoid potential blockage
Involving stakeholders
Line ministries (Labour, Health, Social
Welfare, Planning, Interior, Education,
Finance, Rural Development, Women’s
Affairs, etc.), social security institutions
Local
governments
National
Statistics
Office,
academicians
UN agencies involved in SPF
(ILO, UNICEF, WHO,
UNESCAP, UNFPA, UNAIDS,
UNESCO, UNWOMEN, UNDP,
WFP), World Bank, ADB,
other development partners
Workers’ and
employers’
organizations
Civil society
Step 1: Building the assessment
matrix
SPF
objectives
Govt.
strategy
Existing
provisions
Policy
gaps
Implement- Recommation issues endations
Health
Children
Working
age
Elderly
Four SPF
guarantees
Identifying
existing situation
in the country
Identifying policy
gaps and
implementation
issues, addressing
which would
complete the SPF
Priority
policy
options,
decided
through
national
dialogue
Step 1: Building the assessment
matrix
Policy gaps: Missing legislation or policy leading to a part of the
population being excluded from the complete SPF
For e.g.
Only formal sector workers and very poor people are
entitled to social health protection
Only formal sector workers are entitled to a child
allowance for pre-school children
There is no unemployment protection scheme for
workers in case of loss of employment
Step 1: Building the assessment
matrix
Implementation issues: Despite existing policies or legislation,
people do not have effective access to entitlements
For e.g.
Despite universal access to social health protection,
people from rural areas have limited protection due to
poor health care infrastructure
Enforcement of the Social Security Act is low, due to
employers not registering their staff and a lack of
resources to reach out to informal sector workers
From Step 1 to Step 2
There are 2 types of
recommendations
Recommendations to introduce
non-contributory benefits,
increase non-contributory
benefit amounts, extend
coverage
Recommendations to introduce social
insurance, work on coordination between
schemes and operations, qualitative
recommendations to improve quality of
services
We can use the RAP Protocol
We need to conduct
further studies
LABOUR MARKET
MODEL
GENERAL
GOVERNMENT
OPERATIONS
MODEL
MACROECONOMIC
MODEL
BENEFITS COSTING
EXERCISE
SUMMARY AND
RESULTS
DEMOGRAPHIC
FRAMEWORK
Step 2: Rapid Assessment Protocol
RAP is a simplified Excel tool
developed by ILO to estimate
the cost of providing SPF
benefits (for health, children,
working age and the elderly)
over a 5-10 year period
Step 2: Rapid Assessment Protocol
1. Data collection
Labour market
(EAP)
General government
operations (GGO)
Macroeconomic
data (ECO)
2. Estimated
cost of benefits in
absolute terms, as
% of GDP, and as %
of government
expenditure
Demographic data
(POP)
Costing of
benefits
Summary and
results
3. Projected cost of
combined benefit
packages
Step 2: Rapid Assessment Protocol
Recommendations are translated
into scenarios, i.e. specific social
protection policy options
Cost of implementing the
scenarios is calculated using
RAP worksheets
Estimated cost can be linked to fiscal
space (GDP and government budget)
to check their feasibility
Step 2: Rapid Assessment Protocol
At the end of Step 2, we have the cost of implementing SPF
benefits expressed as % of GDP (e.g. Thailand)
Step 2: Rapid Assessment Protocol
Cost of implementing
scenarios over 5-10 years
(Benefits worksheet)
Projected
New
+government budget = government
(GGO)
budget
Two possible cases:
• Case 1: The new government budget is balanced and fiscal
space is available in the country.
• Case 2: The new government budget is in deficit. New fiscal
space needs to be created through changes in budget
allocations, increase in government revenues through additional
taxes, etc.
In both cases, especially case 2, the government needs to be
convinced that investing in the SPF is good for the country and for
social and economic growth.
Step 3: Finalization and endorsement
Presenting to higher levels of
Government
with a ‘champion’
Finalising the ABND report
with stakeholders
Government may endorse or
‘test’ some
recommendations
or conduct further studies:
• actuarial
• legal
• human capacity
Step 3: Finalization and endorsement
Advocating to policy-makers can be done with:
• Evidence from other countries
• Economic models to demonstrate the expected impact of
policy options on reduction in poverty and inequality,
increase in growth, productivity and employability
• Financial models to assess the return on social investment
• Communication and awareness generation among people,
government, civil society, social partners
Strengths of ABND
• It provides a coordinated, holistic and coherent approach to
the development of social protection in a country
• It initiates national dialogue on social security strategy, SPF,
priority policy options, problems in providing social protection
to all and ways to address the issues
• It provides evidence on the feasibility of different policy
options
• It can serve as a baseline for monitoring of SPF
implementation (within the national framework)
Limitations of ABND
• The analysis conducted under Step 1 is simplistic and does not
go into details on operations and institutional capacities
• The social dialogue usually takes place at the technical level
and higher-level policy makers or “champions” may need to be
involved during Step 3
• The RAP is based on some assumptions leading to rough
estimates of future costs; additional actuarial studies are
needed for the finalisation of the design of proposed schemes