Studies and Economic Media Center (SEMC), in cooperation with the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation, has organized a seminar on the “reality of Social insurances, and their future within the framework of the National Dialogue Conference (NDC) outcomes and the Federal state”.
Studies and Economic Media Center (SEMC), in cooperation with the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation, has organized a seminar on the “reality of Social insurances, and their future within the framework of the National Dialogue Conference (NDC) outcomes and the Federal state”.
During the function, SEMC Chairman, Mustafa Nassr, made it clear that the seminar falls in line with the project on the enhancement of community control over social insurances –The general authority of insurances and salaries, social insurance foundation, the pension funds at the ministries of interior and defense. He said that the event complements diagnostic studies on civil and military insurance sector, which revealed a large-scale squandering of subscribers’ funds, coupled with a lack of vision on the investment of social insurance funds.
He confirmed that the NDC resolved that the social insurance institutions be integrated into an autonomous entity to reduce operational costs and scour for investment opportunities for subscribers’ funds. He pointed out that SEMC along with several experts seek to deliberate upon the execution of the NDC’s results.
For his part, Friedrich Ebert Foundation’s program director, Mahmoud Qayah, said that the reality of social insurances in Yemen is tragic. “There are some funds threatened with bankruptcy, in addition to some unwarranted expenditures. Such facts never bode well for the future of insurance funds,” he warned.
“The question to be raised today has to do with the way forward. How could forge ahead with what is presently available? Would we try to develop what is currently available? ” Qayah wondered.
He stressed the importance of promoting social insurances based on the NDC’s outcomes. He further wondered about how the insurance system would look like under the federal state, and whether each federal region would enact its own legislation, or would it adopt a central system, and what are the experiences of other countries, which are similar to that of Yemen.
At a previous function, the Parliament’s workforce committee chairman, Azzam Salah, had stressed the importance of social insurance bill on the private sector, which was passed by Parliament over the last few months.
He pointed out that all recommendations from the events organized by both SEMC and FEF, and the parliamentary workforce panel, would be taken into consideration.
He highlighted that though the situation at social insurance institutions is not tragic, there are risks facing them. Based on the Legislature’s assessment of the situation at such outfits, the military pension fund rank first in terms of risks, followed by the Ministry of Interior’s fund, and then comes the insurance institution, and the supreme insurance authority.
He urged the participants to the workshop to introduce urgent reforms into the insurance sector, warning against bringing pension and insurance funds into bankruptcy.
It is worth mentioning that SEMC had already implemented two phases of the project on the enhancement of community control over social insurances involving the civil and military sectors.
SEMC is a non-profit civil society organization seeking to spread awareness of economic issues, and to enhance transparency and citizens’ engagement in decision-making, in addition to creating a professional media.
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