This plenary session explores one of the greatest challenges facing public authorities today: how to finance social protection, which is equitable and sustainable in the face of demographic change, economic uncertainty, and rising social needs.
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Herwig Immervoll, OECD senior economist, will analyse trends in social spending, labour markets, and tax–benefit design, highlighting how countries can balance fiscal responsibility with robust social protection, and the surprising effects of integrating finance and social ministries representatives into a network.
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Cassandra Simmons, World Bank Health Economist for the Europe & Central Asia Region, will share the latest World Bank insights on more effective, financially sustainable social services systems and outline the need for improved statistics on social services financing to support evidence-based decision-making in funding allocation.
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Adelina Comas-Herrera will offer insights from her internationally recognised work on long-term care financing, examining the pressures ageing populations place on care systems and the funding models that can ensure accessibility and quality.
Together, they will highlight the approaches to building stronger, fairer, and financially sustainable social services systems for the future.
Presentation Language: English
Interpretation Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Moderator:
- David Brindle, Adviser, Centre for Care, United Kingdom
Meet the speakers:
Herwig Immervoll
Senior Economist, Head of Social Benefits and Green Transition, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD, France
Dr Herwig Immervoll is with the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs at the OECD. He heads work on social benefits and the green transition and held earlier staff positions at the World Bank and the University of Cambridge. Dr. Immervoll has led research projects and policy dialogue on inequality trends and redistribution, income and employment support, population ageing, and social policy responses to economic crises. Ongoing work includes advancing social protection in changing labour markets and climates, and supporting governments in making social policies more accessible, people-centred and fiscally sustainable.
Cassandra Simmons
Health Economist for the Europe & Central Asia Region, World Bank
Cassandra Simmons is a Health Economist at the World Bank in the Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice in the Europe and Central Asia region, supporting policy dialogue, analytical work and operations in health, long-term care (LTC) and disability reform. Formerly working as a technical advisor (consultant) for LTC with WHO Europe and with a background in comparative research across European countries, Cassandra's work has focused on the sustainable and equitable design of health, care and social policy systems, including the financing of health and social services, quality of care, and care workforce.
Adelina Comas-Herrera
Director, Global Observatory of Long-Term Care (GOLTC)
Adelina Comas-Herrera is the director of the Global Observatory of Long-Term Care, a platform that supports international knowledge exchange to strengthen long-term care (LTC) systems. She is based at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her main area of expertise is the economic and policy aspects of LTC and dementia, including LTC systems, financing, and projections of future care needs and expenditure.