SPEECH - SIGNING OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS AND THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION

It is for me, a real honour to be amongst you this morning, and to be so closely associated with the signing of this Memorandum of Agreement, between the University of Mauritius and the ILO Quatrain Africa, for the launch of the Executive Masters of Science in Social Protection Financing Programme.

Some might say it’s just another Post-graduate study programme, another specialty for a specific industry or field of work. But those who think so are yet to see the broad picture, ladies and gentlemen. The Quatrain training concept, which is here being developed in partnership by ILO and the University of Mauritius, aims at providing governments with adequate and effective tools of financial governance. In simple terms: it’s one way of better handling public money, and to go even further: a tool to make sure that those who are responsible for handling that money effectively know how to do so.

That in itself is reassuring. It is reassuring because it shows the commitment Government has towards not only training its human resource properly, but more importantly towards increasing the effectiveness of the management of public finances in particular in social security.

However, ladies and gentlemen, this is not only about human resource or finance, but also about a vision of adhering to global principles: those of coherence in social protection planning, sound financial projection and the organization, control and evaluation of practices so that their effectiveness is reinforced or re-oriented for the good of social security.

This, Ladies and gentlemen, forms part of the Decent Work Agenda for Africa for the next 6 years. The Decent Work Country concept, was initiated by the ILO Director-General, Juan Somavia, and its main characteristics are
-to provide productive, secure and safer work,
-to ensure respect of Labour Rights
-to provide adequate income and
-to offer social protection, amongst others.


Therefore,you can see where the interest is in providing the best tools for the effective delivery of social protection: it is in line with the ILO principles we adhere to. Decent work and decent social protection are and will continue to be at the heart of our economic and social strategies. The reason for this is simple: our people and therefore our country are the primary beneficiaries of these strategies. And this is what we want: a thriving nation.

We, as a nation, are therefore grateful for the establishment of this ILO’s Quatrain Project, and its development through Mauritian academia. Quatrain Africa has the purpose of setting up permanent training capacities in the region for tripartite policy makers. The University of Mauritius has been selected as part of the two universities in the sub-region destined to become a centre of excellence in the training of social security managers. We are aware of our privileged position as being one of the few countries chosen in Africa, particularly because of the part social security plays in our Decent Work Country Programme, which is being finalized.

It is brought to my knowledge that the Masters in Social Protection Financing will be training social security experts, planners and managers from the region. Their training will furthermore be supported by European universities, the ILO Regional Office, the Social Security Department of the ILO and the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin. The quality and soundness of this Masters Programme therefore goes without saying. We can expect that coupled with the resourcefulness, commitment and professionalism of our people, particularly those we are going to train, the success of this programme will be remarkable.

And as we await this resonating accomplishment, let me wish to all of you participants, future trainees, trainers, lecturers and all the stakeholders who will both assist and participate in this training programme every success in their future academic and professional endeavour.