The Social Protection Department of the ILO has developed the ILO Social Protection Floor Cost Calculator. This advocacy tool shows that it is possible to build sustainable social protection floors (basic levels of social protection) in any low and middle-income country.

Through simulations that incorporate various social security guarantees, from childhood to old-age, the Calculator enables the evaluation of recurrent costs of annual benefit expenditures that are needed to change millions of lives. Simulations are possible for more than 100 developing countries.

The ILO Social Protection Floor Cost Calculator shows that achieving Sustainable Development Goals such as target 1.3 to “implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors” and delivering the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202) can be accomplished in a progressive manner according to the fiscal space of each country.

This easy-to-use tool provides broad estimations for decision-making and allows preliminary comparisons that consider different scenarios in a given country or across a range of countries. The simulations can then be used for further in-depth financial, actuarial and policy analysis.