The 17th ISSA Forum for Technical Commissions (TC Forum) was held virtually 7–21 March. This gave the technical commissions and working groups the opportunity to set their priorities and coordinate their plans for 2023–2025, building on the priorities of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) for this period.
Over 170 delegates from 111 social security institutions in 69 countries are involved in the technical commissions and the ISSA Working Group on Rehabilitation. Over the triennium, they will play a key role in building knowledge, producing reports and technical content, as well as organizing events for the Association. This year’s TC Forum therefore focussed on establishing and coordinating their work plans.
The workplans will address relevant social security matters aligned with the ISSA's topical priorities:
- Transformation and innovation in management and service delivery
- Social security coverage for a diverse workforce
- Protecting and supporting people during a changing life course
- Social security supporting resilience and sustainability
Updating the ISSA Guidelines
The ISSA Guidelines are the only international standards in social security administration, and every six years they are revised to make sure they are up to date and aligned with new realities. A major task for the technical commissions will be to revise nine of the existing 15 ISSA Guidelines by the end of 2025. During the TC Forum, each technical commission indicated to which guidelines they will be contributing.
Cross-cutting project on long-term care
Long-term care has been high on the agenda for the ISSA in previous years, and with ageing populations it will continue to a major issue in the years to come. During the TC Forum it was agreed that long-term care will be an important cross-cutting project during the triennium, and new ISSA Guidelines on this topic may be developed.
Contributing to the Collaborative Innovation Hub
The ISSA Collaborative Innovation Hub was recently launched, and the technical commissions used the opportunity of the TC Forum to propose more specific topics to address through specific projects in the collaborative innovation hub. These include customer-centric service delivery, human resource management, international data exchange, behavioural insights, artificial intelligence and Blockchain.
Next steps and major events
The TC Forum brings social security managers and experts from different regions and languages together to network, share and create knowledge, services and products – for the ISSA and its members – that lead the way towards excellence in social security. After the forum, the technical commissions will organize project implementation meetings individually, but also together in cross-cutting projects and on the Collaborative Innovation Hub.
Before the technical commissions meet again for the TC Forum 2024, they will also have contributed to the 23rd World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, the 21st ISSA International Conference of Social Security Actuaries, Statisticians and Investment Specialists and the 17th ISSA International Conference on Information and Communication Technology in Social Security.