Social protection in Paraguay: progress and challenges for the guarantee of rights

• Main Authors: Verónica Serafini, Claudina Zavattiero
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Instituto Social del MERCOSUR 2018-12-01
• Series: Revista MERCOSUR de Políticas Sociales
• Online Access: http://revista.ismercosur.org/index.php/revista/article/view/68
• ISSN: 2523-0891; 2663-2047

Social protection policy constitutes a fundamental pillar to advance towards guaranteeing the fulfillment of economic, social and cultural rights, since it implies a set of interventions to ensure a minimum level of welfare floor (Bachelet, 2011). Within this framework, the objective of this article is to analyze the main characteristics of welfare, protection and social assistance dimensions in Paraguay in order to determine the degree of development of social policies and present the main challenges of social protection policy in the country. To this end, a descriptive analysis is carried out based on an exhaustive compilation and review of information gathered from official sources of policies, programs and strategies adopted by the country. The main findings show that the Paraguayan State, as a guarantor of universal rights, should tend to universalize social protection and transform it into an enforceable right in order to guarantee income and living conditions throughout the life cycle. The main challenges are the need to universalize access to quality health care; increase the coverage of contributors in all pension schemes; universalize, integrate and improve the quality of non-contributory programs benefits; design and implement an active employment policy; and a care policy, as well as strengthening the institutional system of social protection.