As ISSA Secretary General, it has been of utmost importance for me to ensure that ISSA’s products and services meet the needs and priorities of you, our members, and can support you in successfully meeting the challenges you are facing and to accompany you on your road to excellence in social security administration.

Ms Milka Martha Arnoldine Mungunda was elected as the Vice-President of the ISSA in August 2018, during the 116th Meeting of the ISSA Bureau. She currently serves as the Executive Officer of the Social Security Commission (SSC) of Namibia and was the General Manager for Operations of the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) between 1999 and 2016.

The ISSA is pleased to welcome six new members admitted at the recent ISSA Bureau meeting, three affiliate and three associate members. This brings the total membership to 321 from 155 countries.

The ISSA has entered an agreement with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to support social security institutions enhance their capacities in the area of information and communication technologies (ICT) and in particular on cybersecurity.

The 116th meeting of the ISSA Bureau took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 29 to 30 August 2018. This was an opportunity to take stock of activities and progress for the ISSA, half way through the triennium and to look forward to important upcoming events, including the election of a new Secretary General and the organization of the World Social Security Forum 2019.

The 12th ISSA Forum for Technical Commissions, held in Geneva from 27 to 28 August 2018, addressed the production and review of ISSA Guidelines, the 10 global challenges for social security and the role of innovation, as well as the work plan implementation of each Technical Commission. The Forum involved 145 participants from 67 ISSA member institutions.

The ISSA President, Prof. Dr Joachim Breuer, participated at the Meeting of the G20 Employment Ministers which took place from 6 to 7 September 2018 in the city of Mendoza, Argentina. The summit provided the opportunity to enter into dialogues with high-level representatives from the G20 countries about pressing topics of social security and about solutions for the same.

The 19th ISSA International Conference of Social Security Actuaries, Statisticians and Investment Specialists will take place in Kuwait City, Kuwait, from 6 to 8 November 2018, at the invitation of The Public Institution for Social Security of Kuwait.

Almost 2500 companies, organizations and trainers joined Vision Zero in its first year. The campaign recently received an international award for promoting safety, health and wellbeing at work. The award was handed out at the Vision Zero launch for Latin America in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.

The Social Security Country Profiles are a unique source of information on social security schemes in over 170 countries and territories around the world. The ISSA for the first time launched an online survey for visitors to the country profiles pages on the ISSA website. The aim is to get a better picture of who the users are, how often they use this source of information, what kind of data they are looking for and what kind of new data they would like the country profiles to include. Visit the Social Security Country Profiles pages to participate in the survey and contribute to making them even better in the future.

 
OCTOBER

ISSA Technical Seminar on information and communication technologies in the new world of work and social security services
25–26 October 2018 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

IEN Technical Seminar on communication
29–30 October 2018 (Warsaw, Poland)

Academy workshop: Contribution Collection and Compliance
30 October–1 November 2018 (Seoul, Republic of Korea)

 
NOVEMBER

19th ISSA International Conference of Social Security Actuaries, Statisticians and Investment Specialists
6–8 November 2018 (Kuwait City, Kuwait)

Taller de la Academia: Buena Gobernanza – Auditoría Interna
13–15 November 2018 (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Technical Seminar on combating error, evasion and fraud
13–15 November 2018 (Madrid, Spain)

IEN Technical Seminar on Data exchange in social security
29–30 November 2018 (Sofia, Bulgaria)