Tashkent – The Ministry of Employment and Poverty Reduction (MOEPR) and the National Agency for social protection convened the first tripartite workshop on the maternity cash benefit reform on 25 September 2025. This exercise is part of the national efforts to implement the forthcoming social insurance law, which is under discussion with the Senate of Uzbekistan.
The Global Accelerator is supporting the country in conceptualizing a social insurance law, with ILO research from 2022 highlighting that 93.7 per cent of pregnant women lacked access to maternity benefits. A feasibility study on the maternity insurance scheme was jointly conducted by ILO, UNICEF and the World Bank, whose results were shared at the workshop with tripartite constituents. The actuarial results were followed up by an open discussion on the current challenges and opportunities to extend social protection coverage and ensure a sustainable and inclusive social insurance system. Maternity protection and family-friendly policies were highlighted in a video jointly produced by UNFPA and ILO.
Key challenges identified include employers' liability mechanism that can potentially generate gender discrimination in the labour market. Additionally, women in informal or precarious employment often face exclusion from maternity benefits. The reform of the maternity cash benefit is expected to extend the number of beneficiaries but also ensure sustainable financing mechanisms.
Ms Sabine Machl, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Uzbekistan, welcomed the constructive tripartite debates on this importance policy issue. She acknowledged the will to progress towards a universal social protection system to leave no one behind, stating, “It is important for the Government of Uzbekistan to get the civil society to jointly engage in this social protection reform. Successful reforms are based on a constructive social dialogue, with workers’ and employers’ organisations to engage in this process.”
The Global Accelerator is supporting the new social insurance law through the ongoing UN and World Bank joint programmes that are helping ensure a greater policy coherence through combination of different expertise each agency brings. Scenarios of reforms will be provided by tripartite partners, examined and assessed by the actuarial team, based on this first tripartite workshop.
The workshop was led by the National Agency for Social Protection (NASP) under the Global Accelerator initiative and brought together several national institutions involved in social protection, such as NASP, MOEPR, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and the extra-budgetary pension fund. The Federation of Trade Unions of Uzbekistan, Confederation of Employers of Uzbekistan, and Association of Employers of Uzbekistan, along with UNICEF, UN Women, ILO and the World Bank were also present at the workshop.
Uzbekistan has been a part of the Global Accelerator since 2023.