Cooperation with Gabon on financial management, health and social policies

The Pension and Family Benefits Fund for State Employees (CPPF) of Gabon recently completed two actions in partnership with SOCIEUX+ technical cooperation. The interventions addressed key aspects of organisational development; namely, risk management and policy development. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent restriction on international travel, both actions were implemented remotely. A training activity was conducted via the SOCIEUX+ e learning platform.

The first action focused on strengthening the content and operations of the risk management system for the various social protection schemes and beneficiaries covered by CPPF. Since its operationalisation in 2015, CPPF has successfully deployed a risk matrix based on the model of the InterAfrican Conference for Social Insurance (CIPRES), covering most of its business and support functions. With this technical cooperation, CPPF wished to further improve the performance of its business processes, as well as strengthen the capacities of its auditors and managers.

The expert teams selected by SOCIEUX+ were from the German Association of Local and Church Pension Institutions (AKA), the Groupe UGECAM (France), and the French National Pension System (CNAV/CARSAT). Experts conducted an in-depth analysis of the existing risk mapping and risk management mechanisms in all areas covered by CPPF including family, retirement, and disability benefits, as well as managerial aspects of the mechanisms. Based on this assessment, the experts completed a guidance note recommending improvements. The action concluded with a tailored training targeting CPPF’s auditors, implemented via the SOCIEUX+ e-learning platform.

The second action focused on articulation of a health and social action policy (PASS) for the most vulnerable people covered by CPPF insurance, including women. Currently, no health and social action policy exists for state employees. The objective of the request was to improve the means through which CPPF may further extend social insurance, in the form of innovative benefits or services for insured state employees and their dependents. Some of these employees are in a precarious situation and may benefit from new types of services outside existing insurance schemes. Easier access to social assistance could be one way to address the needs of the most vulnerable.

Selected experts for the second action came from the Regional Social Work Institute (IRTS) of France and the Finnish Centre for Pensions (ETK). The action greatly benefited by the engagement of a regional expert from the Ministry of Social Protection in Côte d’Ivoire. First, the experts presented case studies of relevant interventions for vulnerable policyholders developed in other countries. Later, a series of participatory workshops was dedicated to setting the thematic and strategic axes of PASS in the context of CPPF and Gabon, testing its feasibility, and finally co-writing the relevant advocacy and technical tools for its implementation and monitoring.

As a result of this action, CPPF was equipped with a comprehensive guidance framework to advocate and implement a social and health policy for insured individuals. The report also identified vulnerable groups as people needing at-home care, the elderly, people with sociomedical needs, and people working in hazardous environments. The action was also an occasion for CPPF to start a conversation on the important features of social protection systems in Gabon, such as the decentralisation of services and a formal care model for the elderly.

Both SOCIEUX+ actions relied on a strong knowledge-sharing component focusing on examples from the EU and other regional institutions, and conducted in a peer-to-peer environment between the experts and their colleagues at CPPF.

Giuliana De Rosa
SOCIEUX+ Action Manager

(SOCIEUX+ actions 2020-13 & 2020-15)