BUJUMBURA March 19th (ABP) – Mr. Félix Ngendabanyikwa, Permanent Secretary in the Burundi Ministry of Human Rights, Social Affairs and Gender, proceeded in Bujumbura on Monday with the opening of a workshop to build capacity on the extension of social protection to migrant workers and their families in the nine countries covered by the East and Central Africa Social Security Association (ECASSA). ECASSA brings together nine African countries, including Burundi. Mr. Ngendabanyikwa thanked the International Labor Organization (ILO) for its support for the Government of Burundi’s initiatives in promoting the social sector, particularly through its technical and in the overall organization of that workshop. The Burundi Government has been “relentlessly embarked” for a few years, he said, on the basis of building a social protection process.
Indeed, he explained, the social protection sector in Burundi is experiencing a “remarkable” evolution since the approval of the National Social Protection Policy (PNPS) in April 2011. In addition, he added, a functional institutional framework was set up by a presidential decree signed on August 22 concerning the creation, organization, composition, missions and functioning of the National Social Protection Commission (CNPS).
As part of the policy of social extension to migrant workers, he also said, Burundi “appropriated” the concern for servicing the “portability of benefits” of social security often discussed during the regional and international forums
