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infrastructure.
If there are adequate investment channels which can meet the basic criteria of safety, yield and liquidity (the investment of social security funds is fully discussed in cther papers), the pensions reserves may help to promote valuable economic and social purposes. Another aspect is the administrative ability to maintain complete and accurate records of pensions insurance throughout working life, and to make periodical payments promptly at any place in the country. Clearly, there is a complex of factors to be considered by the national authorities, and their inter-relationship and internal importance will determine the course social security policy.
5.
of
Once a scheme has been launched its first ain has to be efficiert implementation and management, but it should also have a progressive and positive policy towards its further development. This requires adequate investments in the training of staff of all grades, particularly at the top, the collection and analysis of a wide range of statistics, studies of the groups and contingencies to be covered, effective public information programmes, and an awareness of public reactions to the operations of the scheme. In any case, the existence of a scheme normally results in pressure for its expansion in various ways, and it is essential that the administration is well
prepared for what may be a relatively sudden decision to extend its scope.
Employment injury, sickness and maternity and benefits schemes
6. The grave shortcomings experienced in the operations cf the present employers' liability schemes are attributable in the main to the fact that in these systems there is no sharing of risks or pooling of financial resources. The superiority and efficacy of social insurance principles is widely recognised, as is evidenced by the extensive changeover in respect of the contingency of employment injury and,
to lesser extents, sickness and maternity. Provided that the national authorities concerned are satisfied that social security schemes can operate economically and efficiently, and that adequate controls can be exercised cver certification of injuries and illnesses, this trend should gather more momentum ty expansion of existing schemes, where these are complementary to the employers' liability enactments, and by the introduction of new schemes. A crucial factor in decisions to replace employers' liability schemes may be the comparative costs of the two systems, but if the changeover is to be meaningful in all respect, the approach to this question should be conditioned more by a determination to achieve satisfactory standards of social protection than by a preoccupation with the ccsts of the existing
arrangements, although the latter naturally will be the basis for the evolution of the social insurance scheme. This points to the importance of the participation of both employers' and workers' representatives in the planning of the transition to a more effective system of social protection. It is also essential that the financial implications of the proposed schemes should be elicited by actuarial studies.
7. In the case of the contingency of employment injury, the principle cf direct employer liability generally has depressed the standards of protection, and it may be necessary to modernise the legislation in regard to the concept of employment injury and to provide improved medical and cash benefits, including arrangements for rehabilitation. In some schemes there are rather narrow concepts of the persons to be protected, framed for example
in terms of the type of employment or level of remuneration, which also need to be widened in the interests of
the employees concerned and of the scheme as a whole. From the point of view of cost, and in furtherance of the principle of social solidarity, it would be advantageous to examine the possible inclusion in the scheme of occupational groups with a relatively low risk of employment injury, such as public servants.
8.
Sickness insurance, usually but not invariably accompanied by maternity protection, normally follows closely on, if not simultaneously with, the introduction of a social insurance scheme for employment injury. Apart from the obvious similarity of need, there is also the possibility that the burden of payments for a proportion of non-work-connected injuries or illnesses may be shifted to the employment injury scheme, unless sickness insurance also exists. There are severe problems associated with the provision of medical care, and there may be opposition to a contributory scheme on the grounds that it will further deplete the already scarce medical resources available to the general population. However, a closer examination of the availability of medical personnel in developing countries may well reveal that there are adequate numbers in the larger centres but, due to
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